The Eyes

Come to find out, my worries were not unwarranted yesterday.  The doctor looked at my eye and decided on the spot to shoot a laser in there to repair the tear. He asked if I had questions and I had two, which I will now share in the following bulleted list:

• You're going to do it right now?
• Will it hurt?

He told me it might sting a little, but the important thing was that I look exactly where he tells me to look.  "Otherwise I could laser the wrong part of your eye and you could go blind. I've never done that before, but let's not have you be the first."  So the whole time I'm having the laser shot into my eye I'm thinking, "Keep looking up, keep looking up, keep looking up."  Luckily I followed doctor's orders and my vision exists to this very day.

When I told my class that I was going to the eye doctor yesterday and that they would have a sub in the afternoon, they had many questions.  They weren't too pleased to have a sub "this early in the school year."  I apologized but told them it couldn't be helped. A thirdlander asked me, "Are you getting those drops in your eyes that make your eyes big?"
I told him that yes, they would be using drops to dilate my eyes so they could look inside my eye. "Those hurt a lot," he said.
"I'm not sure they hurt that much," I replied, because I've been getting my eyes dilated for 40 years or so and I have experience in these matters.
"My mom and dad have to hold me down to get those drops in my eyes."

This kid should probably avoid laser retinal repair in the future. But here's the thing.  Nearsighted people are prone to retinal tears, so get your eyes checked regularly and if you see a lot of flashers and floaters in your vision, you should go to the eye doctor, pronto.  It's time for Writer's Wednesday, my friends.  Get the notebooks and the pointy pencils and head outdoors.  That's what we'll be doing.