Wednesday June 2nd, 2010

The exercise:

The prompt: in the dark.

I was going to both explain what's going on with me and do a take on the prompt, but then the explanation got huge and I decided to just leave that as my take.

Mine:

The reason I'm off work until Friday has nothing to do with recovery time or needing to rest (though I probably could use the latter). No, it's because I have to avoid bright lights for the 48 hours following the surgery.

In a nutshell, they injected the medicine into my veins and it went everywhere. They used a laser to activate it where they needed to in my eyes (to seal a leaky vessel in each one - the condition is called CSR). The problem is that the medicine is light activated, not just laser activated. So sunshine, bright lights, all that good stuff will trigger it anywhere it happens to be.

Which, as I mentioned, is all over. So if I go out during the day, or sit under a bright indoor light, I get a severe sunburn.

So I'm living in the dark for the next couple of days. Which is making me want to write a vampire story. Don't worry, I shall be strong.

I'm waiting for my body to absorb the remaining liquid and then I get to see how much my vision improves. The issue before was mainly in my right eye and almost completely unnoticeable when I had both my eyes open. However if I closed my left eye everything went blurry - I'm looking forward to that not happening anymore.

I'd like to finish off by giving a big shout out to the Canadian health system. Apparently I'm walking around with a drug in me that costs $1700 per vial, so I'm pretty pleased I didn't have to pay a cent for it.

4 comments:

Greg said...

Ah, I've heard of the drug that causes sunburn if you go out in strong light while on it! I didn't realise that that's what you were having though. I hope that your eyesight's all back to normal soon, and that you're enjoying a couple of days of forced noctilucence.
As for the cost -- it's a real shame that a smaller exposure to sunlight doesn't just produce a suntan instead of sunburn. The mass market appeal would bring the price down in a hurry!
And, as always, I really enjoy your little editorials ;-)

In the dark

No questions answered,
No problems admitted,
You're in the dark.
Literally.
The power's gone out,
But management
Are insisting that it's
All ok.
OK?
I think I've broken my foot
Tripping over some cable
Just before the lights went out.
No questions answered,
Nothing to be admitted,
I'll just sit here quietly
In the dark.

morganna said...

whisper to me
tell me who i am
walk with me
show me the path
dance with me
I live.

Heather said...

I wrote this a few weeks ago and posted it on my blog where no one would see it. But, since your prompt brought it to mind immediately, I thought I would cheat a bit and just direct you to it and write something else later tonight.

http://writersblock-heather.blogspot.com/2010/05/sun-didnt-rise.html

Marc said...

Greg - sadly(?) I was also thinking about the suntan angle. Mostly because I want a nice tan before the wedding :P

And I love the implication that the narrator was the one who caused the lights to go out. Very nicely handled!

Morganna - I like it, though I'm getting a slightly creepy vibe from that last line. Maybe it's just pointing my thoughts in vampire directions :)

Heather - cheating is... well, I'm not sure what exactly would be considered cheating here. Maybe plagiarism?

Aaannnyway - as long as you're writing and sharing it with me/us, I'm happy! So thanks :)