First Time Without Specs

This is an old post of mine but I thought I’d share it here as a continuation of my previous post titled “First Time With Specs”. (here https://os.me/short-stories/first-time-with-specs/) 

The content is as it was written by me 2 years back without any editing.

I had my LASIK surgery done last week Friday (1st of March, 2019).

I have had a very high level of myopia in both my eyes for around thirty two years. My specs have been part of me, almost like an integral body part. Being a blind as a bat without my specs, the decision to finally lose them hasn’t been an easy one.

I’ve been scared of operations and especially more so about my eyes. Way back when I was probably ten years old, I had experimented with contact lens. One night, one lens didn’t come off easily from my eye. After a good amount of persuasion, it finally did, leaving a scratch in my eye and a scar on my courage to face anything to do with tampering around with body parts (read surgeries or operations).

When I touched forty and I had to start wearing bifocals, things changed. The sparse availability of bifocals suiting my high eye power, high cost of these and even higher cost of progressive lens (which I was prescribed to wear a year ahead) has been a real put-off. Here I am trying to save for my family’s future and I was expected to give in to the business needs of leading lens makers who are aggressively pushing progressive lens.

So when I came to know LASIK was covered under my health insurance, I got the required financial angle to take this decision. Money is a powerful driver, it really is, especially when you want to keep it for other purposes. The calculations were tempting, the return of investment being just a period of three years.

I came across a good hospital and an even better doctor. My father’s cataract was done smoothly and he recovered easily. With this, I finally took the decision. My son helped as usual with his pep talk. He said, “The question is now who wins in Appa’s mind, fear or courage”. I obviously don’t want my son growing up thinking I’m a coward. I also had the absolute support from the rest of my family – wife, daughter, parents, brother and his family. So I braved the feeling of being putty in the hands of a doctor and his machines, I am tolerating the torment of having to put drops into my eyes almost every waking hour for the next month.

But yes, after 32 years, I’ve had my “First Time Without Specs” moment.

The bright side is that I have something to look forward to every moment for quite some time now. I’m living life again – this time without specs doing several things for the first time, first time going to office, first time driving my car, first time driving my two-wheeler, first time dining outside, first time learning something and so on, all without specs.

At 40, this unexpected twist in my life brings in a lot of freshness, excitement and anticipation. It’s a dream-never-had come true. This post is to express my gratitude to The Universe, The Almighty, those unseen, unfelt forces which push me along my path for this blessing. So ends my first blog post without specs.