Eyes eyes anyone??

Scratching, itching…. Using the fluffy towel to camouflage the attack….gouging almost!! Watery, runny side effects…..perpetually red eyes, fear of the famed 'madras eye', self medication, self assurance, assurance from amma, washing washing…four days of agony….four days of stupidity….four days of denial…. fear of turning blind...that's what made me rush into the emergency room of a huge corporate hospital…..male nurse, asks me to lie down on the stretcher with my head hanging down …suspended in mid air….walks in with a syringe….fills something in it…I shrink…want to bolt and run….he turns to me…snips of the needle (thank god!!) …I just hope he has washed his hands…tells me he 'vaants to jest irrigate' my eye…..(what I thought that's how we grow rice!!)….shoots the liquid in….i was so scared stiff, you could've thought it was rigor mortis…..i flinch…..then he uses his hands (yeah both of them) to part my eyelids…(what were you thinking??) ….peers inside…I thought my eye lids would tear….he was so close I could see the hair in his nose…tried not to …but that close!! Looks up…looks down…disappointed…. Says "nedhig ees they're….sori"…repeats the same to the duty doctor….who then tells me…see we can't say if something is wrong…or if there is an infection…we're not eye doctors…. Go to LV Prasad…they have 24 hr emergency services…. I was like "what?????" why didn't you say so before?? ……….Irritated K….driving at break neck speed….me feeling sorry for him (long day…it was almost 9 p.m) and myself….fear of turning fully blind…..visions of michelle mc nally and all those nightmaric images like montages…..almost dark hospital…..winding hallways…..unsmiling doctor…(of course she wouldn't smile….we interrupted her enroute to dinner!!) …..totally crumpled, "I've surely seen better days and a smaller waist" salwar kameez…..frantic phone calls to the dinner companion to be….spoken in bengali but hardly masked disgust about an emergency 'case'……here my eyes are threatening to go blind…and she asks me questions to fill her form….ever had any surgery? Any serious illnesses? Any allergies? Married? On any medication? Family history of eye disease? On? And on? And on?.....didnt stop even seeing my runny eyes….. impatient – concerned K asking question after question…only to be told curtly "how will I know unless I check" to which he retorted… "then why don't you just check?"…imagine my plight…..at the mercy of a hungry, tired, just been insulted doctor….. face strapped to a contraption…..bright light shot in from a miner's helmet kind of thingie…..2-3 more calls in between….. warns me not to bat my lids….yeah!! I can hardly keep them open…they're that scratchy….. I tell her…she leaves the cabin……..yeah great!! Now what…comes back with something that looked like paper matches….pours some drops onto them and touches the upper lids of my eyes….before I could ask what she was doing….. I felt like I had something the size of a medium potato growing under my eyelids…… have your eyes ever been anesthetized? I guess not…incase you need to know how it feel…it feels like you've grown potatoes under the lids……more checks….more instruments…more peering closely under the eyelids…..i am so dazed, I hold my breath each time….nothing said…tension mounting….for both me and K….then she goes nextdoor again…..they are twin cabins separated by a plywood partition….open top….i hear her asking the other (hopefully more experienced doctor) what to prescribe…..she's back…tells me she'll dilate my pupils…..i ask why? …routine check up….since you haven't had your eyes tested in 12 years!! (which I told her during the rapid fire)…. Ok cool…. Things will be a bit hazy for 4-5 hours she says…hell I'll be glad if I can keep them open to see hazy atleast….so I have something dropped into both of them and wait for half hour…. I think she finally has her dinner…..sitting with your eyes closed is more difficult than I thought….edgy K gives me a lecture knowing I cant run away with my eyes shut and dilated…. No more internet…you're always on the computer…that's why this is happening …blah …blah….i am summoned again…yeah everything is hazy…and magnified…..some more miner's helmet aided checking…then the verdict…severe allergy…nope…not because of kaajal….maybe dust and pollen….wash eyes 3-4 times a day with cold water….some shiny bottles of drops as many times…nothing to worry…… no no…no blindness…. Come back if you must after a month….thank you!!

What!! An allergy!! I could have kicked myself for waiting 4 days….just one dose of one of the drops and for the first time in 4 days I didn't feel like gouging my own eyes!! Jackass!!