Eye Tunes

Now that the daylight hours are growing shorter, my bicycle commute to work is inching further and further away from sunrise. In a month, I'll have to use the headlamp again in the mornings. Even though our daytime highs will be the hottest of the year.

When I commuted in darkness in winter and spring, I didn't need sunglasses in the dark. The bugs aren't active then. It's too cold!

I found out the hard way last week I can't pull that in summer.

I thought I could go goggleless for 15 minutes one morning. The sun would be up soon, and then I'd stop just long enough to put on the sunglasses.

Not a mile from home, a seemingly microscopic bug - probably a gnat - took up residence in my right eye. Dang it. I didn't pull over. I tried to rub it gently out of my now teary and stinging eye with my sweaty bicycle-gloved fingers while steering with the other hand. I thought I had successfully evicted the uninvited guest.

By the time I got off work, my eye was pretty sore. By bedtime, it was unbearable. We decided to take a closer look, and sure enough, body parts had been left behind. Although I was unable to identify them. We successfully removed the severed appendages, we made use of "get the red out," and I took pain reliever. A few minutes later, I was gone for the night.

Next morning, my right eye looked as if a golf ball had been embedded beneath my lids. And glued shut. Once again, we cleaned up the mess, and I put a bag of cold water over my eyes.

My annual physical had previously been scheduled for the following night, after work. I really didn't want to try to get in twice and have to pay for two office visits. But I would call if we didn't get the swelling down.

An hour later, I decided I was well enough to go to work. All day long, co-workers thought something horrible had happened. They thought I had been crying. Both eyes were horribly bloodshot. Seems the left eye had sympathy for the right eye and decided misery loves company. I had no pain, so I thought I was just getting over bug guts in my eye socket.

The following night, I asked my doctor if he could check my eye while he was doing the rest of the stuff, most of which I don't really care for, but I know it has to be done.

"Good thing you told me about this," he concluded a few minutes later, after a thorough examination and a bit of eye stain beneath a snazzy blacklight. "If we hadn't checked this tonight, I think you would have been screaming by Monday morning."

Ten days of antibiotics. Learning how to put eye drops in my own eye without a mirror and without a third hand. Learning not to sit up too quickly after the self-treatment so said drops don't immediately spill down my cheek, requiring me to do it all over again. Six times per day. For ten days.

About 15 years ago, I learned the hard way my teeth need to be checked as soon as possible after I take a sunset line drive in the mouth during a competitive co-ed softball game. Teeth don't look as white when blood you didn't see after the botched catch slowly oozes inside the injured enamel. Six of them. Root canals. Owie.

I also learned softball are NOT soft.

This time, I learned it's worth the extra effort to put the clear lenses in the sunglasses before I ride in twilight. Even if only for a few minutes. I will never ride without eye protection in summer again.

I'm certain there's a lesson in there somewhere about rubbing eyes with grimy, perspiration-soaked, fingerless bicycle gloves, but I can't guarantee I've learned that one. Sometimes my fingers are on autopilot.

I also learned my eyesight is worth a heck of a lot more than an extra visit to the doctor. Eye Tunes 101 was a successful education for me, and no permanent damage is done. Literally, thank Heaven.

Now if I could just teach the bugs to stay out of my mouth when I ride...

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