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Just because I wanted to have a reason to talk about sex:
Wow. It's Sunday. I wrote last on Wednesday. What the heck have I been doing?
Well, Thursday, I took care of the kids. Their first day out of school. Everybody slept in late and then they packed to go to Mexico with their day, which is, I assume, where they are Right Now. After that, I worked the late shift at Milano.
I found out from my boss at Milano on Thursday that I would not have ANY day shifts next week because he had promised Alan when he hired him that he could be the day-shift driver. Now Alan has been working the opposite day shifts from me for the past two months, and I had not heard anything about being cut out of dayshift altogether, but when I got to work that night and looked at the schedule, sure enough, Alan was scheduled to work 11 a.m. - 5 or later Every day this week. I don't know what happened.
I guess I should call my boss again and said, ok, let's clarify here. When you were promising shifts to other people, you could have mentioned it to ME that you were promising them MY shifts. But I'm cowardly, so what I might actually do, or say, is still quite up in the air.
After work, I went home with my 'Goof Off!' and cleaned the mask off the window in the old apartment. I will miss it. There is still a 'ghost' on the Plexiglass, but all the color is gone. I have no idea if I'm going to get noise from the property manager about it.
So Friday, I ended up spending a lot more effort than I thought I would. I know why I didn't write Friday. I got up, drove to meet my ex-husband for breakfast, did laundry at his house, watched "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," went to the bank, got my nails done, made it to work just in time, and worked until 1 a.m., after which I went back to the old apartment and did some helping in cleaning up. I can't say I did much, since Chris and Mark wore themselves out on it, but by the time Mark drove me to Purple and Az's house, it was after 3 a.m.
Radu, whom I met at Fool's War and hadn't seen since, had come over to the house, in part because they said I would be there, and we drank a beer together before I crashed. The guys stayed up til dawn (Roger and Az and Radu) as far as I know.
Az (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
asbrand) and Purple (purplehaze74) took me to the surgery center Saturday morning. We arrived bright and on time at 10 a.m. on the dot. I went in by myself, and proceeded to keep my terrified nose in a puzzle magazine in between everything through the next 90 minutes or so until I finally got into the operating room.
They did a couple of tests over, looking at my prescription and the thickness of my cornea. They said that my cornea thickness was well within specs, they should have no problems with it. They also looked specifically at my prescription again to make sure (since the readings were quite different the first two times) that my eyes had stabilized. (If you don't know what I'm talking about: I wore hard contact lenses for almost 20 years, which changes the shape of your cornea. I had the contacts out for about 7 weeks before the surgery in order that my cornea might be it's 'normal' shape when they took measurements for the lasik.)
They gave me a little "aftercare" kit, which they smartly put in a little belt pack. It had regular eye drops, an anti-inflammatory (also drops), wraparound-type sunglasses and a pair of goggles on elastic.
So, they put a piece of tape on my left shoulder with my name on it, upside down; this is so when I go in the surgery, the doctor would know who I was. Not that he didn't talk to me, or offer to answer my questions. Not that he wasn't nice, or that people didn't care who I was, but it literally lasted like 10 minutes in surgery, and so he probably does 20 or more people every day. In fact, this morning, I talked to someone who said they had done 50 patients yesterday.
They put those little blue elastic paper sterile baggie things on my hair and feet. I had been instructed to wear no makeup and I took out all my earrings. I didn't have my glasses on, they were in the pocket of my windbreaker. It was weird fingering them in my pocket and thinking I would never use them again.
So, there I am, blind as a bat and I'm led into this surgery. And by the way, about half of the surgery is a giant picture window. On the other side of the window is the main lobby. So everyone who was waiting for their exam or whathaveyou can see everything. But at the moment, the last thing on my mind was stagefright. I didn't even think to look (what would I see) to see how many people might be out there looking at me.
I lay down in the chair and there's a big black machine over my head with a red light and a green light. I never found out what the green light was about. Maybe it was just a 'ready' light. They told me to look at the red light.
Through the course of things that morning, they had already put numbing drops in my eye twice. So, I was really aware of the fact that I couldn't really feel what was happening, and right about that time, I became really glad I couldn't.
