Not Enough Tears

Sorry for the lack of posts this past week. My aforementioned eye issue came on with a vengeance and sent me running to the doctor's office.

When I sat with blurred vision from my oh-so-dilated eyes, I bit the insides of my cheeks so I wouldn't laugh at the doctor. He'd affixed a contraption to his head that looked like something Christopher Lloyd would have worn in Back to the Future.

The tools of an optometrist hearken back to the 19th century and this office visit convinced me that should I ever write steampunk (which I hope to at some point) I will have a character whose home features mad inventions like those I saw the eye doctor wearing yesterday.

To the diagnosis:

My tears are evaporating too quickly. In less than three seconds. According to the doctor, anything less than ten seconds is a problem.

Apparently the world is so tragic that my tears are madly fleeing into the atmosphere in an ongoing hydrologic/emotive cycle; thus leaving my eyeballs dry and ravaged.

I was sent home with industrial-strength prescription eye drops and a new prescription for my glasses that is supposed to protect my poor eyes from computer glare.

Speaking of sad things, David Arneson one of the co-creators of Dungeons and Dragons passed away this week.

There is a lovely remembrance of him here.

Post-Modern Malady

Over the course of the last month I've been struck down by a strange eye plague. The attacks come out of nowhere, with no warning.

Here's what happens: my eyes start to itch, then the burning, searing sensation sets in, followed by the tears. I'm not talking about a timid eye watering, this is a flood of tears, blinding tears. I'm rendered useless for anywhere from one to five minutes.

It's too early for allergies (despite our spring thaw, the land is still trapped by winter in Minnesota), and I don't have eye allergies anyway. But these vision-blurring episodes have been happening with greater and greater frequency.

Unsure of what might be the cause, and as yet uninterested in seeing an optometrist, I did what anyone else would do: Googled the symptoms.

Turns out I'm suffering from something new that has been recognized by eye specialists as "Computer Vision Syndrome." Yes, indeed, the technological world has begun its attack on humanity - starting with our eyes.

I shouldn't be surprised that I suffer from a computer-related malady. I spend most hours of my day writing at my laptop or desktop. My eyes rarely leave the glare of the monitor (sigh). I have no remedy for this problem; my life and livelihood are tethered to this machine.

So for now, eye drops and a prayer a day that I'm not going to be rendered blind after a lifetime of screen gazing.