by Ruth
Four days after Christmas. Outside my window, glistening snow loaded down tree branches. Everything looked tranquil. The defunct furnace has been fixed, and our house felt cozy and warm.
In the late afternoon, I hid in a corner and enjoyed my daily reading time. Out of the blue, a crooked black line flashed slowly before my eyes.
“What was that?”
I reached out to seize it but didn’t get anything. “What happened?” I looked more carefully. There was nothing. Was I dazzled? I hurried to find my eye drops.
As I opened my eyes again, it was worse than before—three or four black lines were flying in the air. I unconsciously reached out to snatch them and only grabbed air. Was it a psychological effect? I detected a sudden flash of light in the corner of my right eye.
Panic surged into my heart and all the stories of retinal detachment that my friends have told me rushed into my mind.
Was it my turn? I glanced at the clock. The doctor’s office was closed. Should I go to the emergency room?
I lifted a silent prayer, felt peace in my heart, and decided to deal with it tomorrow.
Praise the Lord. I still slept soundly that night. When I woke up on Friday morning, the black line disappeared, but a group of black balls—the size of flies—flew back and forth in front of my eyes. During my morning devotion, I added one more prayer item, asking the Lord for wisdom and courage to face whatever problem my eyes had. I also covered one eye at a time to check which eye was in trouble and concluded it was my right eye.
At eight o’clock, I immediately called my ophthalmologist. The nurse tossed a bunch of questions at me, then asked if someone could drive me to their clinic at 9:30 a.m.
Something was seriously wrong, or they wouldn’t have squeezed me into the doctor’s busy schedule for the day with such urgency. When I made an appointment with them for a routine checkup a few months ago, I had to wait for a whole month.
Ken drove me to the clinic. After doing various tests, the nurse instilled three kinds of drops to dilate both of my eyes, guided me to the instrument room, and then took a series of photos. She said the doctor was still seeing another patient and told me to go back to the original room to wait.
Such a tough wait!
I remembered a brother from our church in a similar situation. He waited for two weeks to see a doctor. It was too late, and he lost vision in one eye just like that. Another friend who dealt with the problem right away was able to save his eyesight. As for me, there was a delay of more than ten hours. What would happen to me? Nothing I could do now but to lift another prayer, asking the Lord for His mercy.
After more than half an hour, at last, the doctor showed up. She carefully checked the pictures on the computer, then turned to me. “Good news. It’s not a retinal detachment. Also, bad news. You have aging-related floaters, and you’ll continue to have them for the rest of your life.”
“But why did they suddenly appear? I’ve never had them before.”
“Most floaters occur as a result of aging because the jelly-like substance inside the eye liquefies and shrinks. Scattered clumps of collagen fibers form within the vitreous and cast tiny shadows on the retina. Many people, like you, have never had them before, but abruptly they show up.” She asked me to look at the photos. “You have them in both eyes, but the right eye is more serious.” As I left the clinic, I was grateful but also felt a little sad. Aging is no fun. The older I get, the more problems I’ll have. The days with floaters dancing in front of me will become a new normal for the rest of my life.
