Yesterday I had my eyes tested, got a new prescription and ordered a new pair of glasses.

I barely wear my current ones - for watching TV maybe, or seeing films, but never outdoors and never in public. This is partly because I never remember to bring them with me, and mostly because they’re so old they’re falling apart. For years, every time I’ve seen an optician, they’ve told me I should be wearing my glasses more. I’ve said “oh yes, absolutely” and then calmly stashed them in the metallic case, only to be yanked out in the evenings at home.

Finally, yesterday, we hit an eyesight milestone.

You know those headaches I’ve been getting? We may have a solution. The optician yesterday did all the tests and I was brutally honest. He asked me which was the lowest line I could read, and I said “the third from the bottom, but I’m used to compensating, and if I concentrate, I can make a confident guess about the second row as well”. He asked me which was clearer, the black circles on red or on green (do you know why they do this test? I found out yesterday…) and I told him “red, minutely, but they’re very similar”. He flashed lights in my eyes, and pulled my eyelid up with cool hands to peer into my eye. How are doctors and dentists and opticians always so cool to the touch?

He pronounced that probably as a result of not wearing my glasses all the time, my eyesight is in fact improving. Now -0.50 in the right eye and -1.25 in the left, a marked improvement on my last prescription and the possible cause of my headaches - my prescription was too strong.

In a time when so much else seems to be physically falling apart, not working, or below par, it’s heartening to consider that a bit of my body is actually healing itself.

Tangent: A long waiting room wait and ponder leads to the perpetual question: would you rather lose your sight entirely, or your hearing?