Thursday, December 06, 2007

ME & MY MYOPIA

I was blogrolling, and came across this funny post about a guy and his myopia, hehe :-) Reminds me of my own perils of the rabun kind. Although, not as severe la.

How did I get the myopia? Hmm... tak tau la nak kata bagus atau tidak. It's because sedari kecik, aku minat sangat baca buku cerita. Bila mak suruh tido, aku akan masuk tido dan padam lampu bilik, tapi lampu di luar bilik pasang, so aku akan terus membaca dalam kelambu dengan lampu samar-samar tu, dalam keadaan baring terlentang. Bila mak aku perasan dan tutup lampu tu, I found another solution. Torchlight! Tulah, padan la muka aku, cepat rabun hehehe

The first person who noticed my shortsightedness was my piano teacher. She noticed that at the start of a song, I would be sitting ramrod straight (memang diajar macam tu), but as I played on, I'd be leaning more and more forward sampai hidung nak cecah buku. Oh, I was in Standard 4 then. How come my classroom teacher tak perasan ye? Kot sebab I always sit right upfront in class. Nerdy huh? Hahaha :-D

So there I was, pint-size 10 years old girl in dark blue pinafore, hair braided on the sides, and a heavy black-rimmed spectacles perched on my nose. Weh, time tu mana ada frame cermin mata yang stylo, mostly bingkai bulat warna hitam macam specs Cikgu Bedah in the movie Adik Manja. Lens pun kaca tebal, takdak yang high-index punya, kiranya sampai berlekuk la batang hidung sebab specs berat hehehe :-)

Aku taklah careless sangat dengan specs tu, lagi pun girls don't get into fights like boys sampai pecah specs. Yet, I manage to get new specs every year, sometimes twice a year. Kadang-kadang aku terpijak, terhempap, atau terdudukkan (tak careless konon!), kadang-kadang orang lain terpijak. Atau terjatuh berderai. Later on ada lens plastik, tapi masa tu the choice was this - lens kaca yang senang pecah dan berat, tapi nipis sket, atau lens plastik yang tak pecah, ringan tapi tebal dua kali ganda. Well, as I was blind as a bat (still am! exaggerate je tu hehe), aku takmoh le plastik yang tebal giler tu. Sebab bila orang pandang dari depan, nampak mata aku jadik kecik benor.

Bila masuk matric, hmm dah self-conscious la plak. So pakai contact lens. First time nak cuba pakai sendiri, aku tercucuk bijik mata.... adeehhhh..... pedih ya amat, aku nangis sampai bengkak mata. 3-4 hari aku rasa serik, tapi lepas tu sayang plak kalau tak pakai, sebab dah beli mahal kan... duit scholar lagi tu hahaha :-)

Tapi tulahnya, rutin untuk contact lens ni tersangat la menguji kesabaran. Pagi sebelum pakai lens, kena basuh tangan bersih-bersih, tak boleh ada habuk sikit pun, buangkan cecair disinfectant dan tambahkan cecair nuetralizer, biarkan 10 minit. Lepas tu bilas dengan cecair saline, baru boleh pakai. Petang lepas kuliah, kena buka contact lens, rendam sekejap dalam cecair saline, pastu cuci dan gosok dengan jari menggunakan cecair daily cleaner (macam sabun), bilas lagi dengan saline, pastu rendam dalam cecair disinfectant. Macam tu la rutin setiap hari. Fuh! Housemates aku masa tu suka gelakkan aku... "Jie nak keluarkan biji mata dia.... Jie nak cuci mata dia...." Ada gak kengkawan lain yang give-up pakai contact lens ni, sebab tak kuasa nak buat semua tu.

After a few months, mata aku start sakit, merah dan banyak keluar air mata. Doktor ingatkan conjunctivitis, tapi dok tak baik-baik. Last-last sorang optometrist bertemu jawapan yang tepat. Aku allergic dengan salah satu bahan dalam cecair disinfectant tu, ghopernyer. Tapi aku still nak pakai lens, so camno? Hmm... tak boleh guna chemical disinfectant, terpaksalah guna thermal disinfectant plak. So aku still kena cuci lens dengan daily cleaner, tapi lepas tu rendam dalam cecair saline, dan gunakan satu alat elektrik 'heating unit' untuk mengnyahkumankan (is there such a word?) contact lens aku. Lagi le housemates aku gelak, "Jie nak rebus mata dia..." Ah, tak pedulik! Yelah masa tengah meningkat remaja ni kan, tak kisah besusah-payah kalau rasa boleh nampak lawa sket hahaha :-) Hmmm.. I vaguely remember a camping trip that I went on masa student dulu, how the toot did I disinfect my lenses masa tu ye? Kat mana nak cucuk plug untuk heating unit tu?

