Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Wednesday, Dec. 03, 2003 - 3:45 p.m.

A few things:

First and foremost, I did NOT tear my retina (yay). The vitreous is dislodged and is tugging on the retina (not yay). The lovely mass of black spiderwebby stuff is debris in my eye, trapped in a part of the vitreous which has gone all liquidy, as opposed to gel, which is what it's supposed to be. Nothing you can do about that, which, frankly, I find really irritating and more than a little depressing, since I can hardly see out of my right eye, but at least I do not need surgery. I have to go get it rechecked in a month - or immediately, should my vision suddenly change. And I am a big candidate for macular degeneration and retinal detachment, which I am not thrilled to hear. BUT, I do not need expensive, non-insured surgery, and that is always a very big plus. Woohoo!

I also found out I am one of a rather smallish group of people who react adversely to having their pupils dilated. Made me all nauseous, and my head hummed to a disconcerting degree. That was really not fun. I am only the second person that's happened to in the history of that office. Oddly, the first person was yesterday. That guy apparently threw up. I did not. I am still really sick to my stomach, though. They gave me drops again to shrink my pupils back to normal size. I forgot what that process is called. Bi-something. I didn't really want them to, because I didn't want more head hummage and nausea, but the head nurse-type figured it was a good idea, on the chance that it was the dilation making me sick and not the drops used to do the dilating. Considering how much I want to throw up at the moment, and the fact that my head is sort of swimming, the point was pretty moot, but at least I no longer have dilated pupils. I mean, I do, but not like they were, with almost no blue showing. Which looks really weird.

I was kind of amused by the fact they thought it would take 20 minutes for my eyes to dilate. They're wider than most people's all the time, anyway, which the nurse had even commented on. They were really surprised when they were fully dilated less than 5 minutes later. It took longer than the hour it was supposed to for them to shrink back, too. They're still not really adjusting to light all that well. I do not recommend driving with dilated pupils, btw. You can't really read the street signs. Or maybe you can and it just jacked the vision in my right eye and made it worse, but the left eye wasn't doing so hot all dilated, either. Oh - and do NOT walk outside without sunglasses. You will discover how truly bright the sun really is. And trust me, your brain is not prepared to handle it.

And the other thing is that tomorrow (Thursday, Dec. 4) is my birthday. Or as I like to call it, my anti-birthday. No fun will be had, no party hats will be worn, no madcap, zany adventures will be embarked upon. Mainly because most of my friends tend to be flakes who can't seem to show up on time for anything, much less a person's birthday. They will, however, over the next 3 to 4 weeks - and sometimes even into June - trickle in with "Hey, didn't you just have a birthday? Happy Birthday," and, on occassion, follow that with cards and gifts. That's just the way it is, and I have learned to embrace the anti-climax of the anti-birthday and just move on. But I will still accept birthday greetings, should anyone choose to issue them. Preferably closer to my actual birthday than June, however. :)

Peace out,
Katie

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