I am so glad it is the end of the week. This whole week of dealing with the smoke, some of it toxic, the poor air quality in general, and having to basically close all my windows was a bit stressful. All of this happening under the existing global pandemic.
What I didn’t mention last week is that last Thursday, a blood vessel popped in my left eye. It started out as a small amount of blood in the white of my eye but by Friday morning, there was a lot more blood and what looked like a blood blister forming on the surface of my eye ball. I freaked out a bit but I was able to see an optometrist on the same day. Luckily, none of this involved any pain (just a bit of irritation), nor was my vision affected. It just looked really gross. I can’t remember the last time I went to the optometrist and really, why would I since I don’t wear glasses. This may have been my first time visiting one.
The optometrist was a super nice guy, with an excellent bedside manner. He examined my eyes, including the bloodied one. He re-assured me that while it was pretty nasty looking, this was common condition that would go away on its own. He did warn me that it would not be an overnight recovery. It could take several weeks for the blood to clear. We also did an eye test, which confirmed what I’ve known for a long time, that my left eye is worse than my right eye. With just my right eye alone, I passed all the reading tests but I wouldn’t have been able to do that with my left eye by itself. I guess glasses are an option for me but not entirely necessary. They booked a follow-up appointment for me, two weeks later.
When I woke up on Saturday morning, I noticed that there was some crusty dried blood in the corner of my left eye and a tiny blood stain on my pillow. The blood blister on the surface of my eye had burst slightly and some of the blood spilled out dried while I was sleeping. While this gross to see, whatever slight irritation was there before was now gone. My left eye continued to look horrific and I wore sunglasses whenever I went outside so people wouldn’t be freaked out.
The next morning, I noticed a bit more dried blood in the corner of my eye but that was the last of it. All this week, the blood has been very slowly clearing from my eye. It’s still pretty disgusting to look at but I can now see parts of the whites of my eye where there used to be just blood. Bleh.
The doctor was indeed correct, at this rate, it will take several weeks for it look to all healed again. Don’t take your eyes for granted and it’s not a bad idea to get your eyes to get checked out about once a year, even if you don’t wear glasses or contacts.