When Jan told me that she wore contacts to be able to wear thick glasses, this was a real shocker. In a world of so many people, what do you think the chance of 2 people having the same fetish could be - maybe a million to one? No matter - it happened, and I am sure that the look on my face was priceless. I couldn't see it, but I sure could see her face when I took my contact lens case from my pocket, took off my glasses and popped the right lens out. " I do the same thing." was my reply. I am sure that her chin dropped a couple of feet, and her eyes were open wide in amazement. I removed the left lens, and we were now both without glasses.

Jan was absolutely captivated by the fact that we both had the same fetish. I found out in conversation that she had bought her glasses in a thrift store. Her contact lenses had been her first husbands, and fortunately they were the right curvature for her. She had the original vials, and I noticed that they were plus 9.50 lenses. I thought that the glasses were pretty strong for these contacts, and as I examined the glasses I noticed that they had a bit of an astigmatism correction. I advised her that if she wanted to wear that correction, she should probabally be wearing about a + 11 contact. She went on to amaze me by telling me that she really wanted even thicker glasses, so she should have even stronger contacts, but she had no idea how to get them.

By late that afternoon, most of my eyewear collection, as well as my old phoropter was at Jan's. With her contacts in, she had very good vision through a pair of -13, -12.50 glasses. I had a few other ladies glasses, but nothing that worked as well. She was most interested in how I could switch lenses from frame to frame, making the glasses into ladies, or mens as I pleased. A lot of people do not realize that there are many frames, especially plastic, that are the same, or similar lens sizes, and I have worked with my collection to promote the ease of switching. But, I couldn't convince Jan to wear the glasses that she could see best through, as her other glasses were thicker, and that was what she wanted. So, I convinced her to get internet access for her computer. I also talked her into making a doctors appointment as soon as possible, as I wanted her to make sure that the contacts that we were about to order from the internet were as good a fit as she could get.

Jan just loved my collection of glasses, and she kept making me change contacts, and puting on different glasses. Her favorites were a pair of glass myodics in a late 60's style frame. I didn't like wearing them, as they had a bit of correction for astigmatism, and I needed a +17.50 contact in my left eye to see through the probabally -28 diopter lens. The right eye only needed a +15.50 contact, and I estimated it to be about a -25diopter lens. I much prefer sharp vision to strong lenses, and as I mentioned, I didn't feel that my vision was good enough, but she wanted me to keep wearing them, so I did. I ended up staying the night again, only this time it was in her spare bedroom.

I was back home first the next afternoon, and when Jan came in she was just elated. She had gotten an appointment that afternoon with an eye doctor, and she had new coloured contacts in. I had told her to get a spare pair, still in the vials, which she had done. 8.4, 14.2 diameter read the bottle. So, now all we needed was internet access, and as I mentioned that, she told me she had signed up for it, and they had given her a bunch of numbers. I am not the greatest computer genius in the world, but after a few tries, we had the computer programed, and lo and behold we were on the internet. I searched contact lenses by mail, and we had a whole pile of options. But, I wanted a particular provider, so I went to a chat group about glasses where I found a listing for a supply house in British Columbia that did not need a doctors prescription. I wanted to pin Jan down as to the final prescription that she wanted for her glasses, but she just kept saying that she wanted them as strong as she could get them. I tried to explain to her that it would look funny if she showed up at work with humungeously thick glasses, and in the end she agreed to let me order her 2 pairs. So, I ordered as if she needed a +15 for one eye, and a +12 for the other. I then suggested that she would need about -18 glasses for the +12 lenses, and probabally about -21 or -22 for the other glasses. She still insisted that she wanted thicker than that, but I convinced her to wait a while.

The order was in using her real name, and credit card, so all we had to do now was wait.

