Day 1

Okay, I started this blog to document my own quest to improve my vision. This isn't a quest that involves using laser surgery or glasses (obviously I already need glasses, otherwise I would have no real need to fix my eyesight!), but instead involves doing regular, daily eye exercises.

For many years I've believed that once your eyesight starts to deteriorate, there's really nothing you can do short of surgery to fix it. That seems to be the consensus of my parents and of my optometrist (and of pretty much everyone I know). However, a couple of times I've come across information that suggests that it IS possible to improve one's sight. Now, I believe it's easier if the process is started young (at the time the eyes start to go bad), rather than starting more than 20 years after the fact! However, the only place I can start is from where I am NOW. I can't go back in time to 1986 when it was first determined that I needed to wear glasses!

I am now of the belief that if my children start developing myopia they WON'T be getting glasses to fix it, but I will be giving them eye exercises and possibly pinhole glasses (which are sort of odd for me... but do help me see better at a distance...albeit with a lot of distortion...I think I have a cheap crappy pair of pinhole glasses, personally).

Anyway, I bought the "Rebuild Your Vision" kit, and started using it today. It consists of a series of eye exercises (which are applicable for long sightedness, short sightedness, astigmatism, as well as aging vision or presbyopia) and a schedule to follow. While it's been awhile since I had an official eye test, the prescription of my current contact lenses (which I'm not wearing at the moment) is about -3.0 for the left eye and -3.5 for the right eye. That's a starting point! I intend to go to the optometrist in a couple of months for a new eye test (I also need new glasses as I broke my frames... however, I don't want to get new glasses until I've given this system at least two months to give my eyes some improvement). Ideally, when one gets new lenses, the new lenses should be made weaker than the prescription, so the eyes still have to work! I want to see an improvement of at least 1 diopter in each eye, and if I can demonstrate to the optometrist that I AM improving my sight, then I'm hoping he'll agree to give me a weaker prescription (at least 0.5 diopters less than I "need").

As part of my vision quest, I'm also trying to wear my glasses as little as possible. This has meant dumping my wireless keyboard and typing straight onto my laptop computer so the screen is close enough to see!! Obviously, if I'm driving the car I need glasses...goes without saying. I also need to wear glasses when riding my bike (I don't think it's safe not to!). However, around the house I aim to avoid glasses as much as possible. The hardest thing is to adapt to poor vision. I LIKE to see well! Without glasses everything beyond about 30cm is a blur. The more distance I have to look, the blurrier it is!

I will try and watch TV wearing pinhole glasses (but as I said, I think I have a crappy pair... I bought them off eBay and they came from Hong Kong or somewhere and cost me less than $10), and I won't wear any glasses for close work such as computer or reading. I aim to update this blog each day, stating whether or not I've done my exercises (accountability) and how my eyes improve. I aim to eat a good, healthy diet (mostly raw vegan, which has been anecdotally shown to improve vision in some people) and I'll probably also get some supplements of eye friendly nutrients. Ultimately I want my vision to be 20/20, however, I'll settle for not having to wear glasses for most interactions! In general though, as I said before, I LIKE being able to see well, so really I want to be able to see clearly without the need for glasses. I want to be able to see the way I could before my eyes started going bad at the age of 13! I honestly think we don't take our vision seriously enough until we start losing it ;)