Vitreous Trouble

I went to the eye doctor today, praying that some good luck would rub off on me because it was my youngest brother's birthday.  Ken would have been 45 years old today, and he was actually born on a Sunday on a kitchen table in the apartment our family lived in at the time.  It is also the 45th anniversary of when I learned the "here's the steeple, here's the church, open the door and see the people" game that people have been teaching little kids forever.  One of the midwife staff that day taught me that in an effort to keep me occupied while my mother was in labor.

After explaining the recent problems with my right eye (a new floater, white lights flashing), the doctor dilated my pupils with drops to get a better look.  My left eye has a floater, but it's fine.  There is a vitreous detachment in my right eye (and the floater in that eye is an indication of that).  "After four to six weeks if there are no changes with that eye, the possibility of a detached retina goes down.  But come and see me a month from now for a follow up appointment so we can make sure it didn't get worse," the doctor told me. 

As I carefully walked down the street later (dilation of the eyes makes sight blurry for awhile), I wondered how this was going to affect the fight I have next month.  The doctor suggested that if I spar, I shouldn't take any shots to my head at all.  He confirmed what I had suspected:  hits anywhere to the head could affect one's vision.  If I'm not sparring, I won't be getting in the extra practice I need to face my opponent.  Maybe I can do drills instead.

I was just thinking about who may have hit me and caused the eye injury.  But what does that matter?  Stuff like this is usually cumulative most of the time, and I've been boxing since 2001.  I'm still curious as to why it's my right eye and not the left.  I can't remember being hit in my right eye as much as my left eye has been.

Alan called to check up on me this afternoon, and I gave him the report about my eye.  "Didn't that light they shine in your eyes hurt?" he asked.  It was uncomfortable, but the light was the way the doctor had to use to check out the trouble. 

I'm grateful that my sight hasn't deteriorated much.  The eye doctor said that ten years after a diagnosis of diabetes is when the sight problems really kick in (I was diagnosed in 2007).  The capacity to see distances has diminished a little.  If I take care of the diabetes even better than I have been doing lately, I might not need a white cane later on.  I paid for a new pair of glasses, and those will come in a couple of weeks from now.