Cheap Sunglasses! Sober but BLIND!

I get back from Mexico after celebrating my 50th birthday and one year of sobriety and I still have red, puffy eyes even though I am not drinking. I connect the dots to cheap Amazon sunglasses, test the theory in real time, and realize I may have been damaging my vision for years. 
• celebrating one year sober and turning 50 in Mexico 
• noticing eye puffiness and redness without alcohol 
• tracing symptoms and fast vision decline to bargain polarized sunglasses 
• running a simple resort test without glasses then with them 
• feeling immediate burning and panic over possible eye damage 
• trying to warn friends I gave the sunglasses to 
• committing to better eye protection and accepting the cost 
• reflecting on sobriety as clarity and accountability 
To all my friends and familia in Mexico. I fucking love you guys.

We can choose to give in to the KAOS, or we can forge a new path forward!

Transcript

Mexico Trip And Big Milestones

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello everyone, story time. So I just got back from Mexico, went there with my wife for one week, uh, seven days, and I celebrated my 50th birthday and my one-year uh sobriety in Mexico. So, you know, over the years when I would party it up hardcore in Mexico, I would get like, you know, my eyes would start puffing up and get like really red. Um, in fact, you can kind of see it now. But I wasn't drinking, so I'm like, what the fuck? Because like for the last say four years, I'd get back from Mexico and I would look like a goddamn puffer fish. So I'm wondering, like, okay, you know, I haven't drank. I'm not drinking now. It's been a year. I've been to Mexico twice sober, this being my second one. And I still have this fucking redness and puffy all around my eye. It's yeah, it looks worse in person, I swear. So I'm, you know, chilling at the resort and stuff, and I'm wearing my sunglasses, of course, because you know, gotta protect the eyes.

The Sunglasses Clue Clicks

SPEAKER_00 1:06

And then it hits me. The fucking sunglasses that I've gotten off Amazon. So I start thinking more and more into this, and I'm like, okay, four years. That's pretty much how long I've been buying these fucking polarized sunglasses off of Amazon. And around the same timeline, four years, my vision has gotten so fucking bad that I need to have driving glasses and like work reading glasses for like on my computer and shit, because I'm pretty much like I'm not blind, but you know, my vision's fucked, and it's all happened like very quickly in four years. The one thing in common, the fucking sunglasses off Amazon. So, every time I go to Mexico, I'll buy bulk packs of sunglasses, and I mean it's my fault, right? $30 for three pairs of sunglasses, I should know better. So I've I decide, okay, now that I know, because I'm not drunk anymore, because before, you know, you'd be drunk, and who gives a fuck? Right? Life is perfect, you're having fun. Who cares if you're fucking blind? So I start thinking, who have I given these fucking sunglasses to, right? Because I always bring some and I give them to, you know, friends and stuff at the resort. And I'm like, oh, for fuck's sakes, there's probably, you know, 12 to 15 pairs of sunglasses that are potentially blinding people.

Testing The Glasses On Vacation

SPEAKER_00 2:29

So I decide to do some tests, experiments, if you will, while I'm in Mexico. So for one day I didn't wear the sunglasses at all. And believe me, it was hard because it's so goddamn sunny, I'm like walking around like I'm fucking cheech, just baked out of my mind. Like, hey man, you know where uh you know where I can get some chicken wings around here? So the day that I didn't wear the glasses, my eyes kind of clear up. There's no puffiness, no redness, and it's literally like a section, like right here on each side, like exactly where the sunglass sits. So the next day I decide I'm gonna wear sunglasses briefly and see what happens. Well, fuck my life. The moment I put on these fucking sunglasses and I'm walking around, I can literally feel my eye and my retinas burning. Like I can just feel it like it's concentrating the sun's energy directly on my fucking eyeball. So I'm like, holy fucking fuck. So then I'm like, okay, I need to go find these people that I've given these glasses, you know, this year. So in a panic, I'm like trying to remember, okay, who did I give these glasses to? Where are they working now? Obviously, you know, the last three, four years. I am so sorry. Please dispose of those glasses. But for this trip, I was able to, you know, be like, okay, find them, don't wear those fucking things, but they don't care. They're like, eh, they're good, they're good. I'm like, okay, man, but

Warning Friends And A Hard Lesson

SPEAKER_00 3:50

fuck. So lesson is your eyes, you only got two of them for your entire life. Take care of them. Don't be stupid like me and cheap out on fucking $30 sunglasses for three pairs, thinking that because they're polarized, they're gonna be fucking amazing.

unknown 4:07

Because they're not.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

So from now on, when I go to Mexico, I'll bring either, you know, like Oakley's or I've got lots of nice sunglasses here. I just when I was drunk, I didn't want to fucking lose my good, you know, $400 pair of fucking sunglasses. So I'd always bring cheap ones. But from now on, sober me, better eyeglasses. But literally, the damage is done. I'm pretty much fucking I can't see like street signs that are like half a block away. I'm just like, what the fuck? So yeah, now I gotta wear glasses for work, glasses for driving. God damn it. Now, hopefully, because the vision isn't too too bad, maybe I can get LASIK and correct it now so I don't have to wear glasses, but oh what like I just couldn't believe it. It's like a light bulb moment, like the fucking sunglasses. My wife is laughing her ass off because I'm like basically

Sobriety Gratitude And Final Takeaway

SPEAKER_00 4:56

like, we need to find who we gave these glasses to, you know, so yeah, but it was a great trip. I celebrated my one-year sobriety well in Mexico, and I rang in my 50th birthday. Um, and this is now my second sober trip to Mexico. To all my friends and familia in Mexico. I fucking love you guys. Thank you so much for making this trip just absolutely amazing, supporting my sobriety. And they even had like Heineken Zero beers at the resort because I brought my non rum, but I was so sick of the sugar and the rum after like day four. I was just like up till four in the morning because I couldn't sleep on a fucking sugar high. So thank you everyone in Mexico who made this trip absolutely amazing. And never again will I bring cheap ass fucking sunglasses that burn my eyeballs.