Getting old sucks

I had an eye check-up yesterday, and now I get to worry about developing glaucoma, because I'm getting close to 60, I'm extremely near-sighted, and my eye pressure was 18 in one eye and 19 in the other (diagnostic is 22--they like to see it around 12 or 14).

Apparently all I can do to help control the eye pressure without drugs is cut down on caffeine--although a couple of sources say a 50 mg in a 200 ml (about 6.66 oz.) beverage is okay and the Coke Zero I'm currently drinking is only 34 mg per 12 oz. can (no wonder I never get caffeine jitters!)--and exercise--which some studies show can in some people bring pressure down by 3 or 4 points. I've got to start walking the dogs, I guess, and put some new tires on my bike so I can make little excursions (but I am NOT riding my bike to work!).

Because I'm so near-sighted, I'm also at increased risk for detached retinas--a 1 in 20 lifetime risk, compared to a 1 in 300 lifetime risk for people with "normal" eyes. My mother, who was also extremely myopic, had a detached retina.

He's also going to try switching me to soft contacts because I'm producing less tears, which is not good for hard contacts--it makes the contacts stick to your eye and cuts down on the amount of oxygen or something. But even though soft contacts have gotten better--years ago you couldn't get soft contacts I could wear--I'll still lose some sharpness of vision, and I'm only 20/25 as it is.

And to top it all off, apparently as you get older your pupils get smaller, which is why you need more light to do things like read and knit, so he's going to have to start dilating my eyes when he does exams, which means I'll have to park at home and walk to and from my appointments (although I'm starting to collect horror stories about how messed up people feel when their eyes have been dilating--maybe I should just plan to call an ambulance to get a ride home!).

So my basic reaction is just--ARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!

Did I say I'd started another pair of socks? These are called Show-off Stranded Socks, and I'm using Apple Laine Apple Pie yarn, which I LOVE (I've got the old formula, which has more silk in it than the current yarn), in the Wild Thing colorway. The pattern is fun and easy, and the heel is different from any I've done before. I was making them for myself, but if they turn out (remember, I'm not so sure I can make good socks...), maybe I'll send them to my sister-in-law to try to cheer her up. They'd cheer me up!