July and August were the busiest months of my life in this year. There was so much work going on that there were times when I hadn’t stepped out of my house for days together!
I recall @repholder advising me like an elder brother almost everyday to take some time off from the computer and get some rest on days when I had stayed online for 30-40+ hrs straight. He said, I'd burnout if I didn't!
This was when few community initiatives were taking shape and there was a lot of chaos leading upto these things. In the last two months, there were many such sleepless nights. Days and nights simply merged and I felt weeks fly past me after I joined Steemit!
By mid-August, I had long forgotten what it meant to sleep on normal IST hours and was pretty much awake throughout the day and night. Due to lack of proper sleep and insane hours on the computer led to severe eye-strain. But, as most people I ignored the signs, considering it to be an expected side-effect of using computers but unfortunately it led to more severe infections.
Meeting Ms.Irony!
I work from home and operate a small business in content development. Essilor—a leading manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses and optical equipment is one of my newest clients and my firm is now handling content for their new e-com venture in India. In August we were producing content including articles on eyecare and health.
It didn’t strike me then that I was suffering from some of the conditions that we had outlined in the articles for my client. I just felt if I’d get some extra sleep my eyes would get better.
The eye strain developed into ‘Dry Eyes’ and I was having a hard time. But things just got worse from here. Bacterial Conjunctivitis soon made it’s way and it turned Viral after a short trip to a local butterfly conservation park (will share some pictures soon)—I was also working on this story for a magazine and had spent a weekend there!
Because, only work is worship!
Mid-August I thought my work would get easier but my clients doubled my workload with two high priority projects that needed to be executed ASAP! I was short staffed at the time but I’m not the one to turn down work.
As a self-employed individual I’ve learnt the hard way that more work is always better than no work at all. Life had been pretty rough through the second half of 2015 and the first half of 2016. So, now things were just picking up for me and I didn’t want to say 'No' to new projects!
But, this was really pushing my limits and at the same time SteemCleaners, RHW, Steemit Social (another upcoming initiative) and the usual moderation task + participation on Steemit were on in full-swing. We had moved from ideation to execution of these initiatives. I didn't want to let anyone down. While I managed to complete all tasks lined up for the month of August, I pushed myself over the edge.
I lost sight of my health goals while in the rush to ensure all my professional goals were met!
The burnout!
Various symptoms of Dry Eyes were bad enough then, Filamentary Keratitis came on board when the Conjunctivitis started going away. Life can get pretty dramatic sometimes. It notched things up a little as I caught a bout of viral fever—common occurrence during this time of the year in India.
By the end of August and beginning of September, I had severe foreign body sensation, red swollen eye, terribly blurred vision and other annoying things in my left eye. Photophobia in both! Fortunately, the overall condition of my right eye was far less severe and it started responding to treatments much faster.
I wear prescription glasses and even with them the vision in my left eye is hazy and blurred! The medications while improving the condition apparently also causes additional blurring.
Now, I have to follow a course of treatment that involves 6-8 applications of the whole lot of these spread throughout the day. It’s not that bad but I’m looking at a minor procedure on my left eye for Filamentary Keratitis if things don’t get better in a week—I'd like to really avoid having to undergo this as it causes a lot of irritation for sometime to come!
Forced solutions!
With @riverhead, @repholder and @mammasitta repeatedly telling me not to kill myself and get rest in the past week or so, paying heed to their words by reducing screen time drastically has really helped my case. This in addition to my family and my motorcyclist (lucky me) eye-surgeon constantly nagging me ofcourse! I’m paying heed to everybody’s advice now! Haha!
I needed to get my life back to normalcy and finally it’s happened but not in the way I’d have wanted it to! I had to bin some projects and keep the bare minimum going forward. Income has taken a hit but what the heck. If I can see clearly I can work any day of the week that I want to! A vacation feels like a distant dream though. If only things turn around this week somehow!
This situation also led to taking some forced time-off from Steemit and Steemit.Chat. Keeping my participation to a bare minimum. I was quite unhappy that I was missing out on things but I was helpless. But fortunately, with @riverhead, @ash and @pfunk along with others stepping up their efforts, things seem to be functioning well on Steemit.Chat side of things. Thanks guys!
Recently, my friend @sjennon and @infovore suggested I use Flux and I’ve started using it. I think it’s helping.
Quoting from their website
f.lux fixes this: it makes the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.
My photophobia has also reduced so that’s helped make matters easier for me. Even sunlight doesn’t sting as bad as it once did!
Incase anyone was wondering where I had disappeared consider this an update on things. I appreciate everyone who pinged to ask where the heck I’ve been and if everything was okay. Thanks everyone for understanding and being so cooperative!
Lessons learnt
As a motorcyclist/auto enthusiast who loves riding fast through corners—having a messed up vision was frankly a major wake-up call. I can’t imagine not being able to do that and have a shit depth perception for life!
Recently, I knicked my Ford Fiesta (frankly it hurt me more than my eyes) trying to park it the other day when I was visiting my doctor as my peripheral vision (which was perfect up until now) is screwed and I couldn’t spot an obstacle which I would’ve noticed easily if I could’ve seen clearly with my left eye! Can’t wait for it to get back to normal again!
If you are experiencing eye strain, get a good pair of anti-glare computer eyeglasses, use flux if you work long hours on the computer and don’t strain your eyes too much!
Please don’t fuck up your eyes!
Slow recovery
I’ve been advised not to engage in any motorcycling/outdoor activities for another month, no direct exposure to sunlight and dust! All I’m allowed to do is commute around in my car and head outside after sundown. Reading books has been tiring but easier than staring at the computer or any bright source of light. So I’ve been catching up on some much needed reading lately, calling some old friends and catching up on a bit of extra sleep when computing gets tiring.
I’m probably gonna have to use some lubricating eye drops for a long time to come after I recover from this. But on the bright side I've been advised that this will take a few more weeks but things should get back to normal again.
Images 1,2&4: Pixabay
I've authored a few posts which are quite interesting:
- Brown-headed Gulls in action at the frozen Pangong Tso, 14000+ ft
- 5 Reasons to see the Shanti Stupa, at Leh!
- Dummies Guide to Using Steemit.Chat Effectively Everyday!
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