Thursday, January 28, 2010

What a Treat To Be Able to See Without Glasses

January 28, 2010

I finally got my contacts a few weeks ago. It has been a long process in finding a good pair. After three tries, the eye doctor finally sent me home with a pair that he thought might work. I never knew that the doctor could adjust the contacts according to how they sit in my eyes.

In the past (many many years ago), I had contacts, and the eye doctors just sent me home with the one according to the prescription. They never cared whether it was uncomfortable or they kept swimming in my eyes.

So far, these pair are decent, but I think they can be a little better.

The main reason for getting them is for pool. My current pair of frames are on the smaller side. This means that things can get distorted because the lenses are prescribed to sit in the middle of the frames. So when I go down and shoot and look through the top of the lenses, things will be distorted.

I've played pool with the contacts, but it has not improved my game. But I think it is my stance and not the lenses. Occassionally, the lenses will rotate a few degrees in my eyes, and I have to adjust it my sticking my knuckle in my eyes and rotating it. I use my knuckles instead of my fingers because the pool place is filthy.

One other thing I realized is that I have a depth problem with contacts. I can't judge how deep stairs are. Going down stairs are difficult with contacts. I think my glasses distorts the depth perception, thus my brain over these years have compensated for that. So now I have to readjust and teach my brain what the correct depth really is.

I still love my glasses, so for work and life I'll use my glasses, but for pool, I'll use my contacts.

Quilt & Bitch

6 comments:

p00lriah said...

once u get use to the new lenses ur game will probably jump by a ball, maybe more. try wearing the new contacts more the first month or so to break in ur brain (at least the part that processes optical info). and always carry lens wetters, not regular eye drops. just my suggestions.

redeeming myself said...

Let me know how you think about your game with them. I'm in desperate need of having my eyes checked. Its been awhile and i never use my glasses.

I'm starting to think though, instead of new glasses (cause i can see fine without them) that maybe I should look into contacts. Just for pool. I've been told it could change my game immensely.

omgwtf said...

I played pool well when I didn't have contacts, but after I got contacts, I have to say my game got TONS better. As in I won 3 tournaments immediately after. It took some getting used to -- I'm the kind of person who's good at poking other peoples' eyes and not my own -- but it was totally worth it for me.

p00lriah said...

with contacts, you don't have to do the "push the glasses up" dance every two minutes, or the "crinkle you nose to raise the glasses" routine. if you ever shot pool w/ glasses u know what i mean. :P

Quilt+Bitch said...

p00lriah -
thanks for the advice of wearing the contacts more on the first month. My laziness does not permit me to do so. I will need to address this with her directly.

I usually push my glasses up before an important shot with my finger instead of crinkling the nose. It's all in how you look when you play right?

redeeming myself - I will let you know if the contacts improve my game, but it may take some time because I only play a few hours a week.

omgwtf - how quickly did your brain adjust to the depth? I always find myself sticking my fingers in my eyes!

omgwtf said...

I think it took me about 2 or 3 weeks to get the depth completely down. Before I got the contacts, I had one nearsighted eye and one farsighted eye... so I didn't have much depth perception to begin with and the new depth perception short-circuited me for awhile.