A phone call was on the answering machine the next day, so I had her call them back as soon as she got home from work. All they wanted was confirmation, and to tell her that these were special order lenses, and it would be a few days. I knew this, and had told her about that, so we were not too suprised., but Jan was totally impatient. Luckily I was at the house when the contacts arrived, as the parcel express people needed a signature, so I signed for them, and was waiting with them when Jan got home. I had suggested that she wear her coloured contacts to work until she could get glasses that she could see through properly, so she had been doing that. All the while she kept complaining to her co workers about how sore her eyes were with contacts, so that when she finally got proper glasses, she could wear them full time, and no one would suspect a thing. That night she put in the +12's, and with her old glasses she could see well enough to function. She definately needed a stronger prescription, and I set up the old phoropter and the eye chart. I had wanted her to wear the contacts for a while so that when we did the eye test her eyes would have adjusted to wearing the contacts. Sure enough, as I had thought, she needed -17.50 in her left eye. I was a bit suprised that her right eye only took -17.25, as her eyes, and the contacts were all the same, but that is what gave her the best vision on the snellen chart. She wanted to check the other lenses right away, and it was a chore to explain to her that it was best to only put the contacts in once a day, and that her vision would be better if we did the other lenses some morning, after she had gotten a pair of glasses that she could wear while her eyes adjusted.

I had an old prescription blank from an out of state doctor that was no longer , so I filled it out. The next day, I met Jan after work, and we were off to the opticians. This was old hat to me, but to Jan it was a new experience. As we went from store to store, asking questions, and trying on all sorts of frames. she was amazed at the lack of knowlege that many opticians had about strong prescriptions. I had been trying to keep my mouth shut, but when one student optician commented on the fact that her eyes must be terrible, I must admit that I told her off, and let her know how totally insensitive that comment was. We got a lot of comments on the strength of the prescription, and how thick the lenses would be, and finally we picked an optician. This young lady said the right things, and when I commented, she told us that her sister wore glasses almost that strong, so she did know what a problem it was. We ordered 2 pairs. One pair was going to be regular plastic in a fairly small frame with the anti reflective coating. The other pair, also a fairly small eye size, was in high index plastic, with the minimum centre thickness. Jan was like a kid with a new puppy. She was totally excited, and couldn't wait to get the glasses. We had told the optician that this was a bit of an emergency, as Jan's old glasses had broken, and she agreed to put a rush on at least one pair, and call us the minute they came in.

Three days later there was a message on the machine. When I came in the door, Jan wouldn't let me take my coat off. She had her old glasses on, and had put black tape around the nose to make it look realistic.

If I hadn't been driving, I guarantee that a couple of speeding tickets would have been issued that night, she was so excited. Always, when you are in a hurry the only parking space in a mall is a long walk, and Jan was dragging me to the door in almost a jog. I told her to settle down, or she would make the optician suspicious. No one gets excited about really getting thicker glasses. She listened to me, and when the optician brought out the new glasses, and Jan looked at them, she managed to make the right comment about how thick they looked, and how she must look terrible wearing them. Yes, they were the regular plastic lensed glasses that came in first. The optician was extremely nice, and told Jan that while they did look quite thick, that they looked good on her, and that the main thing was that she could see.

And the glasses did look good. They had had to bevel the edge a bit, and the lenses were set well forward in the frame. We had picked a frame that would take about 3/4 of an inch of edge thickness, and they had needed all that and more.

We walked around the mall for a bit. Jan couldn't pass a mirror without glancing at herself, and she kept telling me how great they looked. If they had been for real glasses, I would have gotten excited too, but my enthusiasm was a bit dampened. Before we left, it was back to the optician for some fine tuning, and when we finally went home, Jan was in heaven. I figured that we should probabally cancel the high index glasses, as they would be like mine - just around 1/2 inch thick, but Jan wanted to get them too.

The next morning it was off to work wearing the new glasses.

A few days later, it was back to the optician for the glasses with the high index lenses. As I had suspected, they were nice and thin. They still looked to be a strong prescription from the front, but the edge thickness was less than that of a regular plastic in about a -11 or -12. Jan liked them, and they looked good on her. Her visual actuity was quite good in both pairs. I knew which pair she would wear most though, and sure enough, over the next few weeks I was proven correct. The thick lenses were getting almost all the wear. But she was totally happy, so I was pleased for her, but I couldn't help wondering how far she wanted to take this.

I was soon to find out.