.
NEW YORK, NY / The New York Times / Fashion & Style / April 30, 2009
Illustration by Hadley Hooper
Wife/Mother/Worker/Spy
By MICHELLE SLATALLA
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN and I have a lot in common. He signed the Treaty of Paris, and I visited Paris. His face is on the $100 bill; I like to spend $100 bills. And both Mr. Franklin and I noticed, as we aged, that our eyes stopped being able to focus on fine print, making it difficult to read even when we were wearing our glasses.
But the similarities end there. The two of us came up with vastly different strategies for dealing with the presbyopia that causes blurry vision. While Mr. Franklin invented bifocals, I have embraced a more creative solution: seeing-eye children.
“Clem, honey, I’m having trouble threading this,” I said the other day to my 11-year-old.
I passed the needle across the kitchen table to her.
“It might work better if you try to put the thread through the end that has the loop,” she said, effortlessly completing the task.
She had a point. And I would definitely do that, if I could see the loop. I also would heat the oven to the proper temperature, without asking for assistance, if I could read the line of print on the tube of biscuits that says whether to bake at 350 or 375 degrees. And I would never frantically shriek, “Can someone bring me my magnifying glass?” while I was making jewelry if I could see the little tail of wire I wanted to clip at the base of a bead.
“Mom, I think they make glasses to solve your problem,” Clem said.
“What problem?” I snapped. “Here, hold the magnifying glass a little closer.”
“They’re called ‘progressive lenses,’ and they work really well,” my husband added helpfully, pointing to the pair he was wearing. Then, as he watched Clem struggle to hold the magnifying glass steady under my eyes, he added, “There are child labor laws in this state.”
I hope they’re written in large type.
Presbyopia is a common result of aging. Your eyes’ lenses become less flexible and lose their ability to focus up close.
The problem manifests in different people at various ages, typically starting after age 40, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. But by age 50 virtually everyone has it, which means that nationwide there could be about 90 million people squinting at needles at any given moment.
Of course, you could make the argument that as far as the whole aging thing goes, presbyopia is one of the milder side effects. In most cases all you have to do is get an eye exam and order glasses that have a new prescription.
Unlike Ben Franklin, you don’t even have to let on that you need them. These days, most people get progressive lenses that increase in magnifying power without displaying the telltale line of traditional bifocals.
I probably would have made an appointment for an eye exam long ago, in fact, if blurry vision hadn’t started to creep up on me in the middle of my 40s. There I was, already desperately trying to ignore all the other indignities associated with midlife. Gray hair. Weight gain. Memory loss. Insomnia. Not to mention the specter of impending menopause.
Every once in a while I manage, usually by playing the radio very loudly in the car, to ignore for two minutes all these conspiring symptoms. But then, the bubble inevitably bursts.
The other day in the car, as I was belting out half-forgotten lyrics from my happy-go-lucky youth (“Your everlasting summer, you can see it fading fast, so you grab a piece of something that you think is gonna last”), Clem interrupted to ask, “Who was Steely Dan?” I sighed and turned down the volume.
The last thing I needed was to go to the eye doctor for another reminder that I’m getting old.
“We see that a lot, especially for women, because it’s the same age where other things in their lives are changing as well,” said Dr. Lynn K. Gordon, an ophthalmologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who specializes in women’s eye health. “It’s not uncommon at all to hear someone is putting it off.”
Dr. Lynn K. Gordon, MD, PhD
“So I’m not the only one who’s sick of the changes?” I asked.
“No, I’m older than you and I can assure you you’re not,” Dr. Gordon said. “But there are some good things about this age.”
“Like what?” I asked suspiciously.
“It is absolutely great to have older children,” said Dr. Gordon (who, like me, has three). “They’re sophisticated and grown up and so much fun.”
“True,” I admitted. “And their laser-sharp eyesight is useful around the house, especially if you drop a straight pin on the carpet.”
But what else is good about aging?
“Now I have to stretch,” Dr. Gordon admitted.
THE bottom line, though, when it comes to your aging eyes, is that you shouldn’t ignore them. While Dr. Gordon said it doesn’t hurt your eyes to not be wearing the best correction for presbyopia, midlife is a bad time in general to overlook preventive health care.
“There are lots of systemic diseases that can show up during a full eye-care examination,” she said, starting to tick them off. “There’s macular degeneration, there’s glaucoma ...”
“Stop,” I said. “I give up. I’ll get my eyes checked.”
“Good idea,” she said approvingly, as if it had been mine. “And if you don’t have any of those things, think how much younger it will make you feel.”
I wouldn’t go that far. But a few days later, after the exam, I picked out a new pair of eyeglasses that, unlike Ben Franklin’s, at least made me look younger.
