Eyes, part 2

Remember the allergic reaction I had about six-seven weeks ago? With the zombie-like swelling and fiery red inner lids?

Well my eyes flared slightly over the weekend. Thankfully, they didn't swell up this time, but my inner lower lids turned fiery red in spots again. I tossed the offending products, got new products for sensitive eyes and hoped for the best.

And they are better. Yesterday I showed Kent how much they had improved. He was horrified, but not by the red parts. No, he was alarmed by the pale parts on the inner lids.You see, he's a red head who doesn't tan and his inner lids are always pretty red looking. So to him, my eyes looked kind of normal, except where they actually were normal . . .

He and I have such different coloring -- he's pink and I'm yellow. In fact, he's so pink he makes me look jaundiced. But this is the first time our color differences led him to think I actually had an infection.

I only have eyes for you

Wednesday evening, my BFF and I went to a spa for her very delayed Christmas present (and yes, I realize it's May). I've been to this particular spa and esthetician before and never had any problems but this time, some product got in my eyes. The esthetician washed out my eyes very thoroughly so I thought nothing more of it.

Until Friday morning, when I woke up with my eyes swollen nearly shut. As I've learned from Dr. Google, there's a real difference between puffy and swollen eyes, and my eyes were in Swollenville, population me. I took benadryl yesterday, alternated with cold and hot compresses on my eyes and all that happened was the swelling moved further down my face and then got red areas. I told Kent if things weren't improved this morning, I'd go to a Minute Clinic.

Well they weren't improved, not one little bit. So off I went. The nurse practitioner at the Minute Clinic took one look at the insides of my lower eye lids (which are a brilliant red) and sent me off to an urgent care place. She was pretty confident I would need a steroid shot and she couldn't do that at her clinic.

So off I went again. Sure enough, I'm having a dilly of an allergic reaction. No shot (yay!) but I am taking predisone and continuing the benadryl. I'm pleased to say I've already improved although you probably couldn't tell from this picture. FYI, none of that blotchiness or swelling is normal for me.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Old habits die hard, I guess. When I wore glasses before (which I did as seldom as possible, I wore my contacts almost 100% of my waking hours), I’d look through the lenses for distance and under the lenses to see things that were closer to me (like a book or my monitor).

And I keep doing just that—only of course my eyes need the exact opposite help now.

I was also always very meticulous about keeping my glasses very clean and I’d always put them in their case when I wasn’t actually wearing them. Since I got super cheap glasses from WalMart, they didn’t come with a case. And I don’t know what the deal is but these lenses get dirty far more easily than I recall happening with any of my other glasses

I can see clearly now

The rain has gone. No wait, that’s the song by Johnny Nash (which I love). But I can see better first thing in the morning thanks to my new glasses.

I started wearing glasses for nearsightedness at age 12 and moved to contacts just as soon as I possibly could persuade my parents to go along.

In 2004, and following my brother who was both far blinder and far more eager than I to shed his glasses, I had Lasik done. In 2005 I got my first ever unrestricted license and that DL picture is probably the best one of me ever, bar none. I was grinning like crazy, so incredibly happy to be done with glasses. I could have had my eyes corrected to binocular visions with one eye adjusted for distance and the other eye for reading (which Doug did), but I chose not to. Any time I’d had different prescriptions in my lenses, I got incredibly nauseous so I figured I’d deal with reading issues when I got there.

I got there this year. I’m wearing +1, which are the weakest you can get. I feel quite odd having them; getting reading glasses has always seemed to be one of those you are definitely getting older milestones. No matter how disciplined I am about diet and exercise, I can’t exercise or eat my eyes back to perfect vision. I guess it could be worse, I could be both nearsighted and need reading glasses.

But it’s been great this morning reading news online and writing this blog post without strain.