Adversity To Learning

I had a freaky accident on last Friday. I was trying to help my wife who was in a meditation class by washing the dishes. While taking out the cascade dish soap with the blue fluid at the edge, I noticed that two of them entangled with each other. I was forcing it to separate and in the process, the blue fluid sprayed right into my left eye. The burning was unbearable as it was chemical and I had to wash my eyes for 20 minutes non-stop and then head to have a shower to wash my eyes again. I thought the pain would subside the next day and went to sleep. My vision on my left eye was clearly affected.

The next day morning, I woke up with swelled eye with a lot of redness unable to see anything through left eye. Friday or weekends are bad times to call any physician. Luckily, I had a doctor friend locally and she helped me by jerself talking to an Ophthalmologist and suggested to put a lot of preservative free eye drops and take pain killer for the pain. Monday morning I called the Ophthalmologist I visit for my mother in law and they gave the appointment right away when I told about the accident.

When I went there on Monday afternoon, they washed my eyes thoroughly again and suggested that I should also begin to use an antibiotic drops for a few days. They looked into my eyes to see what was going on and found out that the chemical spray created a long corneal abrasion. They said even though it was supposed to heal on its own but they have to ensure it is not infected in the meantime. They asked me to come everyday to monitor the situation until Wednesday. Now, they told me to apply a lot of preservative free eye drops to stop the dryness and they believe the corneal abrasion will heal.

I went through two days of hell without knowing what was going to happen. The emergency room is not equipped with the needed equipment to look into my eyes like how the Ophthalmologists do. Finally, I reached the best facility in town. Even though it was a resident optometrists who attended to me, she was thorough in her analysis.

I am eternally grateful to this young talent and the student who attended on me with excellent service oriented mind to give comfort and treat me. In the process I learned something new after 70 years of age. When they were testing the vision on my left eye, I kept complaining that it was hazy and she asked me to blink a few times before reading it. I was able to read most of the lines without any problem.

The lessons learned:

1) Always not be casual while handling chemical products and use scissors to cut inseparable pods, if necessary. Keep it away from the eyes or at least close the eyes to rip it aside.

2) The cornea cells regenerate itself when we have corneal abrasion and it is designed that way. But it is an important part of our life as without it, our vision will not be 100%.

3) Blinking of eyes increases the focus of our eyes on the image better.

Isn't amazing how we are created to blink throughout the day to increase our focus on the images?

There are risks around us where we live and not necessarily when we get out in the world and we have to focus our mind in actions we do. May be that is why being in the present moment is important and increases the focus of the mind like blinking does for the focus of the eyes.

 

@gamma50g,

Thank you for keeping me in your prayers. I was laughing about having a button for tears. I was shedding a lot of tears on my own besides assisting by adding solutions to bring more tears for the past 6 days. But for self-healing mechanism build by the Almighty, the humans may not have the best solution on our own for such emergencies. All that treatment does is to give us mental comfort and to assist the natural healing process.

 

Dear Hari Sir,

Thank you for your response. I am loaded with a lot of eye drops (without preservatives). I have been shedding a lot of tears and infact, I am forced by the accident.

 

Dear Vijiakka,

Thank you for your kind message. Yes. I did undergo a lot of pain and slowly I am getting better and better everyday. At my age, regeneration of cell takes time. I am so sorry to hear that you still feel pain from your fall. I hope it gets better soon and my prayers are with you.