Look down! Look down!!

My beloved has always enjoyed the Kingston Trio, and a brief interlude from their song Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley might be appropriate right about now.

Of course, my beloved is not about to be hanged for killing someone, but he is being required to keep his nose pointed at the ground and his eyes looking down and I am not sure how well he is going to be able to do this.

Some time ago a small “tent” developed in the macular part of his eye that distorts the center of his vision. The fix for this defect is the injection of a small bubble of gas which floats to the back of the eye and puts pressure on this spot and which ultimately makes the problem go away.

To keep the gas bubble where it is supposed to be, the person must keep his or her eyes on the ground as much as possible for up to 2 weeks. The procedure is about 90% effective if the person complies but drops to about 60% if the person does not comply.

Yesterday was our first full day with Richard trying to keep his eyes down: he put his computer monitor on the floor, and he figured out how to watch TV by looking into a mirror on his chest; he drank his coffee out of a straw. As the day wore on, however, he started doing more and more around the house. Without saying anything to me, he went outside a couple of times to get stuff out of the freezer in the basement; he even started cooking dinner before I could stop him. I know that even though he was holding his head down, that he was frequently moving his eyes up and forward to see what he was doing -- stuff you don't even think twice about -- hanging the oven mitts on their hook, reaching up to get the spices he sprinkles on the fish, opening the door to the convection oven.

And he started getting annoyed with me for reminding him to keep his eyes down.

No, he hasn't killed anyone... yet.