Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Mild Is When It Happens To Someone Else

After my little mix-up between eye and ear drops, I went to the ophthalmologist today for a follow-up exam. The diagnosis is a 'mild' chemical burn, just about fully healed with no after effects. It damn sure didn't feel 'mild.' It felt like my eyeball was on fire. But all's well that ends well.

It looks and feels much better today. At its worst it reminded me of a line from the old Asleep at the Wheel song Bloodshot Eyes: "Your eyes look like two tomatoes in a glass of buttermilk." But today it's back to its normal appearance - a deep limpid pool of blue that women lose themselves in.

The ER treatment for chemicals in the eye is pretty cool. They put in some numbing drops to kill the pain and deaden the eye, then they insert something like a contact lens that is perforated and connected to a reservoir of saline solution. The patient is placed on a table which is then tilted so the feet are higher than the head, and the saline is pumped through the perforated contact lens for about 10 minutes. This 'pressure-washes' the irritant out of the eye. Quick, thorough, and effective.

Other notes from the trip:

When I left Wyoming it was 19 degrees and snowing. When I got to Laredo it was 94 degrees and sunny. My body is very confused.

When I left Texas last Friday gas was $3.44 per gallon. Today it's $3.59. A 15 cent increase in four days? WTF?

I went four days with no TV, no talk radio, no newspapers, and no email or Internet. It was very calming and relaxing. Sometimes I think the constant bombardment of news and opinion we're subjected to is not good for us.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Such a wonderful and so contrast sentence you had used here as a opening for your blog description.
eyelift

JT said...

Gas prices are the result of a pseudo oil crisis in the Middle East, the messiah's unwillingness to tap our reserves and/or drill in the gulf and ANWR and the fed printing money like I used to print keg party fliers when I worked for Xerox.

CenTexTim said...

"...I worked for Xerox"

So, Harper, you were a reproduction specialist?

(Sorry, but I just couldn't resist a set-up like that.)

JT said...

Good one. Since I have four kids now, it would seem to be an apt description, though my Xerox stint was a short lived second job when I was a newly divorced single mom. Didn't stop my friends from asking me to make copies for their parties, though. I will own up to at least one copy of a body part, and the faxing of said image to my ex.

veins said...

I'm glad you had a wonderful time, I wish that someday I could spend a nice day with you guys since you all are very talented writers and I love reading your blogs.