Lasik (Part 2), or The Curse of The Snellen Chart

It was in 1984 when I was first pronounced myopic by a government nurse performing routine medical examination on students enrolled in state-run elementary schools. That diagnosis was made through the use of a Snellen chart. There was neither follow-up at a specialized opthalmological facility nor examination by an optometrist. I was simply given a written note of the declared diagnosis and the estimated unaided visual acuity (like 20/60 or some other numbers), with a stern advice to get a pair of glasses if I wanted to continue doing well in class.



My mum, proud as hell that I'd gained the status symbol of a studious boy, promptly took me to an optometry shop in Chinatown, where I was prescribed with a pair of spectacles. I remember they were around 100+ diopters (or "degrees") for each eye.

Looking back, that was about the most arbitrary process I have been medically subjected to. I became a myopic person all because of the Snellen Chart.

And so began my love-hate relationship with the eyeglass. I hate my dependence on them for all the usual reasons. Uncomfortable, slides off with perspiration, gets broken easily etc. There was only one reason for me to love them. They acted as a shield to my inner world. People say the eyes are the windows to the soul. I treated my glasses as a privacy screen. I used them as social camouflage, hiding emotions and ignorance. It is very easy to assume an intellectual, know-it-all air when you wear glasses. Answer this question: who's the geek, Bill or Steve? Must be the glasses giving one of them the geeky image.

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lasik