Was Blind, But Now I See

[Randy is temporarily blind]
Randy: It's not fun being blind. Why is Stevie Wonder always smiling?

--My Name is Earl, "Monkeys in Space" (1/26/06)

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I was going to do a post about my trip to the funeral and stuff, but frankly there wasn't much interesting about it, except for the pastor who insisted that my stepfather isn't dead, "He's only sleeping!" and used the story of Lazarus to back him up. And me, about to go up there and say a few words, including the poem from my last post with the line "I do not sleep." Heh.

But there were some consequences to the trip home, and some subsequent activities. Friday was the funeral itself, and afterward there was a gathering at my mother's place, where we served food and beverages (both soft and adult), and after that we headed over to my brother's to continue the memories and the consumption of the drinks.  As a result, by the time I went to bed, I'd neglected to remove my contact lenses, which means waking up with a pretty uncomfortable feeling in my eyes. I took them out for a few minutes, rinsed them off and popped them back in. Then we packed our stuff and headed out to the Lucky Dill for lunch. (If you're ever in the area, you MUST go there. If you don't, you should go out and kill yourself. End of story.) After this (and one or two more necessary quick stops), we hit the road to head back to Baltimore. 

We weren't in a huge hurry, but we were hoping to reach Florence, SC, which makes a decent midway point for us. This we did, but it was nearly 1:00 AM by the time we got there. On Sunday we got up, got some breakfast and finished the trip, with the usual stopover at the outlet stores at Exit 95. Between the late start, the shopping and the bad weather, we got into Baltimore around 11:00 that night. 

Monday: I went to work and met with my boss for the day. That night I was watching movies on TCM and fell asleep on the sofa, again with my contacts in. 

This, I learned, is a Bad Thing. 

On Tuesday morning I woke up and, as is common for waking up with the contacts in, my eyes were kind of uncomfortable. I took them out, gave them a rinse and put them back in again. My vision was a little blurry, but I chalked that up to the lenses themselves being close to the end of their lives. (I should be able to use a pair for about a month before I have to change them.) On the other hand, my left eye was still kind of uncomfortable. After a little while I said "the hell with it" and put in a new pair. The blurriness didn't go away, nor did the discomfort. Uh-oh. I took the contacts out and began putting astringent drops in my eyes every 10-15 minutes. This didn't help, either. In fact, it rapidly got worse until any light source was unbearably painful to look at. The left eye was in agony and even when I closed it, it hurt to look at the light with my right eye. Finally, GF said, "OK, that's enough" and took me to the Emergency Room at GBMC. 

By this point, I had to keep both eyes closed while she led me to the car and piled me into the back seat, where the windows are tinted a little darker. We rode to the ER and she led me inside, where I explained my problem. Naturally, they ask for my insurance card and ID before they're going to do anything. Fortunately I always keep them in the same places in my wallet and I pulled them out for the receptionist, who asked me to "sign here" (where? Point, please, and I'll peek through the good eye) and then have a seat, where I sat with my eyes still closed. 

A few minutes later they put a wristband on me. I held it up for GF to inspect for accuracy. That may sound dumb, but when I was in there back in November getting my nose fixed, my wristband originally had me as a female. So yeah, we'll be double-checking that one. 

Some time later we were called into "the eye room". GF led me in and they put me in the chair. I had GF shut off the lights, so the only source of light was from the hallway. Still too much. Some time later, the doctor came in and put some anesthetic drops in my eyes. About a minute later, hey! I can see again! My eye still hurt like hell but at least I could see.

He put this fluorescent dye in my eyes and looked them over. He didn't see anything in the left eye (the one that hurt) but did see what appeared to be an ulcerated spot in the right. He left to call the opthalmologist and left us alone again. About a half hour later, the sensitivity started again. I later learned that the way the dye works is that it will normally remain in the tears outside the eye, but if there's an abnormality in the surface of the cornea, the dye will stick to that and turn it green. Who knew!

GF saw the bottle of anesthetic drops on the counter and considered just putting them in my eyes again, but I told her to ask the doctor. This turned out to be a good idea. Apparently there's a side effect of overusing these drops: it tends to eat away at your eyeballs. But the doctor said that we could use them once more and sent in the nurse to put them in. 

Finally he came back and told me that the right eye ulcer may be the problem, and gave me antibiotic cream for the eyelid (ecch) and also antibiotic drops, and a prescription for percocet so I can get some sleep. He also told us to call the eye clinic the next day and insist on a followup visit that same day. 

Next day: still with my eyes closed, we returned to GBMC and went to the eye clinic. Again GF led me through the parking garage, down hallways and so forth, into an elevator and up to the clinic's floor. While checking me in, the receptionist asked GF a few questions about me that I could easily have answered. Finally, I said, "Um, you know I'm here, right?" The receptionist said "Yes, but your eyes are closed." I'm STANDING here, honey; that probably means I'm not asleep. 

Into the exam room after a short wait and more eyeball-eating drops so I can see. Another exam and the eye doctor, who coincidentally is a nice bit of eye candy (a very nice person to see when one's vision returns, thank you). She told me that the "ulcer" in the right was some small blood vessels that had gotten into the cornea, which was unusual but not especially dangerous or painful, and appeared to be quite old. The theory is that they're from the time I scratched the cornea in that eye over 20 years ago. The left eye, on the other hand, was showing definite signs of my having worn the contacts waaay too much.

No matter what anyone says, contact lenses are not gas-permeable (or at least, not as much as they'd have you believe) and they prevent air from getting to your eyeballs. Consequently, the cornea can actually start to die from oxygen starvation. This is what was beginning to happen to me, but fortunately it was caught early. Also fortunately, eyeballs tend to heal relatively quickly.

So I got benched from work for the rest of the week, and I'm on a two-week vacation from wearing the contacts. As I type this, my distance vision is still slightly affected, but the light sensitivity is finally gone. And come Monday I start making up a lot of work. 

Comments

[OM]

"the "ulcer" in the right was some small blood vessels that had gotten into the cornea" -- That does sound sexy. Sure she was a real doctor and not some kind of stripper?

No such luck.--C

[Danielle]

OMG. Those are major consequences from just sleeping in your contacts, which I've done before. My eye doc always cautions against it and always ask how many hours a day I'm wearing them and suggests wearing my glasses from time to time. Now I know why! Hope you heal up soon!