August 27 – “The eyes have it”

Chris finally talked me into going back to the eye doctor the other day.  Nothing in particular was bothering me, other than the monthly calls from the office wondering when I would be coming in.  Oh, and the fact that it would mean having to drive clear into Texas again.  But I did have to pick up some medicine from my rheumatologist right down the street from the eye doc’s office.  And I have to admit I was a little bit concerned after the fall I took on my eye, though.  That sounds really strange.  I fell on my eye.  A person has to be really graceful to do that, I guess.  But then I have never been one to do things the conventional way.  The concussion symptoms have almost all departed.  I still get headaches on occasion, and the whole concentration thing (well, the lack thereof) is hanging on.  So I decided I may as well get the checkup done just to make sure.  Oh, yes.  And did I mention that Chris had already made the appointment for me and was standing over me with “The Look” to make sure I followed through.  Actually this time it wasn’t so much The Look as it was the keys to the car, because she planned to drive me up there whether I was ready to go or not.  I love that woman.

The results of the visit? Quite anticlimactic, actually.  After the battery of usual eye drops and pokings and proddings, I came out of it all with a very slight change in my glasses prescription and the OK to another two years to come back and see him again.  The old eyes still have it.  And just as I was release my sigh of relief about my two year reprieve, he said those dreaded words you never want to hear from someone you have to call Doc … “Oh, wait a minute.” And then, to make matters worse, he used the other word I have come to despise, “prednisone.”  There it was.  “Wait a minute...  I just remembered you have taken prednisone.  You better come back in one year, not two.  That prednisone can speed up the development of cataracts.”  Of course it can.  Cataracts and uncontrollable hot flashes, an old man’s worst nightmare.  OK, Doc.  See you sometime next year, God willing.  Now if I can just figure out what’s going on with our cable … but that’s a story for another time.

Psalms 123:1-2 says, “I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven.  As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he shows us his mercy.”

Father, thank you for these old eyes of mine that you gave me.  Help me to keep them focused on you.  Amen.