Velvet Verbosity

The purpose of a blog seems self-evident. Don’t call me on my narcissistic tendencies.

About

Self Portrait

The purpose of a blog seems self-evident. Don’t call me on my narcissistic tendencies. This is not a Mommy blog even though I am a Mommy. This blog is not a political commentary blog even though I vote. This blog is not otherwise organized around any one central theme, but there is a common velvet thread running through it.

I write about “Life with the Possessed” aka living with two teenagers, and sometimes about MY life, but more often I just write. Whatever floats through the cool crypt of my mind.  There is fiction, and truth, and biography, and funnies, and life to be found in these pages.  I wish I were funny like Dooce or Bossy, but comedienne just didn’t make it into my genes. 

Therefore, I don’t pretend to be anything but a “woman of heart and mind”. Here you will find little pieces of both.

3 Comments so far

  1. Wendy Drolma February 19th, 2008 7:31 pm

    Hi Velvet,

    My name is Wendy Drolma (formerly Wendy Klein) and I create leather masks. You’ve seen my work and were wonderful to recommend my masks on your blog (thanks very much for that).

    The reason why I’m writing is because I’ve since changed my name to Wendy Drolma and am wondering if you would be so kind as to update the link on your blog page to reflect the change in my domain. It’s now http://www.wendydrolma.com

    No problem if you can’t, just thought I’d ask. Keep up the great work.

    Warm regards,
    Wendy

  2. Ben N. March 22nd, 2008 8:11 pm

    Hi Velvet

    I bookmarked “Me and my lazy eye” when I was first searching for help/resources for myself.

    I developed strabismus 2 years ago. Around 7-8 months ago it became permanent… I went from occasionally crossing my eyes while tired/inebriated/etc. to full on, 100% of the time, double vision.

    I was just posting to the Me and My Lazy Eye blog but I timed out and lost it.

    Just wanted to say hi and see where you are at in the process — I noticed the other blog hasn’t been updated since April 2007 or so…

    I saw what someone was writing about Vision Therapists… and have a bunch to say against them. I went to one for 2 months and rather then get better, my eyes seemed to just continue their steady decline.

    So… but… the reason Im posting is that… I got the surgery, dude.

    Did it on march 5th. It worked.

    No more double vision. Eyes work. Aligned, straight, etc. whatever.

    I got the fear, of course, that it will somehow revert in a year or something. It seems to happen to a sizable number of people, so, might happen to me too. We’ll see. For now, though… wow.

    I did not have medical insurance… went to a guy named Dr. Demer, at the UCLA medical center’s Jules Stein Eye Institute. Charged me $5600. Did surgery on both eyes.

    Because I didnt have medical insurance he enrolled me in a research study… which allowed me access to one of UCLA’s MRI machines. That ruled out any tumors or head trauma. Doc had no clue why my eyes developed strabismus… but recommended surgery immediatly.

    Personally… I think it came about from staring at computer monitors my entire life. Im a gamer and I tend to watch a lot of tv/movies on my computer as well. Oh, and Im a cameraman? and an editor? So yeah. I figure thats what happened to me. (oh. and in case you were wondering… it’s NOT fun to be a cameraman with a crossed eye)

    But dude.

    Dude…

    I dont know if you are still thinking of it or whatever.

    It worked.

    General anesthesia was weird. Like.. i was brought into the O.R. and they put the IV line into my hand, and had me breath the o2/anestheia mix… and thats all I remember. Woke up in the recovery room with a lot of discomfort. Spent a good 3 days just lying in bed being nursed at home.

    Surgery was March 5th, its March 22nd… my left eye (2 muscles operated on) is still quite swollen in places, and my right eye (1 muscle, adjustable suture) has the big purple mark of the suture and some obvious marks where the cutting took place… the sutures can be annoying and uncomfortable at times… the muscles around the eyes still feel weird… healing… weird… i dont know.

    But the double vision is gone. Aesthetically I appear to have straight eyes. My primary goal in getting the surgery was to correct the double vision… I told myself and others that I didn’t care how I appeared to people with my wonky eye. But… as time went by, and now that I have had the surgery… I have to say it’s actually quite special to have the aesthetic improvement alongside the improvement in my vision.

    Anyway, just been meaning on posting to your other blog with my update… and since my last attempt got eaten by a time out… I ended up finding this blog and trying again…

    Hope all is well, good luck, I feel for you seriously. One thing I saw in talking to people with strabismus… er, and also in talking to those weirdos that have “normal alignment”… is that people just dont understand. So… I feel ya, is what im trying to say. The surgery worked. Vision therapists are WEIRD, and always seem like snake oil salesmen to me.

    Word!
    -Ben N.

  3. paul June 1st, 2008 11:27 pm

    Hey there, I found your website when looking for info about eye surgery. I made a page to try and help people such as yourself. Please check it out :) http://www.geocities.com/cablefree2/

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