Don’t Rub Your Eyes

A couple weeks ago I woke up very early in the morning and my eyes itched terribly. Usually, I would splash water on them to rinse away the offending particles. But on this particular morning, without thinking, I rubbed my eyes with my fingers. Then I dug into them with my knuckles, and pressed hard against them, like I was scouring a frying pan, and it felt so good. Until it didn’t and I knew I’d done the wrong thing because I made the problem much worse. There was a sharp pain in the white of my left eye. Yet I could still see just fine. So, I waited for it to heal itself. 

Planetary changes are conspiring against our eyeballs. As carbon in the atmosphere increases, allergies are getting worse, pollen is blasting like napalm, raining green dust from the trees, coating our clothes and skin, and gathering in those fine hairs around our eyes and nose. Wildfires blow smoke loaded with particulates that irritate our eyes. Dry summer winds billow dust and grit. So many factors exacerbate the issue of clean eyes. Our diet and hydration, our medications, our hygiene, and our age contribute to the clogging of our tear ducts and the desertification of our ocular organs. I think I’m informed. Then one morning, half asleep, I have a massive brain cramp and instead of being therapeutic, I smash my eyelid against my eyeball like I’m crushing garlic, and ouch!

I haven’t gone to the doctor because the pain became intermittent, and I can still see. Yes, procrastination. I tried over-the-counter eye drops and eye washes to no avail. I was really hoping this injury would fix itself. But that’s not happening. It’s two weeks after the offense, maybe three, and the unpleasant feeling in my eye is still there, the blood vessel is still burst red where the white should be, and any improvement I may have felt was probably hopeful imagination. So, today I’m going to see an ophthalmologist.

It’s such a small thing, a feeling no bigger than a pea, but it radiates discomfort, and that’s like a drip of anxiety in my brain chemistry. I could live with the pain for the rest of my life if I had to. It’s just not that bad as pain goes. What got me to pick up the phone and make the appointment was looking at the calendar and realizing how long this has been going on. Too long. If it was going to heal itself, it would have done so by now. Thus, I’m seeking expert advice from an eye doctor. 

So, pardon me while I sulk. I find my eyes quite useful, and generally I take very good care of them. Really, the problem is small, but today it’s deluged my brain with a worry I usually reserve for others. I just need to complain about it. Thanks for listening.