BOGO at the Evolutionary Mall
Dec. 7th, 2013 07:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogAdam and Eve made some odd purchase decisions way back when- going with two ears, eyes, nostrils and kidneys but opting for only one heart and only one brain. (Well, unless you're from Gallifrey on the first point.) Some of these redundancies are more important than others, as I've been very aware this week as Eleanor approaches surgery to remove cataracts from both eyes, and a really bad one from her left one.
That's the one that started giving her Really Bad Signs around Thanksgiving, and which, once checked, proved to be near a state of blindness once its vision was isolated. As in not able to see the E on the eyechart with her right eye covered. It's got to be scary as shit to have that realization suddenly foisted upon you, even though the remedy for it is relatively quick and assured of success.
I oughtta know.
For more than 40 years, I've lived without meaningful hearing in my right ear. The age was 9, the cause was trauma, and the result was as much my fault as anyone's. Although they knew I'd ruptured my right eardrum, they did nothing to fix it or even test for it. For several years thereafter, we'd be given hearing tests at school. Always starting with the left ear (my good one), they'd play a series of tones, and you were supposed to tap the headphone when you heard the sound. Then they'd run the identical tones in the right. I didn't hear them for shit, but I was the Smart Kid who knew how to take tests- you're supposed to ace them, right?- so I'd tap my right ear in exactly the same sequence, and nobody never said a thing.....
that I heard, anyway. Years later, I discovered that my collegiate nickname in certain circles was "Lead Ear" on account of all my "huh?" comebacks, but it was dumb luck that I even heard that the one time. It doesn't compare one-for-one to a loss of sight, especially on account of the extent to which Eleanor uses her eyes- not just for work but for knitting, sewing, jewelrymaking, and of course designing and implementing her garden plans. I surely lost a lot of ability in areas like music (both hearing and performing), and I'm just as sure that I lost some education and direction in translation over the years, but I've managed.
I've also lived almost as long with only one kidney, the result of another trauma. This has no appreciable effects, as each organ is itself capable of processing three times more than any one human is likely to produce. It's kept me out of military service, a few years of gym classes, and a career as a motorcycle stuntman, but otherwise, I've been good to go. It does cause double the concern when a kidney stone shows up, as one did last year, but that episode has not repeated itself and a regimen of clean living- okay, daily drinks of cranberry-pomegranate juice- seem to have kept any recurrences away.
But that's all Logical Me talking. I've had an average of almost 40 years to get used to both of these conditions. Eleanor first suspected them last week and was diagnosed on freakin' Monday. So it seemed right, tonight, to bring some color into her field of vision; it also helps that it was 27 years ago today that I proposed on a cold but sunny beach, and she said yes:
In a few weeks' time, she'll see those colors even better, but the important thing for now is what she can see, and does know about the reason for the color:)
That's the one that started giving her Really Bad Signs around Thanksgiving, and which, once checked, proved to be near a state of blindness once its vision was isolated. As in not able to see the E on the eyechart with her right eye covered. It's got to be scary as shit to have that realization suddenly foisted upon you, even though the remedy for it is relatively quick and assured of success.
I oughtta know.
For more than 40 years, I've lived without meaningful hearing in my right ear. The age was 9, the cause was trauma, and the result was as much my fault as anyone's. Although they knew I'd ruptured my right eardrum, they did nothing to fix it or even test for it. For several years thereafter, we'd be given hearing tests at school. Always starting with the left ear (my good one), they'd play a series of tones, and you were supposed to tap the headphone when you heard the sound. Then they'd run the identical tones in the right. I didn't hear them for shit, but I was the Smart Kid who knew how to take tests- you're supposed to ace them, right?- so I'd tap my right ear in exactly the same sequence, and nobody never said a thing.....
that I heard, anyway. Years later, I discovered that my collegiate nickname in certain circles was "Lead Ear" on account of all my "huh?" comebacks, but it was dumb luck that I even heard that the one time. It doesn't compare one-for-one to a loss of sight, especially on account of the extent to which Eleanor uses her eyes- not just for work but for knitting, sewing, jewelrymaking, and of course designing and implementing her garden plans. I surely lost a lot of ability in areas like music (both hearing and performing), and I'm just as sure that I lost some education and direction in translation over the years, but I've managed.
I've also lived almost as long with only one kidney, the result of another trauma. This has no appreciable effects, as each organ is itself capable of processing three times more than any one human is likely to produce. It's kept me out of military service, a few years of gym classes, and a career as a motorcycle stuntman, but otherwise, I've been good to go. It does cause double the concern when a kidney stone shows up, as one did last year, but that episode has not repeated itself and a regimen of clean living- okay, daily drinks of cranberry-pomegranate juice- seem to have kept any recurrences away.
But that's all Logical Me talking. I've had an average of almost 40 years to get used to both of these conditions. Eleanor first suspected them last week and was diagnosed on freakin' Monday. So it seemed right, tonight, to bring some color into her field of vision; it also helps that it was 27 years ago today that I proposed on a cold but sunny beach, and she said yes:
In a few weeks' time, she'll see those colors even better, but the important thing for now is what she can see, and does know about the reason for the color:)
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Date: 2013-12-08 06:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-08 09:18 am (UTC)