Big As Saucers

I had my bi-annual (is that right? once every two years?) eye exam today. They had to dilate my eyes because, now that I am diabetic, they need to check for bleeding. That’s what she said. Great….bleeding eyes. Something else to go wrong with my body. Sigh.

Anyway, they dilated my eyes and, apparently, I take to the medicine really well because they REALLY dilated. The doctor walked in and said my eyes were as big as saucers. The pupils were absolutely huge with just a tiny rim of blue around them. Needless to say, it was pretty easy for her to exam my eyes. She kidded me and said she could probably see right into my brain, my pupils were so big.

Everything was fine. My vision is still bad enough to need glasses but not so bad that I can’t see without the glasses. I actually was able to read a small line on the chart without my glasses using my right eye. My left eye was more blurry but, since I remembered what it had said when I read it with my right eye, I was able to distinguish some of the letters.

When I left the doctor’s office, I had to put my sunglasses on even though it wasn’t really bright and sunny out. It just was so incredibly bright with my pupils so large. I headed down Rt. 111 to go to the grocery store in Biddeford and, a mile or so down the road, I pulled into a convenience store to get something to drink and a slice of pizza. Partly because I hadn’t had lunch yet and partly because my eyes were bugging me.

Its not that I couldn’t see. I could. It was just that it was like I was looking through a round lens with the edges made up of really bright light. Not blurry in any way, just LIGHT.

I realized after sitting in the parking lot of the convenience store that it would be a while before my pupils began shrinking so I headed on down the road. I went grocery shopping and was almost done when my eyes started feeling slightly better. Not all the way but a little less bright. When I got in the car, I checked in the mirror and my pupils were ever so slightly smaller.

I made it home ok, put the groceries away, and settled in for the evening. It wasn’t until about 8:00 tonight that I noticed that my eyes were normal. Although my pupils were a little larger than normal they were close to being normal.

Although I hate to ask for help, I think that the next time I have that procedure done, I’m going to ask someone to drive me to and from the doctor’s office. That way I can just keep my eyes closed. It isn’t painful but is uncomfortable. I would have been better off just not using my eyes until the pupils were back to a normal size. Oh well….live and learn.