Thursday, July 20, 2006

Lasered

Well, this has been an interesting week. Tuesday morning I got up, started checking my email, and suddenly saw flashes of light and what looked like a tarantula hovering just off my left eye. I even swatted at the sucker. Of course, there was nothing there. What happened was that the retina on the back of my left eye had just torn. Luckily, the tear was small and the retina didn't detach from the eye, which would have meant a trip to the hospital. As it was, after a day in the ophthalmologist's office, I was able to have laser surgery on the eye to repair the tear. Although I wouldn't want to go through that every day, it wasn't too bad. The vision in my left eye isn't back to normal yet and may not be for a couple of months, but I can still read and work on the computer. My eyes do get tired faster than they used to, which means taking more frequent breaks, but I can live with that. When I was writing I usually took a break every six or seven pages; now I take one after three or four pages. And I may not spend quite as much time on-line for a while. But as of now I think I'll be able to proceed fairly normally. Physically I'm not supposed to lift anything heavy for a couple of weeks, but that's about all that's off limits. The one I really feel sorry for is Livia, who'll have to listen to my griping about my eye. A good patient I ain't.

7 comments:

Juri said...

Quick recovery, James! Eyes are your tools (besides hands, of course), take good care of them!

Cap'n Bob said...

That's scary, but I'm glad to hear it'll come out all right. Maybe you need one of those anti-glare screens for your computer, if you don't have one already. Linda, who works a lot on her computer at work, got one, and claims it alliveated eyestrain and headaches.

mybillcrider said...

Take care of those eyes, James! Glad things turned out well this time.

Charles Gramlich said...

That tarantula comment made me think there's a story in this event somewhere. I'm glad the eye wasn't so serious that you had to be hospitalized. Take care and I think you should just give up heavy lifting for good now. Don't read any Stephen King books for sure. At least not in hardback

Carl V. Anderson said...

Glad it wasn't as bad as it could have been but still sorry about it. Hope for a speedy recovery!

Cap'n Bob said...

Then there's that line from a movie whose title escapes me: "I have to pee sitting down because the doctor told me not to lift anything heavy."

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Anonymous said...

Of course it doesn't help that we've had an invasion of spiders this year. Next time you'll think it's your eyeball coming apart again, and it really will be a big hairy spider.
Livia