eye am fine

After crumbling to guilt-inducing texts and emails from friends and family, I gave up my stubborn stupidity and left work early and went to the optha. As a walk-in patient with no records, I explained myself to the nurses, filled out a long form, realized that my health card was not one the place recognized, took a double-digit number, and waited for my turn, trying not to look at the other people who also had eye problems. I half-expected to see, seated to my left, someone with a pitchfork or something stuck in their eye; or, seated to my right, someone with gaping holes where their eyes once were, the less than delightful result of planting fireworks where one clearly should not. But everyone looked normal, two-eyed and not in pain. I decided to do some writing while I waited for my turn (that's what I get for not having an appointment), but ended up playing solitaire on my pavilion.

Then it was my turn. The doctor was pleasant and seemed caring (well worth the P800 consulting fee, I guess) and I told her what happened to me, evil leaf and wounded right eye and all. I confessed my fear of doctors and how corneal terms are not part of my physiological vocabulary. She smiled and walked me to the "let me peer at your eyes very closely" contraption, and proceeded to shine light into my eyes, instructing me to look up, down and all around, inverting my eyelids (just like we used to do as kids when we wanted to scare a younger cousin).

The happy result: no foreign objects, no corneal tear. But there was the beginnings of an infection, for which antibiotics was the key. I was so happy I tell you. The problem with an overactive imagination is the ability to create truly horrible scenarios, like unfolding parallel universes - good for fiction, bad for doctor visits.

The eye chart testing for each indivual eye's vision underscore the fact that right eye is doing 90% of the seeing. To left eye, even the biggest letter "E" of the chart looked like blurry black mess. Yes, I confessed, I'm supposed to be wearing glasses or contacts, but am stupid about it.

So I'm fine, and back to my default half-blindness.

And have an appointment with my doctor next week for contacts.