This morning, I woke up feeling incredibly grateful. I'm blessed in so many ways, but today I wanted to express particular gratitude for Dr. Janice Jared, my optometrist. You might think it's not a big deal to get fitted for contact lenses, but I had a unique situation.
I was diagnosed with keratoconus several years ago. As a result, I had to undergo eye surgery for both eyes--one at a time. It wasn't just a standard surgical procedure; it required donor tissue to treat the disease through corneal transplants. After being on the waiting list for several months, I was able to get the transplants. My vision was restored from being legally blind to something incredible, though still not 20/20. I never experienced 20/20 vision. Going forward, I would require the aid of custom toric contact lenses to achieve the best possible results. As I've aged, these lenses became more difficult to fit due to changes in my eyes over time. It takes real skill and patience to get a proper fit.
Before meeting Dr. Jared, I saw an eye doctor in Cherry Creek. She tried to fit me for lenses, but the first set was a no-go. The second set didn't work either. Eventually, as I sat in her chair, she nervously laughed and said it was the best she could do. So, I went back to wearing glasses. While I don't mind glasses, they don't correct my vision as well as lenses, given the shape of my eyes. Lenses that sit on top of the eye help shape it a bit better.
As fate would have it, I ended up at the Mayfair Vision Clinic, headed by Dr. Jared. She was able to fit me with custom toric lenses that gave me the best vision I'd had in a long time.
Fast forward to just over a year ago: it was time for new contact lenses because the ones I had were disposable. It turned out that the company that made the lenses I relied on went out of business, and no one else produced lenses with the same specifications. While they call them custom toric lenses, they're not truly custom--you can choose from a number of parameters, but you can't specify exactly what you need.
So, we embarked on a journey together. Visit after visit, trial lens after trial lens, Dr. Jared never gave up. Each time I went in, she gave me a thorough eye exam, checking the lenses for fit and acuity. She was calm, always professional, and most of all, committed to giving me the best vision possible. I lost track of how many visits we had. Each time, the order would take a few weeks to arrive, only for us to find that the fit wasn't right--again and again. Despite this, I was never asked to pay for all the visits. When I asked if she was getting paid, she said yes, as she was able to bill insurance as a medical necessity.
After this long journey, I'm incredibly grateful to say I picked up my new lenses yesterday, and they fit comfortably! I can now read the characters on the 20/20 line! I am so grateful, and this couldn't have come at a better time, as I'm preparing for my upcoming photography expedition to Malaysia.
If you need an excellent eye doctor, you'll now find Dr. Janice Jared at Eye Envy in Aurora, just off Buckley and Alameda. read more