The End Of The World As We See It
So today was part 2 of the laser treatment.
And lemme tell you, it doesn’t get better. In fact it was worse than the first time. Mainly because it seemed to last longer this time. And this time it actually hurt sometimes. I don’t think it did the first time. That was just extreme discomfort. This time it was extreme discomort for a long time with added pain. But on the bright side, I only have to do it what 6 more times or so? Oh boy.
It really isn’t fun. You get this thing pressed up against your eye. Like a monocle. Only monocles aren’t usually shoved right in your eye. It’s really uncomfortable to have something pressed against your eyeball, you know. And so you can’t close your eye. And the machine is turned on and you see a strong, bright light. You can’t blink, you can’t avoid it. And then the lasers start. Now when you say “laser” you think of a sort of laser beam. Long beams. Like a sci-fi gun. At least that’s the image I had in my mind before I tried it. But they don’t fire long beams at you from across the room of course. You get the machine pressed right against your eye. And then you sort of see this little black dot. And it “fires” at you. It moves across your field of vision. It’s hard to describe. Most of the time it doesn’t hurt, the bad thing is more that machine pressing against your eye. But a few times it did hurt, when it got out in the peripheral parts of my vision. Imagine having red-hot needles poked into your eyeball. Not to be OVERDRAMATIC or anything. Okay, not quite as bad as that. But bad enough. Several times I thought to myself “okay, that must be it. We must be done now. Let’s wrap it up”. But he just kept going. It felt like ages, but it probably wasn’t more than 5 minutes or so. And then afterwards blindness for a couple of minutes. Blinking, lots of blinking. And light slowly dripping in. First around the edges of your eyesight. And then the world comes back. Only blurry. Much blurrier than even my normal blurriness.
I hope you will never have to experience laser treatment on your eyes. It’s not the end of the world or anything. But trust me, you’re not missing out on anything.
We did my right eye again today. I thought they’d alternate between eyes. But he said that we’d do the right eye again next time as well so I guess we keep doing that eye until it’s “done”. Or fallen out in a vain attempt to escape the torture. Ahem. My next appointment is January 13th. So there’s a while until that. But as the doctor said “that’ll give you some time to recover at least”. Oh yes.
Speaking of sight, I had a new floater this morning. In my left eye. You might remember the whole diabetes thing started with my panicking over a floater in the right eye. That one almost seems to be gone. At least much less severe. But this morning there was one on the left eye. It’s not quite as large. But very noticeable. I guess I’ll get used to that as well.
Floaters and laser treatment, they are both preferable to blindness. I have said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t think I could live with being blind. I don’t “see” it happening. If you know what I mean. Last Thursday, at my first laser treatment, I saw a blind woman in the bus. I have seen her several times. She often takes the bus in my local area. Getting in in front with her dog. And I have seen her at the playground too. She’ll come with another, older woman and a little girl. They come and talk to the animals. Even though she’s blind she still knows the animals. She knew Mads by name. I think I might actually have gone to school with her. There was a blind girl in one of the parallel classes. I think that was her. In any case, it’s amazing to see her be out and around so much. Leading her life. I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets out more often than I do. It should be inspirational, shouldn’t it? And it is to a degree. But at the end of the day, I just don’t think I could live with being blind.
Let’s hope the laser torture, I mean treatment, will prevent that then. I’m starting to fear that my eyesight won’t get better. It’s been around 6 weeks now and it’s only gotten more blurry. I don’t know. But I can live with blurry. It’s not nice, but with zoom and patience it’s not the end of the world. As long as I don’t go blind. Fingers crossed.
Tomorrow is dietician. And I’ll try to stop off at the playground on my way home. I was too tired today. It’s not easy getting home when you can barely see the busses either.
Oh and Denmark was hit by an earthquake today. That is a rare occasion. Apparently it might have been the strongest earthquake to occur since they started measuring them. It still wasn’t catastrophical though. I don’t think there were any injuries or structural damage. Just some tipped over christmas trees. I didn’t experience it myself. Too far away. The epicentre was in Sweden, so Copenhagen was hit. But not Jylland.
I can’t believe that there’s only a week till christmas now. Time sure does fly when you’re having diabetes.
December 17th, 2008 at 8:15
Man, that laser works sounds awfully scary and painful! But if it means better eyesight then pain is a must. Are you able to read our writings to you? Is it a difficult thing?
I didn’t know that Denmark had earthquakes. I thought it was a California, west coast kind of thing. I know there have been earthquakes in the midwest. Take a look on youtube and you’ll see video of people’s reactions to earthquakes. It’s absolutely fascinating! Thank goodness no one was hurt.
You’re right. Christmas is looming fast! And I still haven’t bought all the gifts. Most of my friends are leaving town so I’d better hurry. Times are tough in the United States for everyone so nothing expensive this year. That would be in poor taste.
Lots and lots of people out of work. Even a couple of houses in my little street have for sale signs on their lawn. Rumor has it the houses were lost to foreclosure. But we’ve been lucky in that most of the houses have been in the same family for years and years, and the mortgages have been paid off years ago.
I hope it’s not like that in Denmark. You don’t want the economic troubles we’re having here. I put the blame it on Bush’s eight years in office and his draconian policies. He and his administration practically destroyed the United States in every way possible.
I’m not at all political and hate politics, but I’ll be dancing in the streets come time when Bush is finally out of office.
But the damage he’s done to the United States will take years to get over.
So that’s enough of my rant!
December 17th, 2008 at 14:05
Plume, you are my hero for going through all this shite, you really are.
And you’re also the sweetest and most generous person I know. Thank you so much for the card and the teddy! I love it, Adam loves it, Raven loves it and Arthur bites it! Thank you. *KISS*
Oh, and political entry: *thumbs up*
December 17th, 2008 at 15:15
I’ve felt two earthquakes here before. Nothing really major as far as damage. One was this past spring, in fact. Really feels weird, I wouldn’t want to live in CA and feel them very often.
How many times do you have to have the laser treatment on each eye? Is is for the cataracts? And you go all by yourself? You’re really brave, Mr. Plume! I would take a goat with me for moral support!
December 18th, 2008 at 1:30
LuisLemmings – It ain’t fun, not by a longshot. I can read what you write, don’t worry. As long as I zoom the text. It’s been hard today though. Very blurry. But with enough zoom it works out.
To be honest I didn’t know we have earthquakes either. But they’re very rare and not very powerful so no wonder. I hope we’ll never have a really big one.
The economy has been hit in Denmark as well. It’s not as bad as over there, but there are businesses closing and people worrying. In general our economy is pretty strong though, so I’m sure we’ll get through it.
Desiree – Aw shucks! It was nothing. But I’m glad you all liked it. You’re very welcome. *puts on cape and flies away*
Debster – I have to have 3-4 treatments per eye. So 6-8 in all. It’s not for the cataracts, that’s not until March. This is for what the docs call “changes” in the eye. Maybe retinopathy in English, I think. In any case diabetes related.
My dad has offered to go with me, but I prefer to do it on my own. Even though it’s a little unhandy when you can barely see the numbers on the busses. Still, i’ve managed to get on the rights ones so far. I might take one of the new lambs next time, they should fit in my pocket almost.