Friday, January 04, 2008

Weekend in Braille

Let's see if I can muster a bit more grace today than I did yesterday, hmmm? Sorry for being so bitchy.

This weekend, I get to participate in an experiment in understanding what it's like to be legally blind.

This isn't by choice, mind you.

On Monday, I am going in for my first appointment aimed at getting my eyes fixed so I don't have to wear glasses or contact lenses anymore. This wasn't in the works, frankly. I wear contact lenses for something like 18 hours a day, seven days a week without the slightest complaint.

However, I learned a few weeks ago that I was about to lose *several* weeks of unused vacation time due to my having maxxed out my vacation bank here. That didn't please me, but I couldn't see any way to suddenly use six weeks of vacation before it evaporated.

And then I learned that I could sell back my extra vacation and put the money into a medical spending account.

Bingo. I have a date with the #1 refractive surgery department in the region. For FREE! I'm loving this.

The part I'm not loving is that I cannot wear my contact lenses for 48 hours before I go in.

This wouldn't be a problem, except that I lost my 15-year-old glasses on a business trip several months ago and have been living on just my contacts since then. My original game plan had been to replace the glasses from my medical account, until I learned about the whole free surgery thing.

But I just learned last night that I can't wear my contacts. All weekend.

So, yeah. I'm a total moron. In fact, that's exactly what my husband said last night. "Wow. You're a freakin' moron, aren't you?" Yeah. He's a love, ain't he? I told him to kiss my unmanageable ass.

I'm so screwed. Nowhere to get a cheapo pair in my strength (because I'm pretty much bat-blind without my lenses in) before tomorrow.

This'll be a learning experience, for certain. I'll check in as soon as my eyes stop being dilated on Monday and I can put my lenses back in. ;) Hopefully, that'll be BEFORE the OSU national championship game starts.

Have a great weekend!

4 comments:

ptooey said...

Hey, congratulations on the surgery thing! Color me incredibly jealous. I really do wonder what it would be like to wake up in the middle of the night and not have to put my glasses on to see the clock on the nightstand 18" from my head. I guess it goes without saying that you have my sympathies on the bat-blindness.

Anonymous said...

What 'tooey said! I'm right there with you on the blindness thing. My son put on my glasses and ten seconds later I was growling at him to GIVE THEM BACK ALREADY.

Mississippi Songbird said...

Gosh.. I am so blind..
I'm going to have to get new contacts/glasses this year..
Have a great weekend..
Bunches of hugs....

winter said...

Good luck with all that!