Optometry

Yesterday evening, after wrapping up my school day, I had my inaugural soccer practice for the year. Soccer has been a passion of mine since the tender age of eight, and now that I’m in high school, the stakes are higher. Being enrolled in a nationally ranked school, I was recruited on a scholarship to join the team, and with that comes significant pressure to excel as their star player. However, to my dismay, the first practice did not go as expected. 

Though I anticipated some rustiness after a period of inactivity, I was not prepared for the complete loss of my soccer skills. It felt as though I could no longer perceive the ball accurately, as it repeatedly eluded my attempts to make contact. I was baffled and disheartened by this sudden decline in my abilities. 

Opening up to my coach about the troubling situation, he suggested I visit a behavioural optometrist near me. According to him, he had witnessed a similar issue with another player before, and it turned out to be related to their visual-motor system. Initially anxious about the implications, my coach assured me that it was a solvable problem. Despite my eagerness to persist with the training session, he wisely advised me to rest and abstain for the time being, to avoid unnecessary stress. 

Upon arriving home, I eagerly shared the troubling episode with my family. Concerned for my well-being and the potential impact on my scholarship, my parents promptly scheduled an appointment at the best optometrist clinic Bayside offers. Even my sister noticed my frequent squinting while reading, though I brushed it off as manageable. Despite my reassurances, they were determined to address the issue and ensure my future on the soccer field remains bright.

While I am grateful for their care and concern, I can’t help but feel a sense of urgency to reclaim my soccer prowess. The scholarship and my passion for the sport hang in the balance, making it essential to find a solution promptly. I trust the optometrist’s expertise will shed light on the matter and guide me towards regaining my confidence and performance on the soccer field.

I have sustained an injury. That’s a nice way to put it. That makes it sound more pleasant than it probably is. Simply put, I got punched. My kid got into an argument with another kid while the parents were around, and when I stepped in to break it up the other dad got defensive and he punched me. No biggie, really. It just means that now I have a black eye, and my eyelid is swollen shut so tightly that I can’t actually see out of it. I wanted to make sure that my vision is okay, so I visited a Brighton eye doctor to get checked out. She literally gasped when she saw me, which made my stomach drop. Apparently, my injury looks a lot worse than I had initially thought. Guess my son’s friend’s dad packs a powerful right hook.

We did a couple of preliminary examinations, and the optometrist said everything was fine, but that I should rest for about a week. She also offered me a few different remedies to soothe the swelling. The cheapest was just plain ice, which I appreciated because it’s simple to make in big batches. The most expensive product she offered me was a purpose-built eye cream that I could get a prescription for and pick up from the pharmacy. This special cream had a promotion attached to it – if you purchased the cream you could book your next eye test, for Bentleigh customers only. Luckily, I lived in Bentleigh so this wasn’t an issue. I travelled to the pharmacy to pick up the cream and then went home to start freezing some water for ice. It’s going to be a few weeks before my eye returns to normal. I’m a bit embarrassed to go out in public looking like this, but my son just thinks it makes me look cooler. Small victories, I guess?