A little Christmas spirit

One of our labs that we use at work sent us a note saying that he would like to pay for a frame and lenses (with all the bells and whistles) for one person from each office that he serves. The owner of the lab (our smallest, kind of a mom and pop lab) is named Charlie, and so I have dubbed him "Charlie Claus".

None of us in the office knew anybody with a genuine need for glasses, and the best I could come up with was somebody in our community who gives herself to children with special needs, has adopted 3 children that have special needs, and battled cancer this past year. But my thought was more that it would be a nice gesture, not that she needed this gift.

Then today a new patient came in. She was kind of disheveled, but friendly. I brought her back and performed my portion of her exam. She revealed to me that she lost her glasses 2 1/2 years ago, she loves to read, it's painful to read, and oh yeah, she's been on Methadone for 4 months. I told her "good for you" for getting on this drug (you know, to get off drugs) but left it at that. I could see she was trying to do better, but life has kind of kicked her around. I don't know why people start taking Meth, but have nothing but pride for those who can successfully quit.

It turns out that she has quite a vision correction, more than most, and certainly people that have her rx do not go without contacts or glasses, and she'd been living like this for years.
She is on DSHS, and if you haven't read about the glasses program, click on the link. Inmates make medicaid glasses (which I think is a great use of both programs), but glasses are back logged 6-8 weeks. So she wouldn't have glasses until February. Our Optician offered her a deal for $50, but the patient lamented that with Christmas, bills, and 2 birthdays, she simply would have to live without.

That's when we all shared "the look". Charlie Claus is making this lady a pair of transition lenses (the ones that go light to dark) in a brand name, quality frame. And she'll have them by early next week.

She broke down in tears twice. She asked "You mean I'll actually get to watch my children open their gifts this Christmas? I haven't seen that in years."

It's funny how we had this gift that we didn't know who do give to, and boom, there she was.
I'm so happy to have been part of her day today. And to give her that gift and hope in mankind and reward for trying to be a better person.