Eye Will Survive

By virtue of today’s ocular festivities, my weekend was artificially extended by a day.  Today, I participated in my annual visit with the ophthalmologist.  I was supposed to see him in August, but due to some scheduling challenges and work obligations last month, I had to postpone it until today.  It would seem that all is well and I’m good to go until 2026.

Why do I have to see an ophthalmologist every year?  Now, please note that I am referring to my ophthalmologist and not my optometrist.  Though they are similar, they are effectively two different service providers.  I go to the optometrist for annual vision checks, while the ophthalmologist is taking a look into the eye and peering into the structures that lie just beneath the pupils.  If I were to ever require any kind of eye surgery, he would be the one to perform this surgery.  Because of the slightly more intense nature of my ophthalmologist visit, I am required to have my eyes dilated for that visit.  This means that because my vision will be temporarily compromised for a few hours, I know that going about my day as usual may not happen as I may have intended.  As was the case today, the dilation lasted about five hours.  I could have returned to work, but in the end, I decided against it.  The last two years after my trip to the ophthalmologist, I would return to the office and attempt to go about my day, typing away and writing as I would normally do.  No one would know the difference and unless someone were to ask me specifically about my eyes, no one would ever know that I might have been acutely sensitive to light because of my eye dilation hours earlier.  Today, I decided to stay away from the office completely and otherwise blow off work again, much like I did last Monday when I visited the dentist.  There’s absolutely no guilt on my mind for not trying to make it back to the office today or last Monday.  Besides, like I told one of the technicians at the ophthalmologist office this morning right before he hit me with that series of special eye drops, “The work I don’t do today will be there waiting for me tomorrow”.  So really, what’s the rush?  I have zero reason to rush back to the office.  I figure that I’ll be busy for the rest of the week anyway, so what’s another day off?

I still went into the office this morning anyway and arrived at my usual 4:40am.  I was productive for just over two hours and did what I could in that time.  Rather and let me clarify that, I did what I wanted and didn’t press myself too much.    

Sometimes the radio will entertain me during my ride to the office, especially when I’m too lazy to plug my phone into the car and get Spotify up and running.  As has been the case for much of my life, early-morning radio can truly be hit or miss.  At 4:29am this morning, my morning trek to the office is christened by “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor.  I may not have been especially active in the disco scene, but I still appreciate the music that came out of that era.  Sadly, I kind of miss it, but that’s only because music today is just so fucking terrible.  “I Will Survive” is no doubt a time-honored classic, but funny enough, Gaynor’s original is not my favorite iteration of the song.  In 1996, Chantay Savage covered the song and reworked it into a slowed-down ballad with a clear R&B kind of flavor.  If there was ever a version of “I Will Survive” that I would flock to, it would be Savage’s version, hands down.  Feel free to check it out below.  It is such a good rendition of the Gaynor classic.

As I write this, my eyes haven’t quite returned to normal, but I’m able to see just enough to where I can write all of this and do so in a mostly comfortable state.  I was even able to open a window to allow some natural light in.  The light sensitivity persists, as do the halos that usually accompany dilation, but I’m battling on.  I suppose the need to write gives me the strength and motivation to press on, amidst my current eyeball challenges.  As always, I’m trying to keep the typos to a minimum and I’m hoping that I’m coming off as at least mostly coherent.   

Perhaps and as the song says…

I will survive.