I was convinced that now I was going blind – there was no doubt about it!

1^st of December 2019

Good afternoon

Some days ago I thought I was dying or something even worse happening to me.

7 days ago or thereabout I changed my contact lenses. I wear those 3 weeks and then I change. I have a routine, always the same, first the left one goes out and then the right one. Into the eyes the same, first the left one and then the right one, and by the way I use the left eye to see faraway and the right one to read. My brain is a genius and I have been doing this for many years, decades I think.

Well.

7 days ago it was time, now I took one out and then the other.

Then the left one went in!

Something really strange was going on!

I could not see anything, everything was in a haze!

I took the left one out and tried the right one. Yess! That was fine!

Decided to try another one in the left eye, but nothing changed, the blur was even worse.

What is happening? I thought

Am I having a stroke? Is there blood clutching my brane? WHAT IS GOING ON!

I was terrified. I’m not afraid of dying but in my wildest imagination I saw my work on my computer, my needle work, my reading, all gone, thrown out of the window, simply because something terrible was happening to me!

I sat down. Thought about the situation and decided to wait until the next day and see if anything changed.

At the moment I could see fairly clearly without my left contact lens and perhaps, just perhaps my sight was changing, but how could this happen so quickly was the big question.

I waited some days and then I went to Condeixa to my friend, but he and his wife have a shop where they sells glasses and contacts and take care of people like me with a strange eyesight!

I told my friend what was going on! We decided it might be a perfect solution that next day, Saturday, his wife would come and have a look and see if I was going blind or whatever, and if something could be done. He told me I could come at 10 in the morning and there was no way that I could sleep late, he also told me.

A bit before 10 I arrived. Driving was ok, I saw everything even though it was raining like hell.

I told my friend, the wife, what had been going on for a week and with tears in my eyes I asked if I was going blind!

She said, NO!

This is normal, she told me

In came a Portuguese woman and my friend told me that the lady had similar problems.

Really?

Yes!

The Portuguese lady left and I sat in the chair. Now the truth would be relieved. My friend looked into my eyes. She stood in front of me. I froze. Now she is going to tell me I cannot see anything in the near future! I´m going blind like my mother and my aunt and many other people I know, oh oh oh, all this and much more through my mind at the speed of superman!

You are ok, you have got both the lenses in your eyes, the doctor (my friend) said

No, that cannot be, I replied, how can that be, I took it out several days ago!

It’s there she told me and looked again. It’s definitely there. Can you see it ? I asked

Yes I can, she told me.

Would you like to take it out, she asked, so we can figure out if your sight has changed and then we can decide about the new glasses!

I took it out, I looked at it in my hand and thought: How stupid can you be, trying to put a second contact lens into your eye and expect to see properly? Idiot!

You know, I need to have glasses with me all the time, while driving, because if the police make me stop they see in my driver’s license that I need either contact lenses or glasses, and they want to see the glasses!!!!!!  I am after all in Portugal and all my glasses are VERY old!

The eyesight has not changed, or at least not much. I am still near-sighted at the left and normal reading at the right. Strange brane in my body but that’s just normal for me.

YOU CAN NOT TELL YOUR HUSBAND THIS, I said to my friend, HE IS GOING TO KILL ME BY MOCKING ME FOR EVER!

My friend laughed.

We found glasses and I paid, few days later I will have my new glasses to show to the police if they decide to talk to the foreigner! During my almost 9 years I have been stopped twice so there is not too much to fear.

Thank God, I was not going to die, I was not going blind, I was just stupid and did not fulfil the task of taking out the old lens. Although, I have to admit that I was really worried and in a way convinced that my life was being destroyed in front of my eyes. Not being able to drive wherever I want to go. Being dependent on others for help, would plain and simply kill me.

In the afternoon, when I got home I could not help laughing. Having a good laugh is perfect in a situation like this but imagine: Now I have to pick up my glasses when they are ready and who will be in store then? The doctor’s husband, the one that I told something was really wrong with my brain, and he will mock me forever!  No mercy there I can assure you! We are good friends and have been for many years and the last laugh we had was about me buying beer to give the snails in my garden after they start running from my flower pots and the disgusting garlic I am going to put in the pots to keep them away. That was then; next time will be me, the laughing stock.

Live is wonderful and mine is full of adventures all the time, no doubt about that, even my car was wet inside yesterday and the next task will be to take the car to his doctor and figure out why the endless rain found a way into my best friend ever!

Have a great day my friends and a good laugh with me. You deserve it and I will forgive you!

Hulda Björnsdóttir