Laser not so fun after all

Tough day. John slept a lot longer than I could. I left him to give him some space and had breakfast in the sofa while reading. He came up around half past ten and by then I was already pacing about. While he fixed the last things needed for the insurance I took a shower and got dressed. I packed a bag to bring with and he still was uncomfortably calm. Eventually he made himself ready, after having some breakfast too since we would need to skip lunch.

Again we took a cab. The hospital is only a fifteen minutes drive from home. The difficult part is finding the cab. Two days in a row the drivers have been going around the area to look for us while we have been standing by the road looking for them. When at the hospital we signed in and had ninety minutes to wait. I could not read the book, I was stressing. John was annoyingly calm, reading things on his phone.

Close to two a lady walked up and asked his name and ID-number (to make sure they had the right patient. I am wondering how many times they walked away with the wrong person before this became mandatory). We were brought up to another floor and led by two ladies; one in the front and one behind us. I suspect this is what it feels like when being escorted to prison. A door opened to a small room without windows (totally enhancing my prison-theory) and they asked us to wait there.

A nurse came in and dropped something into John's eye. This substance would make his pupil large, like the photo in the last post. She came in three times to do this. Whilst waiting John read things indifferently on his phone while I nervously kept talking. We discussed small tsunamis; the topic on the television news. Suddenly his doctor came in and shone a light in his eyes. He then nodded and said John had grey green eyes. I am still not convinced. I am sure they are blue grey.

Half past two they came to get him. The nurse made it clear I could wait where I sat. So I winked farewell, crossed my legs and opened my book. I had a banana. I wrote to people in the chat. I drank some water. John came back. He was gone for about twenty minutes.

The surgery went well. I will write this as he explained it to me. He had his head in one of those machines where you rest your chin on a plate and hold your hands on the side and stare into nothingness. Then the doctor pressed a lens hard against his eye. The laser started blinking. John did not even know it had started at first. The red blinking did not register in his head as laser. It was difficult to keep the eye still. The nurse had to keep her hand on the back of his head. It burned. It was intrusive. It was over.

We will not know if this made things better. In a week he will return for a checkup. The eye was burning right after the surgery but the worst part was the headache. He wore sunglasses indoors, which helped a little but could not remove the pain. The pupil stayed dilated for hours, much longer than it did the previous times. We bought subway and brought it home to eat in peace. We watched Planet Earth II. He needed some rest so he went to bed and slept for almost two hours.

John is okay for now. The headache is still there but manageable. The pupil is still larger than its equivalent but slowly shrinking back to normal. He is mentally exhausted and I wish him a good night's sleep. I speak for John when I thank you all for the support.