Eye Strain

Eye Strain
Why is everything good so bad for you? After a month of headaches, neck aches and blood shot eyes I found out I was suffering from eye strain. The doctor asked me how many hours I spent on the computer a day, and I jokingly told him the question should be how many hours I’m not on the computer a day? Doctors, I’ve discovered don’t have a sense of humor no matter how much you pay them. The nurse didn’t either as she stabbed me in the arm to give me my flu shot.
What is eye strain: Eye strain occurs when your eyes get tired from intense use, such as driving a car for extended periods of time, reading or working on a computer. It’s not usually serious and goes away when you rest your eyes.
Symptoms of eye strain: tired eyes, blurring of vision, headaches, doubling of vision and neck ache.
So how much time do I normally spend on the computer each day? Well, I turn it on at six in the morning and watch music videos while I get dressed for work and turn it off about 7:15. The computer on my desk at work is on by 8:00 and shuts down around 4:30. Between those times I have a half hour lunch break and two fifteen minute rest periods that I spend outside writing by sunlight. By 6:00 pm I’m back home and the computer is back on. I have to read my email, converse with friends on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, type up my notes, work on my blogs and chat with my writer groups on Yahoo, all the while cooking, cleaning the house and dealing with my mother, my kids, their kids, and their friends.
Last week I watched the entire set of “The First Shop of the Coffee Prince,” in six nights between the hours of 8:00 pm and midnight and I missed a lot of sleep. On Friday night I watched episodes 10, 11 and 12 of “The Perfect Kiss.” I think I turned the computer off around 1:30 am Saturday morning after taking two Tylenol for my headache and putting eye drops in my eyes (no small fete since I hate to put eye drops in my eyes. If any of the medicine makes it in it’s a miracle.). By watching I also mean reading subs since my Korean and Japanese is limited.
When I woke on Saturday morning it felt like someone had put an entire beach of sand in my eyes. So what did I do? I turned on the computer, checked my email, visited my Cassie friends on Facebook around the world, posted a review for “The First Shop of the Coffee Prince,” on my blogs and then begin this blog.
I was fairly good yesterday. I turned off the computer and the television and just lay in bed. Well, it wasn’t as wonderful as it sounded because one of my neighbors little granddaughters kept ringing my doorbell and running, even after I told her that the kids were at the park across the street. So I decided to get up and fix hotdogs and hamburgers for the kids when they returned. The next thing I knew I was working on my current WIP. Somewhere around nine I decided to watch some anime. That didn’t last too long because I wasn’t paying attention to it. I’ve noticed lately that I don’t watch as much television as I once did and that’s only because I’ve discovered other interesting things on the Internet. So then I was off to watch episodes nine and ten of Sungkyunkwan Scandal because I had to get my weekly dose of Micky Yoochun in. This is a very good drama, and I’m not saying this just because I’m drooling over him and waiting for him to smile at me through the camera lenses. It’s well written and it teaches a lot about Korean history. After I finished with it I popped in Goong, another drama but realized that I had already watched the first three episodes and didn’t feel like calling up the fourth because I was sleepy. So last night I was actually asleep by midnight.
Well, to answer the doctor’s question. I spend a hell of a whole lot of time on my computer. I’m a writer and there’s not too much I can do except use a bit of common sense and occasionally take off my reading glasses and rest my eyes. Great novels do not write themselves.