During my time in high school, I enrolled in an art class to cover some of my required courses for college. In a very uneventful but stressful chain of events, my eye was severely damaged one day from a paper cut in class. While another student and I were both reaching for a sheet of paper to draw on, the corner of his accidentally came up and sliced me right in the left eye. Immediately after the corner hit my eye I knew there had been damage inflicted. The pain wasn’t too awful but it was more annoying than anything and I couldn’t get my eye to stop from watering. The scratch was so bad that I ended up having to leave school and have my parents drive me to an optometrist. Under further examination, the doctor explained to me that my cornea had been scratched. As we learned in Psych 253, the cornea is a clear surface at the front of the eye. This transparent tissue is responsible as being the primary refractive surface of the eye. The doctor went on to explain to me as I would again learn in Psych 253 that the cornea is responsible for eighty percent of the focusing power of the eye (Wolfe). The optometrist told me that although my left cornea was scratched, there were no traces of paper lodged in my eye and that it should heal within a few days. She sent me home with eye drops and a patch to wear for two days.
After the two day healing process I returned to the doctor and decided to get a full eye examination. After she looked at my eyes, the doctor determined that I actually was due to be wearing glasses. She found that I was actually near sighted, or formally known as having myopia. (Wolfe) This can be caused from the eyeball being too long, making the point of focus in front of the retina and creating challenges seeing far away objects (Wolfe). My condition was very mild and in fact I probably wouldn’t have known for a few more years had my cornea abrasion not happened. I decided to go forth and purchase glasses anyways and once I did I noticed a major difference while sitting in class and trying to read the board. The glasses corrected my vision and made it more or less 20/20.
The picture below shows what a normal eye versus a eye dealing with Myopia would look like. After my cornea scratch I learned that my eye looked like the picture on the left.
Cornea and Myopia
Wolfe, Jeremy M., Keith R. Kleunder, and Dennis M. Levi. “Sensation & Perception: Eye Structure.” Sensation & Perception: Eye Structure. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.