Blindsided

In March 2015 I scheduled a trip to Indiana to take care of my mother and stepfather who were both ill.

I sat down to watch a little television two weeks before I was scheduled to leave on  my trip.  As I watched the screen with the “breaking news”, I noticed the letters were jumbled together on the screen as well as the graphic on the bottom of the screen was strangely wavy. For a brief second I thought maybe the news channel had made the graphic wavy so that it would stand out on the screen. I asked Wayne why the screen looked so strange. He gave me an odd look and looked at the television screen and said to me “there is nothing wrong with the letters on the screen”. I chuckled and replied “but the bottom of the screen is wavy”. He said “there is nothing wrong with the screen. Maybe you should go to bed and get some rest. Your eyes could be bothering you and you just need rest”.

I was bothered and annoyed that he thought I was just tired, but I agreed that he could be right about my eyes and I went to bed hoping all would be well in the morning.

I had forgotten about the incident on the screen from the night before when I got onto my computer the next morning. I looked at my computer monitor and the words were jumbled and overlapping.

It was then I decided this could be serious and I needed to see my optometrist as soon as possible.

I also considered that I was just stressed from the events of the last few months and I just needed to rest. I scheduled my appointment with the eye doctor for the next week and tried to resume life as normal without too much discussion with Wayne or Hannah about my increasing sight troubles.

By the time of my appointment with the eye doctor, I was really struggling with driving and “seeing” on the television and computer screen. My optometrist dilated my eyes and gave me the usual eye check-up. He immediately sent me to an eye specialist fearful that I could have a detached retina. I drove myself (yes, with dilated eyes, not a great idea!) to the eye retina specialist immediately after I left the optometrist office. My optometrist recommended I go while my eyes were still dilated so that the specialist could see the back of my eyes. I struggled to drive and when I arrived at the eye specialist, they turned me down and told me to make an appointment.

Unfortunately,  the next available appointment was more than two weeks in the future so I would have to see the eye specialist when I returned from taking care of my parents.

Just for the record, I am partially blind in my right eye and will be for the rest of my life. I have a macular hole rendering my eye useless. I cannot drive at night, but I have learned to live with my eyesight and thrive!