They first taped a black shield over my left eye. They then took two crescent shaped pieces of tape (which they called 'drapes' which makes me think of something soft, and hanging) and stuck them to my eyelashes and then pulled them back away from my eyes. They then took some kind of metal spreader and propped my eyelids open with it. Someone wipes my eye. The doctor tells me to look at the light, I will feel some pressure. A suction cup, yellowish, comes down on my eye, I can see through it, I can feel it. "Now, the lights will go out, but the music will stay on," the doctor said, and sure enough, a black shade is drawn up over my vision. Then, unexpectedly, it comes back. It's kind of like looking through gelatin. I feel a mild tugging as they cut a slice from my cornea and gently peel it back. I am, by this point, nervous as a cat. (heh)
Now, although my vision flickers, I can't really see anything except the blurry glow of the red light. They tell me to look straight ahead and not jump (I'm afraid I did jump a little, gentle reader). How the *f* do you TRY not to jump? I try to concentrate on examining the illusory patterns of the red light. The laser machine starts, making a humming noise. Then I find my friend Julie was right, when it starts to work on the cornea, it makes a little popping noise. It sounds like a very small motor, but it doesn't hurt at all, and it's very steady. After three buzzy parts over about 30-45 seconds, they are done with the right eye.
I don't have time to react to this, because they are moving on to the left eye. They brush the flap of cornea back down and close and shield my right eye, then do the same thing to the left. This time I am a little better behaved. Then they take everything away and I am aware I can see, but not really aware of whether it's good or not. I am trying not to do ANYTHING with my eyes, including blink or focus. Although I do look at the clock immediately when I get out of the surgery. "What time does that say?"
"Ten minutes until one."
"That's what I thought, I couldn't tell which hand was which."
"Don't worry about that. Close your eyes right now."
"Ok."
After a few minutes, they give me instructions for what to do to take care and say, ok, you can go. They have already taken my foot cozies and I take of the thing on my hair and put my floppy sunhat and sunglasses on. I am too self-conscious to sit in the lobby and afraid of not seeing my friends when they come, so I go out and sit on a bench and peek every few seconds. They show up in about 3 minutes, just after 1 p.m. We are all right on time.
Purple is very solicitous and asks me what I want to eat, and I choose chicken because it is mild and I know from experience that Purple makes it well. Az goes to the store to get hamburgers for himself and the others. It's hard to describe what happened, because I was trying to do like the doctor said and keep my eyes closed mostly. I know I sat on the porch and had coffee and smoked cigarettes, something I wasn't allowed to do that morning. I know I ate a yummy chicken salad with a vinaigrette dressing and olives (cause Purple said and that's what it tasted like). I know I fidgeted for a while (that's why the cigarettes) and peeked about a bit, then finally went to sleep in front of the TV. I liked having the TV on for the sound.
When I woke up, "Grease" was on the TV, and I watched it for a bit. I don't even have to watch that movie anymore, I'm so familiar with it; looking at it is like looking at a picture on the wall you walk past every day.
I was kept pleasantly in company for the rest of the evening by Brian, who I had asked to come over. He's decided to come out and be social more lately, which is nice.
The only other thing I did of significance, however, was get online. I talked to people who I knew would worry about me, and left a couple of notes, and I was pleased with myself. Mark came and got me shortly after dark and we went to the Waffle House for a quick dinner before going home to collapse.
I went to the follow up visit this morning and they said I was doing very well, fine.
I have 20/30 vision in my left eye, 20/20 in my right, my close up vision is still excellent.
I have a small 'edge' that has not healed like the rest on my left eye, but they said that was quite normal and just to take care of it.
They'll see me again in about 10-12 days to see how I'm doing. The thing that's most important is I have to water my eyes. Antibiotic and anti-inflammatory qid (four times daily), and artificial tears hourly while awake.
The tech said, "You could literally have an IV drip that put drops in your eyes every 2 minutes, and it wouldn't hurt you, so do it every time you think of it." Most times, he said, people have problems because they quit putting their drops in way too early.
I slept most of today. Partly, I think, because in the midst of all this, I ran out of my anti-depressant and, although I got the scrip to the pharmacy, I didn't get a chance to pick it up. I finally went to get it a little while ago, but too late to keep from having a misery moment with my Ex and crying a bit.
But sleeping seemed like a good thing for my eyes.
I had a dream, one I've had before, in which I'm being chased by some sort of vampire ghouls. I remember playing a video game which was like driving the Atlanta interstates with no brakes. This is while they were hunting for me at an amusement park. Then later, of course, they were Really chasing me through the Atlanta streets. Most of the ghouls were leaders of various religious sects. The original vampire was a priest or bishop or something who had gotten to the others by inviting them to be part of an inter-faith compact of some sort. I had to kill one of the ghouls with a knife, when he thought I was going to give him a blowjob. (Bumper sticker: Ask me about my Freudian Issues)
At the end of the dream, I was hiding out from my enemies, and had decided that I would be better off as a male, and trying to figure out how effectively I could live my life that way.
