I'm paying for it tonight.
First, advance apologies if I don't catch all the typos.
As many of you know I am diabetic. I've been diabetic for over 25 years and it has gotten to a point where I am reaping some of the long-term effects.
One area that has been hit particularly hard is my eyes. Initially, I had some bleeding in my eyes and the bleeding creates a fluid that is very damaging to the internal workings of your eye, which is an absolutely amazing organ. Those were sealed with laser surgery and the biggest inconvenience of it was the dilation and the after effects of that medication.
That was about ten years ago.
I've graduated to bigger things now in regards to my eyes.
Sometimes the back of my eye swells. That area is called the macula and it is supposed to have a lovely dip in it with no evidence of swelling. They can take these amazing photos of the inside of your eye and actually see the swelling and the liquid pools that are causing the swelling. It rather looks like a lunar landscape when the macula is swollen, a picture best to avoid.
I've had several injections now in each eye. It isn't even close to any bit of fun! Normally, I come home from the injection(s) and have to sleep off the stuff they use to dilate your eyes. Sometimes for a couple days afterward, a broken blood vessel gives me an almost pink-eye look.
I've also had another type of work done on my eyes. This is to correct additional blood vessels from doing things they shouldn't (how's that for a scientific explanation?) One of the more unpleasant side effects of these additional vessels is that they put extra pressure into your eye. Left untreated they can lead to glaucoma, something we'd all rather avoid.
For this procedure, your eye(s) are dilated and the retina specialist holds your eye open with a nifty little gadget that also allows him to see into your eye and direct his work. His work? Zapping the blood vessel(s) with a laser some three hundred times.
The sealing zaps are maybe a dozen or so, and once the dilation of your eyes returns to normal that's it. Not so when you get the three hundred treatment. Your eye hurts. Right now, my left eye is killing me and the left side of my face feels like I got hit with a fast moving softball.
I've a patch over my left eye. That's to protect the work and keep me from overusing my eye. Try wandering around for a couple hours with one eye patched. Depth perception gets real interesting.
Now, my doctor did do me the kindness of numbing my eye before doing all this zapping. I've a very high tolerance to pain. But, as you might guess, there is just something about your eyes - well, they seem to not play well with needles. I almost put my fingernails through the armrests in the exam chair. The pain is so intense and it's in your eye and you can't jerk away for fear of creating a really big problem.
Well, now, all that is worn off and the only thing to really do is get thee to bed which I intend to do in the next few minutes. Who knows what my eye is going to look like in the morning, but I'm hoping at least the dull ache in the side of my face will be gone.
So for any of you afraid of needles, doctors, medicine, ... believe me when I say that knowing in advance what they are going to do is far worse than having it come as a surprise.
To go into that procedure willingly? Well, that was today's dangerous living.