Dropping in on Blindness

I'm still putting in anti-inflammatory eye drops four times daily since my laser eye surgery last Friday, but today I got busy and missed a dose. You wouldn't think it would be so easy to forget since I try to do it around meal time and then once at bedtime. Especially as important as it is to keep down any inflammation in my eyes following the surgery for glaucoma.

It says in the directions to gently close your eyes for five minutes after putting in the drop. Even that has been hard. Sometimes I have purposely tried to continue doing things with my eyes closed, just to see how it would feel if I couldn't see. It's a harsh reminder of how valuable my eyesight is. It's not a welcome thought.

But then it also reminds me of how my mother lost her sight over the course of several years. She was often discouraged about her fate, and I tried to lift her spirits every time I took her to the eye doctor for another useless appointment. Hope kept her going, but it was faith that made her strong.

This topic of blindness always hits me on Tuesdays, the day I volunteer as a book narrator for Christian Record Services. Ironically, my sessions are cut short due to my breathing problems, not my eyesight. But some day, who knows? God has a plan. I'm just here to live it for Him.

"A Word in Due Season"

Not every day you go into a doctor's office, get a diagnosis, have treatment options explained, and head straight for surgery and then home. Unless you are seeing an ophthalmologist (eye doctor) and have laser surgery recommended.

It turns out I indeed do have angle closure glaucoma, not the most common kind of glaucoma, but one that has the potential for real vision loss, if untreated. I had no symptoms, nothing to indicate any risk for it, except that I just turned 60. Those over 60 are six times as likely to have glaucoma, I discovered. But it can occur at any age. Regular eye screenings where they dilate your eyes are often the only way to detect glaucoma, so I'm glad after four years without seeing an eye doctor, I was encouraged to go to a free screening at the local aging agency last spring.

I had actually decided not to go to the free screening that day a few months ago, but Dean's home health nurse was here and she told me to go on and go. So I did, and that set the ball rolling.

God was looking out for me, and He did it through one person, a nurse, who did nothing but say the appropriate word "go".

"And a word spoken in due season, how good it is!" Proverbs 15:23 Help me speak those kind of words, Lord. The words that send others to you, the Great Physician.

The "Eyes" Have It

Monday is my phone call day. Even though I know it is one of the hardest days to reach people, it just seems like the need to call falls heaviest after the weekend. I think all weekend of who I need to call and even make a list most of the time. It's a relief when all the calls have been made.

One call I made today though was not very relieving. I found out from the optometrist that I very likely do have glaucoma in one of my eyes and will be seeing an eye surgeon soon to determine if I need to treat it with drops.

This discovery prompted me to make another call. To one of my cousins who I thought might know who in my family may have had glaucoma. I knew my great uncle was blind because of it, but wasn't sure who else had the diagnosis. Turns out a couple of aunts and cousins have also been treated with it, so I was consoled that all of them had success in treating it with eye drops. I was relieved with the extra knowledge from my cousin Willa in Omaha. Thank you, Willa, for your comforting information.

I have just one more call to make before bedtime. That call to my heavenly Father with a special thanks to Him for giving me peace in the midst of my daily storms.

Blind Faith

I found myself in two places today that were oddly related. First at the optometrist's, I took the third vision test for glaucoma and will hear the results of it when the doctor is back on Friday. Right after that I went to Christian Record Services for my weekly volunteer work as a book narrator for the blind.

I have to admit to being a bit nervous about the prospect of glaucoma, if that's what it turns out to be. But Jesus gave a remedy for eye problems. For those in the Laodicean church who were blind and didn't even know it, He offered to anoint their eyes with eyesalve. (Revelation 3:18) If God can cure spiritual blindness, then I am covered. Because that's the only kind of blindness I should really worry about.

In the studio at www.christianrecord.org