There were a lot of funny (and painful!) incidents with the contact lens. Kalau lens tu hilang sebelah, no problem, boleh tempah 'sebelah' yang baru. Masaelahnya, ego dan sombong, tak mau nya pakai specs balik... so pakai je la contact lens tu walaupun sebelah je. Of course kena jalan slow-slow sebab lantai nampak tak rata, dan pernah tergolek-dok dekat tangga dorm. Bila time nak membaca, alahai penglihatan out of focus, so kena pekup mata yang tak ber-lens tu, dan baca guna mata yang ada lens je.... might as well wear eye-patch like a pirate, yeeha! Eh, bukan aku sorang je buat tau, kengkawan lain pun camtu gak hehehe

Tertidur masa pakai lens... ini sampai sekarang pun jadik. Akibatnya, lens akan 'lari' dari posisi asal pada mata hitam, dan merayau ke... mana-mana kawasan lain. Adeehhh.... selalunya kalau terjaga dari tidur dan rasa mata tak nampak sebelah, cepat-cepat kena scan tempat tidur, kot-kot lens tu terjatuh. Kalau takde, terus mengadap cermin, tarik kelopak mata atas dan bawah, bagi bijik mata terjegil, gerak-gerakkan biji mata ke atas, bawah dan sisi, pastu carilah lens tu! Pedihhh....pedihhh....

Masalah lens kering pun ada gak. A friend had an embarassing moment, masa tengah cakap dengan lecturer, contact lens dia kering, lalu tertanggal dan terpelanting ke atas buku yang dia pegang di depan lecturer tu. Both of them stared at the errant lens for a moment, pastu lecturer tu gelak giler tergolek-golek, while my friend malu sampai nangis. Haiya...

My most painful experience with contact lens was this one time when I was helping my mom in the kitchen, aku dok potong cili kering untuk dimesin. Lepas tu aku mandi dan basuh tangan bersih-bersih before putting on my lenses. Ok, kan? Wrong. I didn't know that dried chillies had the staying power mengalahkan sabun. Memula tu ok je, but after about half an hour, my eyes started to water, makin lama makin pedih. I tried to take them lenses off, tapi tetiba pedihnya menusuk sampai aku tak boleh bukak mata. Camana? Nak keluarkan contact lens tapi mata pejam takleh bukak. I cried (involuntarily!) for a long time, really cried, and finally the tears washed away whatever that the chillies tainted my lenses with. Sampai sekarang aku beringat, not to touch stuff like that if I'm gonna put on or take off my lenses soon after. Hey, plus point - I never had to do the dried chillies anymore, till now. Ngelat!

Teringin tak, nak pakai contact lens kaler-kaler? Hmm... aku teringin gak, something unique like maybe green or grey. Tapi lupakan sajalah. Sebab power specs aku tinggi dan astigmatism pun tinggi, so as it is pun aku takleh pakai lens biasa, kena pakai toric lenses, much more expensive than regular lens (seribu lebih) and langsung takdak yang fancy kaler-kaler. Cheh!

A few years back, my optometrist recommended hard lenses instead of softlens, because hard lens are, well, hard, so they help to reshape the cornea and halt the astigmatism from getting worse. And it does work. My specs' power (aiyoh, so layman!) has been stable for these few years, and in fact decreased a little. The downturn is that it's not very comfortable (initially), much smaller in size and thus easier to lose, and has a shorter wearing period, as oxygen doesn't travel well through it so you need to take it off to allow your eyes to'breath'.

And so, sampai sekarang aku dok pakai hard lens ni. I did consider doing Lasik, but it's expensive and not without risks, and doesn't guarantee a 20/20 eyesight. Oh come on Jie, alasan! Sebenarnya, aku chicken hahaha :-) Penakut! Specs ni pakai sekali-sekala je, bila dirumah, atau bila emergency. Kalau suatu hari aku ke pejabat dengan memakai specs, you can be sure it is because aku bangun lambat dan tak sempat nak perform aku punya 'daily contact lens ritual' la tu. Or, conjunctivitis, hahaha :-D

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hai there..u baca i punye blog ke..hahahah..
we can share our same story.. pergi lah buat lasik.. dah murah skrg..

Rosebud said...

Hi Jie
I pun sama, bila dapat plastic lens specs, tak brani nak pakai. Tobal sesangat...... malu.
Bila dah keje, contact lens time tu mahal sikit, boleh beli sebelah je... slalu masuk dalam sinki. LOL
Today, I call the contact lens solution, AIR MATA KASIH... and like you, I pun nak keluarkan mata dan masukkan mata (bila rajin la). dah tua2 nie, banyak pakai specs je pi keje. hehehe

Dade Ghost said...

Jie pakai cermin mata la... nampak studious...

Dr. Shaikh Mohd Saifuddeen said...

I'll stick to my specs, thank you. :-)