 What stupid online quiz are you? |
Wow. It's Sunday. I wrote last on Wednesday. What the heck have I been doing?
Well, Thursday, I took care of the kids. Their first day out of school. Everybody slept in late and then they packed to go to Mexico with their day, which is, I assume, where they are Right Now. After that, I worked the late shift at Milano.
I found out from my boss at Milano on Thursday that I would not have ANY day shifts next week because he had promised Alan when he hired him that he could be the day-shift driver. Now Alan has been working the opposite day shifts from me for the past two months, and I had not heard anything about being cut out of dayshift altogether, but when I got to work that night and looked at the schedule, sure enough, Alan was scheduled to work 11 a.m. - 5 or later Every day this week. I don't know what happened.
I guess I should call my boss again and said, ok, let's clarify here. When you were promising shifts to other people, you could have mentioned it to ME that you were promising them MY shifts. But I'm cowardly, so what I might actually do, or say, is still quite up in the air.
After work, I went home with my 'Goof Off!'
So Friday, I ended up spending a lot more effort than I thought I would. I know why I didn't write Friday. I got up, drove to meet my ex-husband for breakfast, did laundry at his house, watched "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," went to the bank, got my nails done, made it to work just in time, and worked until 1 a.m., after which I went back to the old apartment and did some helping in cleaning up. I can't say I did much, since Chris and Mark wore themselves out on it, but by the time Mark drove me to Purple and Az's house, it was after 3 a.m.
Radu, whom I met at Fool's War and hadn't seen since, had come over to the house, in part because they said I would be there, and we drank a beer together before I crashed. The guys stayed up til dawn (Roger and Az and Radu) as far as I know.
Az (
asbrand) and Purple (purplehaze74) took me to the surgery center Saturday morning. We arrived bright and on time at 10 a.m. on the dot. I went in by myself, and proceeded to keep my terrified nose in a puzzle magazine in between everything through the next 90 minutes or so until I finally got into the operating room.They did a couple of tests over, looking at my prescription and the thickness of my cornea. They said that my cornea thickness was well within specs, they should have no problems with it. They also looked specifically at my prescription again to make sure (since the readings were quite different the first two times) that my eyes had stabilized. (If you don't know what I'm talking about: I wore hard contact lenses for almost 20 years, which changes the shape of your cornea. I had the contacts out for about 7 weeks before the surgery in order that my cornea might be it's 'normal' shape when they took measurements for the lasik.)
They gave me a little "aftercare" kit, which they smartly put in a little belt pack. It had regular eye drops, an anti-inflammatory (also drops), wraparound-type sunglasses and a pair of goggles on elastic.
So, they put a piece of tape on my left shoulder with my name on it, upside down; this is so when I go in the surgery, the doctor would know who I was. Not that he didn't talk to me, or offer to answer my questions. Not that he wasn't nice, or that people didn't care who I was, but it literally lasted like 10 minutes in surgery, and so he probably does 20 or more people every day. In fact, this morning, I talked to someone who said they had done 50 patients yesterday.
They put those little blue elastic paper sterile baggie things on my hair and feet. I had been instructed to wear no makeup and I took out all my earrings. I didn't have my glasses on, they were in the pocket of my windbreaker. It was weird fingering them in my pocket and thinking I would never use them again.
So, there I am, blind as a bat and I'm led into this surgery. And by the way, about half of the surgery is a giant picture window. On the other side of the window is the main lobby. So everyone who was waiting for their exam or whathaveyou can see everything. But at the moment, the last thing on my mind was stagefright. I didn't even think to look (what would I see) to see how many people might be out there looking at me.
I lay down in the chair and there's a big black machine over my head with a red light and a green light. I never found out what the green light was about. Maybe it was just a 'ready' light. They told me to look at the red light.
Through the course of things that morning, they had already put numbing drops in my eye twice. So, I was really aware of the fact that I couldn't really feel what was happening, and right about that time, I became really glad I couldn't.
