this morning i woke around 6am to church bells ringing. it was the alarm clock on the desk on the other side of the room. i sat up, my eyes half closed, and slide off the bunk down to the floor. as i reached for the alarm i opened my eyes all the way and instantly felt a wincing pain in my right eye, like something large was stuck in there.
this wasn’t the first time this has happened since i have arrived in antarctica. in fact, this was now the 4th time, and i’ve actually gotten quite used the feeling. the first time i was woken by the pain and immediately went to the bathroom to see what was up. i searched and searched and searched with my face inches from the mirror, but nothing was out of the ordinary. something was definitely stuck in my eye. frustrated, i gave up and went back to bed; when i woke up a few hours later the feeling was gone. hmmm…
after a few more incidences, i had a feeling that this had something to do with my eye surgery from a few months ago. i wasn’t completely sure what was up, but the thought had crossed my mind to give my doctor a call.
after this morning, i’d finally had enough. i called my doctor and left a message (with my email address) and then went to medical to see what was up. they put a few eye drops in and shined a few lights, but nothing was out of the ordinary. it was probably just dryness, they said, and gave me some eye drops to take home.
a few hours later i got an email from my doctor:
It sounds like you are having corneal erosions when you wake up in the AM. The lid is in contact with the cornea and with sudden lid opening, the lid can pull some epithelial cells off the surface on the first blink up and on the first blink down, the lid hits the raw nerve endings that have been exposed.
The best treatment is to place bland ophthalmic ointment in the eyes at bedtime for better lubrication. In addition, try to wake up without opening your eyes, i.e. wake up but keep your eyes closed and very, very slowly open the lids to minimize the shearing force of the lid against the corneal surface.
AH HA! so it DID have something to do with my surgery. i forwarded the email over to the doctors here at medical and they are looking into getting me some special eye drops or ointment or something. i’m also going to make sure that i drink plenty of water before i go to bed.
and once again brandon can say i told you so.
Filed under: general
I am glad that you are paying attention to that and hope it improves soon. Other than going blind, it seems that you are having some great adventures! Love,
Dad
*Beaming* Ha!
yeah yeah yeah, brandon, i know. you’re so smart, aren’t you? what really needs to happen is for you to stop making predictions. all right?
Is everything that Brandon says going to come true? Creapy/awesome!
GO EYES!
I thought it was weird when your doctor suggested that you try waking up without opening your eyes. That doesn’t really sound like a solution. I’m going to try it tomorrow to see if it’s even possible. But Brandon did try to warn you…
What can I say, I consider myself something of a futurist.