Trish’s Blog

Sarah got contact lenses in the middle of June. The doc said she was not a good candidate for soft lenses but recommended a semi-hard lens to help shape her eye in order to slow the need for a new prescription, and to help prevent astigmatism. These are all great benefits that may save her eyesight from getting really bad as she gets older. I just wanted her to stop getting sores on the side of her nose or the side of her face where the glasses would sometimes touch. Plus, getting hit in the face with a ball makes wearing glasses just plain suck.

The cost for the exam and for the lenses was more than what a new pair of glasses would cost, so we wanted to be sure that Sarah would stick with it. We didn’t want to get the uniform only to find that she was no longer interested in the sport (you parents know where I’m coming from). Preventing the astigmatism made it a must, but we still queried her with “Do you think you can handle sticking things in your eyes?”, “It will hurt at first, but you’ll get used to it”, and “You sure you want to do this?”

The doc let her try on adult sized lenses in her office before we went through with everything. I think it took Sarah half an hour to get her left one in. The right one didn’t take that long because she’s right handed. Still, we went ahead with the exam and then waited for the lenses to come in. We had to pick up the contacts then take them to the doc who would examine her while she was wearing them and make adjustments. The doc decided to make them more curved to help keep them from slipping and sliding around. We had to wait another week for the adjusted lenses to come in and then turn in the first pair when we picked them up. During that week, she was supposed to use the first pair to practice putting them in.

She didn’t. I was getting worried that we had made a mistake, but kept my anxiety to myself and silently prayed that they would work out. When we went back to the doctor’s office, she still took forever to get the left one in. She kept dropping it, needing to get a tissue for her nose (putting contacts in makes your nose run), needing to rinse the contacts after dropping them. I was sitting in the waiting room, but I could see her doing this over and over with no luck. I told her that I didn’t want to pressure her, but that I needed to get going. She finally got it popped in and we went home.

We had also got new lenses for her glasses which would be her back up. As the weeks have gone by, we have had to make it a rule that she put the contacts in everyday. She gets lazy sometimes so when we see her with her glasses on we send her to put the contacts in. She has gotten really good at popping them in.  What used to take half an hour takes half a second now.

There have been a few scary moments when we have been out and about and she couldn’t get a contact out of the corner of her eye, and every time I say, “Remember, the doctor said the main thing is not to panic,” even though I’m very much panicking on the inside. I’m unable to help her so I’m screaming inside my brain when she says, “Ow. ow. ow.” We just need to get her to a mirror so that she can pop it out. No amount of nudging will get it back in place. She has come through each time, the brave one. And I sigh with relief.

Now we have tried to impress upon her the need to carry her case and glasses with her just in case she needs to take her contacts out. I’m also hoping that her reflexes to catch the dang things are honed in case they pop out on their own.

Each crisis has happened when she neglected to bring her things with her. Imagine how proud I was when she said of her own accord, “Should I bring my case and glasses with me to the pool?” I was thinking that she is growing up and becoming more and more responsible, and I thanked Heavenly Father that the contacts worked out after all.

And we all lived happily ever after. Not.

Sarah was told that wearing contacts in the pool would be fine. Probably the doctor meant that she could wear them with goggles on… but I wasn’t paying attention to my seemingly responsible 11-year-old at the pool. I was happy to be with my friends and taking care of the daughter that can’t be left to her own devices. The next thing I know, Sarah is telling me that one of her contacts fell out in the pool. I must have been hysterical because I told her to go look for it. Hello? She’s blind without them. So then she listens, this dutiful daughter of mine, and when she comes up again she tells me that the other one fell out, too.

Holy cow, we’re both having visions of being flayed alive by her dad. Don’t panic. Don’t panic. I asked the lifeguard if the pool has a current or something that keeps the water flowing in any certain direction. The lifeguard said that I can look in one of the holes on the side of the pool to see if it got swept in there, “But in all honesty, they’re probably gone.” Oh crap. There goes $200 down the drain – literally.

In my need to preserve my own skin, I passed the baby to Sarah and donned a pair of goggles. The first pair were junk quality and my heart sank when I stuck my head under water and saw… nothing. I was able to get Seth’s pair which are much better quality, but orange. Still, I walked very slowly with my head under the water in the spot where she said they came out. Zack was put to use and claimed to see one on its way to the deep end. He had to get out of the pool when the lifeguards blew their whistle to signal that it was adult swim. Getting the splashing little kids out of the pool actually helped me. It took twenty minutes for me to spot it, but I did. I went down and tried to pick it up off the floor of the pool, but it fluttered around and my chest was almost bursting, but I was victorious. I nabbed the little sucker and hope burned a little brighter in my heart. I thought I might not get flayed alive after all.

The second one was indeed on its way to the deep end. I spent a lot of time looking in the same place I found the first one, not wanting to believe that Zack really saw it because my little flame of hope was in danger of going out. There are big grates at the bottom of the deep end which goes to nine feet. When I kept seeing the same toe nail, dead bug, and rust spots at the bottom of the pool, I decided that I had exhausted the search there.

I overheard the lifeguards talking to each other. One was saying that we had lost contacts. The other one said something them being long gone…. lost… impossible. The first one said, “No they found one.” “They found them?!” The first one said, “They found one.”

I floated face-down over the place Zack said he saw one. I confirmed with him that he saw a very round blue thing that was small. And he got back in the pool to help me look, adamantly defending his honor. “Yes! I saw it. It was blue.” At one point he said he saw it again, but it was just a rock. My heart was sinking again. It must have been another half hour to forty-five minutes before I spotted it. I went down at about 5-6 feet, lost it, and had to come back up for air. It took another five minutes to find it again. I went down, touched it, but couldn’t get it off the floor of the pool. I had to come back up for air. Zack and I took turns going down for it. We kept losing it, but by then my hope was filled to the brim because I was not getting out of the pool without it. The second lifeguard wished me luck.

I took a rest and then went down, air be damned… I swished the water so that I could grab it as it fluttered, did and then kicked off the bottom, flying to the surface with my arm extended like superman. My friends cheered, the lifeguard probably dropped his jaw, and I felt that my good eyesight was preserved for that moment. I can’t hear my phone beeping when it’s two feet away, but I can find contact lenses in a swimming pool. I am woman. See me roar.

I took pictures to commemorate the day. We were at the pool for two hours and fifteen minutes. I spent almost that whole time looking. Sarah has ducked her head more than once today to say that she was sorry. She did ask if I was planning to tell Daddy. I said, “Oh, yeah. We have to tell Daddy.” But now we’ll live through it.

Posted on July 31st, 2008 by trish
Filed under: Haley Kids