Look Away

I went to see an ophthalmologist yesterday to have my eyes checked. I've been having frequent headaches lately, concentrated around my eyes and forehead. When asked to describe what kind of pain, I tell them it's like having a constant head rush - the dizziness when you stand up too fast. Or the wooziness of laughing too hard. The pain is bad enough to make me miss last Friday's work.

Actually, I didn't want to see a doctor. But my Kuya made me promise to go. And I'd feel so guilty to break a promise, even one made over YM. He's been a little paranoid over my health, and of my sister's. Maybe it's because the three of us are living so far from each other and there's no one else looking out for us, but ourselves. On a somewhat related note - when I donated blood a couple of weeks back, I was asked to fill out a form of personal data. One of the required entries was the "in-case-of-emergency" contact person. And I literally had to stop and think for a while. Hmmm, tough one. I ended up texting Luz, my friend and roommate, if it was ok with her if I wrote her as my ICE. She said it was and so I did.

It was kinda weird, kinda sad. But it was real life. It was such a responsibility to be someone's ICE. Especially to one with propensity for accidents such as myself. Family members are supposed to be there for that, but I didn't have the luxury of that option. Although it is true that friends are the family you choose - or what life chooses for you. And so you just deal.

Anyway, back at my eye checkup. The doctor gave me a few pointers on how to relieve the headaches. Apparently, my eyes were fine. Although I wear corrective glasses, I can still actually do ok without them. So here are some of the tips, in case they may be of help to you:

1) Increase water intake. I usually get seven or eight tumblers during the day. I have to try for ten or more.

2) Sit a little farther from the computer screen and have it situated diagonally. Same goes for reading books. As the doctor have told me in an unsolicited (but appreciated) crash course on optic muscles, we strain our eyes more if we look at things more closely. Keeping the muscle tense for a very long period of time causes headaches and so you need to relax it by doing number (3).

3) For every ten minutes of work, spend a minute looking at something 20 feet away. "A full minute?" I asked. Yes. So mentally, I computed that would be 6 minutes per hour * 7.5 work hours a day. Forty-five minutes of just looking away in a manday. Huh.

4) Avoid stress. When asked whether work has been stressful lately, I said, "No, not particularly." But I wondered whether we have the same gauge of a stressful day.

5) You could always take painkillers. But the thing is, I don't like painkillers. As much as possible, I don't take them and just bear the pain. So my friends know that if I reach for Ibuprofen or Mefenamic Acid - pain is already way beyond tolerable level.

If none of these things work, I am to go back for consultation after a week. Maybe by then, I'd be given something more substantial than a list of do's and don'ts.

So when you see me looking aimlessly far away - for the record, I am not spacing out. I am following doctor's orders.