Five months ago, in October, a tiny blood vessel in my optic nerve burst, and I suddenly lost sixty percent of my vision in my right eye.  Everything I could see with that eye looked like glass smeared with Vaseline. I knew that for the rest of my life I must take care of, and protect, my one good eye.  Yes, all I needed to do was take special care of my one good eye.   

Well, I certainly failed that test!   

In early February, my left eye — that’s the good one — began to hurt and swell.  Soon the eye was completely swollen shut, and felt like a knife was carving it up.  My vision in the good eye was down to 15 percent, at the most.   I was seen by a cornea specialist at the UC Davis Med Center. She found and removed a very old contact lens from my eye.  It was a “daily” lens, designed to be removed every evening.  But I had somehow left it in my eye for 2 or 3 weeks!  And almost every day I had been placing another daily contact lens right on top of it for 10 to 12 hours. 

My eye was infected, with considerable inflammation, with a variety of nefarious particles and nasty objects in it.  And my cornea was torn in several places. I could tell that my MD was acutely concerned about my chances to regain my vision. 

We began a rapid onslaught of five medications.  One of the drops needed to go in my eye every single hour for the first 24 hours!  During the next week, my wife, Ellie, drove me to the UCD Eye Center in Sacramento on five different days. For more than half of that week I was basically blind.  And those days of extremely limited vision were an amazing, startling, and frightening experience I had never encountered before. 

For nearly four days I had very little vision at all in my so-called “good” eye.  I could see some large shapes with the other eye, the one damaged months ago, but this was far worse.  I couldn’t see much of anything with the newly injured eye! 

I needed help to put ointment and drops in my eye, as I could not see or find the tiny tube or the little drop bottles.  I needed to ask what I was eating, because I could not see the food on the plate. I needed help putting toothpaste on my toothbrush, because I couldn’t see the end of the tube, or the end of the brush! 

I spent the next several days primarily sitting on the sofa.  With some practice, I figured out how to find the on/off button on the large radio near me.   I spent hours and hours listening to NPR. Fortunately, that was my favorite station, as I was unable to see the tuning dial, or the preset buttons, to switch to anything else!  

Going up and down stairs was downright scary.  And we have two sets of stairs! I found myself gripping the stair rail for dear life, as I could not see the edge of each wooden step. I realized quickly that the life I have known for 67 years might be over. For hours on end I thought about how I could adapt to a new version of life, without much eyesight.   

I love to read, and I knew I could get plenty of audio books, but could I find an audio book player that a nearly blind person can use?  I love listening to all kinds of radio shows, so I could purchase a subscription to something like Sirius FM Radio, which offers hundreds of programs. But how I would I possibly change the station, since I wouldn’t be able to see the radio controls? 

Perhaps the most frustrating moments I experienced were hours late at night, in the darkness.  I could not see or read any clock in the house.   My bedside clock was invisible.  I felt disoriented, discouraged and a little bit helpless, all because I had no idea what time it was!  Was it 1am, or was it 5am?  It troubled me to my bones, because it made me so very aware just how much about the world around me that I could no longer access, know or understand.   

 After a few days of treatment by the UCD medical staff, I began to think that some recovery of my vision was possible. On the fourth day of treatment, significant changes in my vision became evident. From that day on, each day my eyesight improved by at least 10 to 15 percent.  And by the end of a full week, the vision in my one good eye was back to 70 percent!  Today, it is an amazing 90 percent. 

I was lucky.  So very lucky.  And I had amazingly good medical care. But even my MD was quite surprised with the amount of my vision I got back. Being nearly blind for just a few days is an overwhelming experience I will never forget.  You can bet that I am taking great care of my good eye now. Damn good care!