Eyeballs. Still Sucking.

Still blind.  Kinda.  Off and on.

This morning I went to my regular eye doc, and he opined that my problem was the result of cells being knocked off the “flaps” that were cut in the surface of my eyes in order to lase the corneas underneath.  My flaps are lacking cells, therefore there is discomfort, therefore my extreme photophobia.

My flaps are trying to grow new cells, but every time I blink, I knock the new cells off.

So my doc decided to protect my new cells by installing contact lenses.  The contacts will cover my corneas, he thinks, and promote healing thereon.

And y’know what?  My vision improved the instant the lenses went on.  I was able to read some of the smaller lines on the eye chart, and when I drove home, I looked at the mountains and the mountains looked sharper, clearer, and more impressive than I’d ever seen them, probably.

But since my corneas are still healing, and since the contacts themselves aren’t very comfortable under the circumstances, the photophobia hasn’t gone away.  Has got worse, if anything.  My eyeballs were in real pain— or, as medical professionals refer to it, “discomfort”—  at least until the sun went down.  And now that it’s dark, my eyes are only in occasional pain.  So hurrah for progress.

Having worn contacts for 30-odd years, I know that they’re most uncomfortable the first day they’re worn, because they pick up stuff from the environment that the eyeballs don’t like.  So with luck, that discomfort— or “pain,” as civilians call it— will fade away overnight.

Here’s hoping, anyway.

In the meantime, I’ll be keeping vampire hours.