Trials, tribulations, and a real boring dark room

There's a reason I haven't been blogging.

Last Thursday, I began a trial couple hours away in Port Huron. It turned into a 16 hour day with 2 hours of travel to and from, and a return to the office at night to get some prep done before returning to trial expected to begin on Friday morning.

A snowstorm was predicted for Friday morning.

So Thursday night I get the car ready, make sure all the fluids are at the right levels, get the car packed with all the trial stuff, and go to bed with a slight eye ache. I suppose its just eye strain from a long day and long drive in darkness to and from the trial.

I get up around 5, shower, down a quick breakfast and get the Jeep out and hit the road.

Its already snowing - heavily. No lane markers remain visible, everything is a nice sheet of white and its still coming down. The eye hurts some more.

I press on, getting to the highway in 4 wheel drive. The snow gets worse, speed is down to about 30, visibility 10 feet and dropping. Its not getting better.

I keep on going but the visibility keeps dropping, cars are skidding wildly, some already in the ditches. In the time so far I've gotten just about a third of the way, less than what it normally takes to get half the way there.

Time to reconsider.

I call the partner on the file and let him know the score, he's on a different highway heading there and wants to press on. Since the conditions and visibility are nearing zero I decide I'm done spinning for the day, let the partner know that I'm not willing to get in a wreck for the client as that will not help anyone, and try to reach the opposing counsel, after a while I reach him and we agree to adjourn because we're all in near zero viz.

I call the court and leave a message and then begin the adventure in returning home. The snow is blowing so badly I can't even see the highway off ramps, I finally make one and get home in an hour, using the caution sharp curve yellow signs to let me know I'm still on the road.

I get home, talk with the court who finally gets in around 9:30 and they're happy to cancel as the Court is closing at 11:30 due to the bad weather so its just as well we didn't try to keep making it there - we would have been stuck there with no trial to be had. We schedule a new date and go from there.

Oh yeah, the eye is now hurting quite a bit. I take out contacts, put some drops in and get on with working from home as I'm done driving for the day and the street is totally snowed in and the snow keeps blowing making any thought of getting out ridiculous.

Still no eye relief, I keep the drops flowing, try a cool compress, ice and even finally advil with no relief.

Finally Saturday morning I'm almost doubled over in pain with the sensation of red-hot needle being shoved in my eye- "Honey, it's time to visit the emergency room - NOW."

So we drive over, with the road not yet plowed in my trusty jeep, get to the ER with almost no waiting, and I'm in a fair bit of pain.

They do some more checks, I'm sure my vision is fine but when they check it the eye isn't seeing much at all - this begins to be worrisome.

They look at the eye with the equipment and some dye and find out I've got a torn cornea. They figure it happened while I was photocopying Thursday night- some toner or staple fragment got under the contact lens and my eye was so strained I didn't feel it as it tore the cornea.

The doc then gives me one drop of tetracaine in the eye - lovely stuff, it numbs the pain and makes it a bearable ache in the eye rather than a constant stabbing pain. But then the doc tells me it will only last a half hour and he won't give me more as it could make it worse - I consider grabbing the eye drop bottle that is just in arm's reach and making a run for it but better sense prevails.

The doc prescribes an antibiotic drop, says to take Advil regularly and keep the eye shut in the dark, no reading, no tv, no computer, no nothing and to get an appointment with an ophthalmologist immediately.

So I stay in a dark room, dealing with the aches by popping Advil and taking the antibiotic drops on schedule for all of Saturday and Sunday, bored beyond belief, but catching up on my sleep and listening to a book on CD when I'm awake.

On Monday I go to the eye doctor and he confirms the situation, gives me another drop to take and wants me back on Tuesday - no reading, tv, computer, driving nothing. Obviously, work is out of the question - a lawyer that can't read, drive or use a computer is not a lot of help around the office. I do some work over the phone.

On Tuesday I go back and the eye seems to be responding well, he prescribes another drop that I should start to take in three days as due to the holidays he won't be in, and off I go. Now he tells me I can keep the eye open but no reading, computer, but I can see TV if my eye is up to it in small amounts, and then slowly add reading and computer over time.

So now its Sunday and I've been able to do a little TV watching, a little computer and a little reading, all with breaks and the eye is a lot better vision wise. A lousy thing to happen over the holidays but I'm getting through it and it seems to be healing up decently, i'm off the Advil and just doing the drops.

Its still achy, I've got lots of stuff to do piling up at work and another eye doc appointment tomorrow. Got lots to blog about including a visit from Lagniappe and his keeper, finding out that snow WILL stop the mail, and other goodies, but it will have to wait as I need to take a break after typing all this.