Asian Kids and Glasses

There was an article from a while back that 90 percent of Asian kids are nearsighted, probably because they spend so much time studying. This is sad, because most of my Asian friends are indeed nearsighted and wear glasses or contact lenses. In my family, both my parents are very nearsighted, probably from studying too much when they were kids. This doesn't bode well for us genetically. Strangely, my sister has near perfect eye sight. Like an old person though, she is slightly far sighted and occasionally needs reading glasses.

As for me,  I am mildly myopic, but ever since I was a kid, I use this treatment called "ortho-keratology" where I wear these corrective hard contact lenses when I go to sleep at night. The lenses shape my eyes during the night so that when I wake up in the morning, I have perfect vision for a day or two. The good thing about ortho-k is that during the day, I don't have to wear contacts or glasses, and I get to play basketball, or swim without having to worry about wearing glasses or taking contact lenses out. Ortho-k is also supposed to slow the progression of myopia, so hopefully I won't have eyesight as poor as my parents when I grow up.

My optometrist, Dr. Randall Yumori from the Pacific Eye Care Center is wonderful in helping me with the ortho-k lens fittings (because it take some careful examination to make sure the curvature of the ortho-k lenses are just right for my level of myopia.

Occasionally though, when I don't wear my contacts at night because my eyes are hurting, or when I forget to wear them for a couple of nights, I can't see so well in school. That's when I need a regular pair of glasses as back up. I go to Hourglass Optical in West Los Angeles for glasses. They have so many frames to try on, and the price is super reasonable. For my glasses, it took them 8 minutes to cut and put the lenses into the frame I selected. The owner, Kathy is wonderful in helping me select my glasses. She also happens to be our neighbor.

Okay, not the best picture of  me.