Saturday, December 08, 2018

Vertical

I no longer have to be face down, and the bubble in my eye is now shrunk out of sight. Who knew that simply being able to lie on one's side in bed is such a luxury?  It is similar to being away from the comforts of home and realising that hot running water - just taking a shower - would be an almost unimaginable luxury for most people in human history.  We are not grateful enough.

I will, of course, revert to being spoiled and ungrateful rapidly, as humans are likely to do.

12 comments:

lelia said...

Yes.
I'm glad your eye is better.

Sam L. said...

Good to hear! I can't lie face down, not that I want to. Could up to teen-aged, but that were loooong ago.

Dan Kurt said...

Just asking politely, how much vision did you gain back?

Dan Kurt

james said...

Glad you are better. Are there restrictions going forward? No rollercoasters, downhill skiing, that sort of thing?

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Thank you both for asking. It is odd. I developed a small blur in my focal point in 2016, which got larger in 2018. The surgery has removed the blur - I think - but replaced it with a discontinuity, as if someone took a small circle out of my visual field, rotated it 10 degrees, and put it back. I have to dart my eye back and forth when I need really close focus in a kind of saccade. It's not quite right and I get tired reading a little sooner than I used to. However, that eye has been 20-80 with perfect correction with lenses for decades, and now it's 20-30. I don't know if it will correct to 20-20, and that discontinuity looks like it's permanent, but my eye is in one way better than it has been since I was 16.

As for jarring exercise, the surgeon said these things are so unpredictable and variable that he does not put restrictions on people anymore. In theory, jarring exercise should produce more recurrence, but he says that all the studies don't actually show this. He shrugged. Humorously, I relate this to the gun control and pornography arguments. What one would think would "obviously" result in less crime turns out to have no effect, or even a slight opposite effect.

james said...

That sounds like an improvement, and no restrictions sounds good. Though I guess Spaceship 2 might be a bridge too far.

Grim said...

Good to hear you have the physics right. We bikers say, “Shiny side up, rubber side down.” It’s important.

Donna B. said...

I'm glad that ordeal is over for you. The discontinuity you describe sounds... interesting. Perhaps it will be something your brain adjusts to and you stop noticing it.

Sam L. said...

I recall reading that in many cases, the brain interpolates the data and you "see" correctly.

HMS Defiant said...

I recall seeing the blogs of a modern lower class Texas house with AC and a picture of one of the Great Estates of the 19th century and the comparison. One of them had air conditioning, modernish dental care etc and the other, while living in an amazing house was still basically from the Bronze Age.

Glad you recovered.

RichardJohnson said...

Glad to hear you are improving.

Texan99 said...

I confidently predict your brain will quickly edit out the blind spot.

As for conveniences, every time I've camped I've concluded that hot running water is seriously taken for granted. Even more, though, I miss having a clothes dryer. Warm, dry, fluffy clothes and towels, even when the weather is damp and the sun isn't shining. And dentistry, antibiotics, and anesthetics for sterile surgery. These are priceless achievements of civilization.