They first taped a black shield over my left eye. They then took two crescent shaped pieces of tape (which they called 'drapes' which makes me think of something soft, and hanging) and stuck them to my eyelashes and then pulled them back away from my eyes. They then took some kind of metal spreader and propped my eyelids open with it. Someone wipes my eye. The doctor tells me to look at the light, I will feel some pressure. A suction cup, yellowish, comes down on my eye, I can see through it, I can feel it. "Now, the lights will go out, but the music will stay on," the doctor said, and sure enough, a black shade is drawn up over my vision. Then, unexpectedly, it comes back. It's kind of like looking through gelatin. I feel a mild tugging as they cut a slice from my cornea and gently peel it back. I am, by this point, nervous as a cat. (heh)
Now, although my vision flickers, I can't really see anything except the blurry glow of the red light. They tell me to look straight ahead and not jump (I'm afraid I did jump a little, gentle reader). How the *f* do you TRY not to jump? I try to concentrate on examining the illusory patterns of the red light. The laser machine starts, making a humming noise. Then I find my friend Julie was right, when it starts to work on the cornea, it makes a little popping noise. It sounds like a very small motor, but it doesn't hurt at all, and it's very steady. After three buzzy parts over about 30-45 seconds, they are done with the right eye.
I don't have time to react to this, because they are moving on to the left eye. They brush the flap of cornea back down and close and shield my right eye, then do the same thing to the left. This time I am a little better behaved. Then they take everything away and I am aware I can see, but not really aware of whether it's good or not. I am trying not to do ANYTHING with my eyes, including blink or focus. Although I do look at the clock immediately when I get out of the surgery. "What time does that say?"
"Ten minutes until one."
"That's what I thought, I couldn't tell which hand was which."
"Don't worry about that. Close your eyes right now."
"Ok."
After a few minutes, they give me instructions for what to do to take care and say, ok, you can go. They have already taken my foot cozies and I take of the thing on my hair and put my floppy sunhat and sunglasses on. I am too self-conscious to sit in the lobby and afraid of not seeing my friends when they come, so I go out and sit on a bench and peek every few seconds. They show up in about 3 minutes, just after 1 p.m. We are all right on time.
Purple is very solicitous and asks me what I want to eat, and I choose chicken because it is mild and I know from experience that Purple makes it well. Az goes to the store to get hamburgers for himself and the others. It's hard to describe what happened, because I was trying to do like the doctor said and keep my eyes closed mostly. I know I sat on the porch and had coffee and smoked cigarettes, something I wasn't allowed to do that morning. I know I ate a yummy chicken salad with a vinaigrette dressing and olives (cause Purple said and that's what it tasted like). I know I fidgeted for a while (that's why the cigarettes) and peeked about a bit, then finally went to sleep in front of the TV. I liked having the TV on for the sound.
When I woke up, "Grease" was on the TV, and I watched it for a bit. I don't even have to watch that movie anymore, I'm so familiar with it; looking at it is like looking at a picture on the wall you walk past every day.
I was kept pleasantly in company for the rest of the evening by Brian, who I had asked to come over. He's decided to come out and be social more lately, which is nice.
The only other thing I did of significance, however, was get online. I talked to people who I knew would worry about me, and left a couple of notes, and I was pleased with myself. Mark came and got me shortly after dark and we went to the Waffle House for a quick dinner before going home to collapse.
I went to the follow up visit this morning and they said I was doing very well, fine.
I have 20/30 vision in my left eye, 20/20 in my right, my close up vision is still excellent.
I have a small 'edge' that has not healed like the rest on my left eye, but they said that was quite normal and just to take care of it.
They'll see me again in about 10-12 days to see how I'm doing. The thing that's most important is I have to water my eyes. Antibiotic and anti-inflammatory qid (four times daily), and artificial tears hourly while awake.
The tech said, "You could literally have an IV drip that put drops in your eyes every 2 minutes, and it wouldn't hurt you, so do it every time you think of it." Most times, he said, people have problems because they quit putting their drops in way too early.
I slept most of today. Partly, I think, because in the midst of all this, I ran out of my anti-depressant and, although I got the scrip to the pharmacy, I didn't get a chance to pick it up. I finally went to get it a little while ago, but too late to keep from having a misery moment with my Ex and crying a bit.
But sleeping seemed like a good thing for my eyes.
I had a dream, one I've had before, in which I'm being chased by some sort of vampire ghouls. I remember playing a video game which was like driving the Atlanta interstates with no brakes. This is while they were hunting for me at an amusement park. Then later, of course, they were Really chasing me through the Atlanta streets. Most of the ghouls were leaders of various religious sects. The original vampire was a priest or bishop or something who had gotten to the others by inviting them to be part of an inter-faith compact of some sort. I had to kill one of the ghouls with a knife, when he thought I was going to give him a blowjob. (Bumper sticker: Ask me about my Freudian Issues)
At the end of the dream, I was hiding out from my enemies, and had decided that I would be better off as a male, and trying to figure out how effectively I could live my life that way.
