New Glasses! Woo!

I love my insurance. I really do.

This is the second time getting new glasses that I either paid nothing for them, or very little for them. And all it took was upgrading my vision plan from the basic to the premium back about three years ago. I was finally able to get a new prescription and new glasses for the first time in nearly four years.

Last time, not-quite-exactly two years ago, I wound up having to go to Vision World, as my insurance (at the time) did not support my usual place, which was Lens Crafters.

It's an interesting contrast, both in terms of service and doctors.

Has the prescription done by their in-house optometrist. He did not use those numbing drops, saying they were not necessary. He also was able to tell me my prescription hadn't changed much, I went out to look at frames, but none of the clerks offered to help, nor did they come over to find ask if I was finding everything okay. Since I'm blind without my glasses, I need to have someone there to help me, even if it's just the clerk; otherwise, I have no idea whether the glasses look good or not. So, this wasn't a lot of help. A few days later, I went in with a coworker who was determined to help me find glasses that actually looked good on me. We went through quite a few of the frames, and finally chose a wire-rim, rectangular frame set in a very dark purple.

Did all the paperwork, they ordered the glasses, and I had to wait 2 weeks for them. This, I was not used to. Vision World doesn't have an on-site lab (at least, not the location I went to), though, so I had to wait for the frames to be sent out and come back. This really wasn't too bad; just something I wasn't used to. *shrug*

Alas, when I picked up my glasses, they neglected to tell me that I cannot use Windex to clean them any more - they just tried to sell me some of their cleaning stuff. Since I'd been using Windex to clean my glasses for years, I passed on it. So, it took a couple of months, but around about last year I suddenly noticed I was getting a crack in the right lens. Had no idea why; I hadn't used 409 on them (which I already know is a no-no), and didn't think they'd been bent at all, so couldn't figure it out. It was a small crack, though, and since Vision World did not warrant the glasses, I decided to just live with it.

Well, couple of months ago the crack started getting longer. And then I noticed two other cracks next to each other starting to form on the left lens. I put up with them for a few more months, then last week decided I had enough and checked my covereage for replacement lenses. This resulted in checking who I could go to now, and lo and behold - Lens Crafters was now on the list.

So I stopped in last week, between all the fabric runs I made, and spoke with one of the clerks. I didn't have my card on me, but she was able to pull up my information, and determined that it would cost me more to get replacement lenses than it would to get new glasses. I didn't have my prescription from Visions World with me, though, so I didn't even bother looking. The lady told me they can use a prescription if it's less than two years old; after that, it's best to have your eyes checked again.

At work the next day, I called Vision World, and asked if they could fax me a copy of my prescription, as I could not find it. I remembered to check the fax machine before I left, and it was there. I am lucky. My last prescription was done on 2-15-08 - I had just over a week to spare.

So after work I went back to Lens Crafters, and the lady (a different one this time) helped me find new frames. Now, I had specific ideas for frames in mind - I likes how the rectangular ones looked, but I had a problem with them. When I drive, I keep my head level, and don't normally tilt my head to look down at the speedometer - I just move my eyes. And I found out the hard way that I have to reposition my head (and therefore be a bit uncomfortable) when driving so I actually have the speedometer in focus when driving. So, I wanted something the same general shape, but with a deeper bottom, specifically so I could look down and actually see the speedometer in the car. Also, since my insurance would cover frames up to $150, I wanted something in that range, and not in gold (gold washes me out, so I don't wear it; why should my glasses be gold toned if none of my jewelry is?). I also wanted to avoid having a wide leg, so I can see into my blind spot without any trouble while driving, and didn't want anything with a name brand printed on it.

So, we looked around for a bit, and there were some promising ones, but nothing that really worked. there were some good ones from DKNY, but they also had the brand name printed on the sides in large letters, so I didn't want those. Some nice floral ones, ones with rhinestones. We finally drifted over to the clearance area, and she pulled out a set with teal frames, slight liquid-y decoration on the stems, more oval lenses that were deeper than my previous pair. And she thought they looked good on me. We tried the other two colors, but the teal looked best. They fit all of my criteria, so I went with those.

Then it came to the lenses themselves. We basically went with what I had the last time, which was polycarbonate with anti-scratch and anti-reflective coatings. And she proceeded to let me know, yeah, they changed Windex, it's got ammonia in it know, and the new polycarbonate used for lenses are allergic to ammonia. In addition, the ammonia will also strip the coatings off. Being told this was good - I did not know the polycarbonate formula had changed. But a few interesting things that this lady did which the lady who placed my glasses or at Vision World did not - she measured the center of my eyes, to make sure they'd align properly, and she marked on the faux lenses the frames had in them where my eyes are when I'm looking strait ahead, then input the distances of those marks from the frame edges into the computer. The downside was, they were out of stock on the version they would need for my glasses, so once again, I had to wait to get them.

But they called my this morning, and I picked my glasses up this afternoon. I had them adjusted, the lady put smaller pads on them, and I can now see the speedometer without tilting my head or sitting uncomfortably. They are a wee bit blurry, but my last pair was too. The lady who adjusted my glasses to fit told me that since the prescription was so old, it's possible my astigmatism has changed. She suggested trying them for a few days, and if I want, I can have my eyes re-examined, and if the prescription is different, they'll replace the lenses for free if it's within... I think she said 3 months, but it might have been thirty days.

I can tell you that my eyes are definitely changing to adjust to this set of glasses; they're a bit tense. these new glasses are definitely larger than the last pair, so I'm back to looking a bit owlish, but I can see again, so I'm good. ^^ d~