E-mail: Slatalla@nytimes.com
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
Illustration by Hadley Hooper
Wife/Mother/Worker/Spy
By MICHELLE SLATALLA
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN and I have a lot in common. He signed the Treaty of Paris, and I visited Paris. His face is on the $100 bill; I like to spend $100 bills. And both Mr. Franklin and I noticed, as we aged, that our eyes stopped being able to focus on fine print, making it difficult to read even when we were wearing our glasses.
But the similarities end there. The two of us came up with vastly different strategies for dealing with the presbyopia that causes blurry vision. While Mr. Franklin invented bifocals, I have embraced a more creative solution: seeing-eye children.
“Clem, honey, I’m having trouble threading this,” I said the other day to my 11-year-old.
I passed the needle across the kitchen table to her.
“It might work better if you try to put the thread through the end that has the loop,” she said, effortlessly completing the task.
She had a point. And I would definitely do that, if I could see the loop. I also would heat the oven to the proper temperature, without asking for assistance, if I could read the line of print on the tube of biscuits that says whether to bake at 350 or 375 degrees. And I would never frantically shriek, “Can someone bring me my magnifying glass?” while I was making jewelry if I could see the little tail of wire I wanted to clip at the base of a bead.
“Mom, I think they make glasses to solve your problem,” Clem said.
“What problem?” I snapped. “Here, hold the magnifying glass a little closer.”
“They’re called ‘progressive lenses,’ and they work really well,” my husband added helpfully, pointing to the pair he was wearing. Then, as he watched Clem struggle to hold the magnifying glass steady under my eyes, he added, “There are child labor laws in this state.”
I hope they’re written in large type.
Presbyopia is a common result of aging. Your eyes’ lenses become less flexible and lose their ability to focus up close.
The problem manifests in different people at various ages, typically starting after age 40, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. But by age 50 virtually everyone has it, which means that nationwide there could be about 90 million people squinting at needles at any given moment.
Of course, you could make the argument that as far as the whole aging thing goes, presbyopia is one of the milder side effects. In most cases all you have to do is get an eye exam and order glasses that have a new prescription.
Unlike Ben Franklin, you don’t even have to let on that you need them. These days, most people get progressive lenses that increase in magnifying power without displaying the telltale line of traditional bifocals.
I probably would have made an appointment for an eye exam long ago, in fact, if blurry vision hadn’t started to creep up on me in the middle of my 40s. There I was, already desperately trying to ignore all the other indignities associated with midlife. Gray hair. Weight gain. Memory loss. Insomnia. Not to mention the specter of impending menopause.
Every once in a while I manage, usually by playing the radio very loudly in the car, to ignore for two minutes all these conspiring symptoms. But then, the bubble inevitably bursts.
The other day in the car, as I was belting out half-forgotten lyrics from my happy-go-lucky youth (“Your everlasting summer, you can see it fading fast, so you grab a piece of something that you think is gonna last”), Clem interrupted to ask, “Who was Steely Dan?” I sighed and turned down the volume.
The last thing I needed was to go to the eye doctor for another reminder that I’m getting old.
“We see that a lot, especially for women, because it’s the same age where other things in their lives are changing as well,” said Dr. Lynn K. Gordon, an ophthalmologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who specializes in women’s eye health. “It’s not uncommon at all to hear someone is putting it off.”
Dr. Lynn K. Gordon, MD, PhD
“So I’m not the only one who’s sick of the changes?” I asked.
“No, I’m older than you and I can assure you you’re not,” Dr. Gordon said. “But there are some good things about this age.”
“Like what?” I asked suspiciously.
“It is absolutely great to have older children,” said Dr. Gordon (who, like me, has three). “They’re sophisticated and grown up and so much fun.”
“True,” I admitted. “And their laser-sharp eyesight is useful around the house, especially if you drop a straight pin on the carpet.”
But what else is good about aging?
“Now I have to stretch,” Dr. Gordon admitted.
THE bottom line, though, when it comes to your aging eyes, is that you shouldn’t ignore them. While Dr. Gordon said it doesn’t hurt your eyes to not be wearing the best correction for presbyopia, midlife is a bad time in general to overlook preventive health care.
“There are lots of systemic diseases that can show up during a full eye-care examination,” she said, starting to tick them off. “There’s macular degeneration, there’s glaucoma ...”
“Stop,” I said. “I give up. I’ll get my eyes checked.”
“Good idea,” she said approvingly, as if it had been mine. “And if you don’t have any of those things, think how much younger it will make you feel.”
I wouldn’t go that far. But a few days later, after the exam, I picked out a new pair of eyeglasses that, unlike Ben Franklin’s, at least made me look younger.
E-mail: Slatalla@nytimes.com
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
