An Eyeful of Dark

It turns out that it was a minor stroke that affected only one half of my right eye. Most likely I get option 2 as presented to me yesterday. It will stay the same. Unless I don't take care to prevent another one, that is, in which case I get option 3.

My main concern was that it would slow me down. It won't. I can still read music (if the notes are not too tiny or dim), stand up long enough to do a one-hour vent show, and work in my workshop building dummies. I can even see well enough to type this, which means I can still write.

Reading is a problem, though. Anybody want to buy a huge technical library of obsolete computer programming books?

Watching TV is tedious except on the wide-screen set in the living room. Anybody want to buy about five standard sized color TV sets?

I might have to give up playing the trumpet, however, because of the pressure that blowing a brass instrument puts on my inner face. (The yard cats and neighborhood dogs are happy about that.) Anybody want to buy a trumpet, a cornet, a flugelhorn, and a valve trombone?

I can drive, too, although I rue the day when the DMV makes me take an eye test. I think they do that when you are 80. I'll squint my way carefully and slowly through traffic until then. Anybody want to buy a Corvette?

Eye to Eye

More on the eye front. I woke up this morning to see—so to speak—that the lower half of the vision in my right eye is dark and the upper half is blurred.

(That was my good eye. My left eye, which does not focus well on anything and probably never will, was pleased to learn that it is now my good eye.)

It's Sunday, and I called the eye clinic to get their line for urgent problems. I spoke to one of the opthomologists. He is not the guy I've been seeing, but he knows my case. He asked a lot of questions and explained the condition to me, which, I guess, is not uncommon. He told me to rest today and go in first thing in the morning at which time they can examine the eye to see what, if anything, they can do. I asked him what I might expect, what are the potential outcomes. I took copious notes (are there any other kind) and after hanging up tried to summarize on paper what he said I might expect. It comes down to one of these three possibilities.

1. It will get better


2. It will stay the same


3. It will get worse

I am happy to report that my sense of humor is intact. That made me laugh.