MSI Press Blog

  Most people treat sunglasses as a fashion accessory. I treated them as survival. When I was in the Army, long before sunrise, I walked straight into a pine tree at reveille. My eyes recovered, but I was left with lifelong photophobia — the kind that sends tears streaming down your face in bright light. Sunglasses became my shield. I wore them at noon, at twilight, on cloudy days. I thought I was just preventing the embarrassing tears. Decades later, at 75, my eye doctor told me something I wish I had known at 25: 1. Sunglasses protect your eyes far more than people realize. Not wearing them — especially in strong sun — does real, cumulative damage. A friend my age can barely see now; years of Hawaii sun without sunglasses took a toll. Meanwhile, I’ve lived under the nearly-as-bright California sun and still don’t need glasses at 76. Yes, I have good eye genes, but I also accidentally spent a lifetime shielding my eyes from UV exposure because of that old Army injury. What I thoug...

  My eyes are pretty good -- well, actually, very, very good. At 75, I still do not need glasses (per my last eye exam three days ago). This only once in a while seems unusual to me when one friend or another complains about an eye problem or glasses or... eye cancer (yep, there it is, the big C associated with eyes). When my CHARGE Syndrome son, who lives at home with me, saw his own eye doctor the next day, I learned that it really is very rare to have normal near vision at my age. The doctor prepped my son for what she thought would be unpleasant news (that he would have to start wearing glasses now at age 45). Age 40 is kind of a magical line, she explained in language she hoped he would understand. Once you cross that magic line, you can pretty much expect to need glasses. "Uh, not always," I interrupted her. "I crossed that line 35 years ago, and, well, nada changed." She ignored me -- what could she really say -- and proceeded to check my son's eyes. Res...