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Summertime, And The Living Is…
Yes, it is Summertime, and I remember when the living was easy. It doesn' t seem that long ago, but when I think of how different I look at the hot summer now I can hardly believe what a beach bum I was.
I grew up on Long Island, about 50 miles east of Manhattan, and spent most of my summer days at the ocean beach, lying on a blanket, soaking up the sun in the belief that a tan body looks better and healthier than a pale one. My girlfriends and I would do incredible things to acquire a tan; the most extreme probably being the combination of rubbing baby oil all over ourselves and then holding up an aluminum sun visor so the rays would beat directly down upon us. One year, having just recovered from Mononucleosis, for which I had been on penicillin and found out too late that I was allergic and ended up with a terrible, itchy rash all over my body. Glad to finally be free, I went to the ocean the first day I was allowed out. It was only May so it didn’t feel that hot, but there was also a strong breeze and by the time I left a few hours later my still tender skin was completely toasted from both sunburn and windburn and I was laid up for another week with the most horrendous reaction. But I was just a teenager so as soon as I healed from that, thankfully with no permanent scars, I was back to the beach in a flash.
The heat never really bothered me, in fact sometimes the warmth from the sun beating down on me would actually relax my muscles and the back pain I’d lived with since I was twelve would feel a little better. That of course was only if I was on a beach chair and not lying on the sand; I wouldn’t be able to walk if I even sat on the sand for a short time.
I continued to love to spend time by the water and would take my daughter to the beach as often as I could. I could be out in the sun all day and still be able to go to work in the evening when I had to. Over the last ten years or so things have changed and my relationship with the sun and heat has altered dramatically. It wasn’t until I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and learned that heat can exacerbate the symptoms manifested by that disease that I realized why I was suddenly unable to do many of the outdoor activities I once could.
In addition to the increasing physical limitations I was experiencing from my spinal condition and the MS, I was now finding that the sun affected my eyes and at times actually hurt them. I had gone from being able to sit in the sun reading for a few hours to wearing sunglasses and large rimmed hats to protect my eyes from the sun, and still the glare sometimes gets through and my eyes hurt. I began having double vision in 2003, and although I have had two surgeries on my eyes to tighten the muscles and have experimented with prisms ground into what turned out to be coke bottle glasses, the double vision is now permanent and I try to adjust to it. It is interesting to me that I have adapted so well to seeing two of everything, unfortunately my sight gets very blurry at times and that is not so easy to adjust to.
