About 5 months ago, I had a minor surgical procedure done on my left eye. This past Thursday I had fundamentally the same procedure done to my right eye. No, neither of these were vision correction surgeries. I made that dumbass decision 5 years ago.
Eric drives me home from Fort Bragg after the procedure, and I am all smiles. Mostly due to the 1/4 percocet and half a Valium I got goin on. As the day goes on, I feel as though I am in a little more pain than I was the last time, but I chalk it up to being luckier the last time.
Friday morning, I go to my local base optometrist for my post op follow up. My eye is a little swollen, also a new development from last time, but only a little. We chalk it up to nothing and I go on my way. A mere 8 hours later and my eye was swollen almost shut. The pain is a constant dull ache and I can't seem to get away from it. I am taking 1/4 percocets every 4 hours. I would take a whole one if they didn't make me so sick. Besides, I always question my tolerance for pain. Wonder if, because I have never given birth, have I ever truly been tested? I know I have been in eye pain before, and when my eyelid erodes the epithelial layer of my cornea, that pain has physically knocked me out of my bed.
By 8 o'clock Friday night I am sitting on Eric's couch, hand cupped over my right eye, and I am literally rocking back and forth in pain, thinking to myself, damn...Tuesday better get here quickly because I don't know how long I can deal with this. Tuesday, you see, was when my next follow up appt was at Fort Bragg. The thought of doing anything over the weekend never even occurred to me. The Stillman Stubbornness.
About that time, my phone rings. It is my friend Andrea. She needs to borrow my air mattress and wants to come by and pick it up. No problem. Andrea gets to my house around 9pm. I put on a brave face and let her in. Andrea also happens to be an optometrist. She gets inside, looks at my face and says, "Oh wow. Look at your eye." Short story short, within 30 seconds she diagnoses me with a vision threatening, and if left untreated for even short periods of time, potentially life threatening problem. From my living room she is on the phone with the local pharmacy calling in a prescription for some pretty powerful antibiotics with the order of "you can't wait until tomorrow to start this. Go get them now and start them tonight."
Eric, who never left my side for moment, and I headed out to the pharmacy at 10 o'clock at night to pick up the drugs. It was a long night and painful night. The next 24 hours were scary. Wondering if I had waited too long. If I was too late starting the medicine. Thinking about what position I might be in if Andrea was just another friend borrowing an air mattress and not an optometrist.
I would love to tell you that I would have done it differently. That I would have simply given in to the pain and gone to the ER at some point. But I don't think I would have. The Stillman Stubbornness could very well have caused me to lose it all. Isn't that type of gene supposed to become less and less potent by generation??
And how do you thank someone for saving your eyesight despite your stubborness? Possibly even saving your life??
