In the Eye of the Beholder

I am reminded of that financial planning tv commercial with Dennis Hopper, admonishing boomers, “You gotta have a plan, man!”

Indeed. Plans are a good idea. Just so I don’t hitch my emotional wagon to them. They are liable to change.

Thursday morning I had ambitious plans, but they were not to be.
On a quick trip down the mountain for a few supplies, I kept feeling there was a dark shadow over my left shoulder, beyond the periphery.
I imagined Bengt Ekerot as Death in Bergman’s Seventh Seal, all in black, with the Reaper’s scythe, stalking me with his news.
“Okay. If it’s time. Can I get some coffee first?”

But I recognized what it was, my second retinal detachment beginning and knew time was essential. It wasn’t Bengt. Just a clock ticking toward blindness.

Off to my great eye doc. Yup. That’s what’s happening.
Off to the retina doc who did my other eye. Yup.
In surgery with full anesthesia by 3:00 or so.

After, I knew the drill. Lie still all day for several days, only on the left side.
No reading or computers (as if I could see them). You can get up for ten minutes an hour to pee or get the blood flowing.
Oh, and you can’t go home to 7,100 feet. Gotta stay down here in town for at least the weekend so your eye doesn’t explode. See, they inject a gas into your eye to create pressure so that the Super Glue and staples holding your retina down have a chance to bond. Gaining altitude would be like taking a bag of Lay’s Potato Chips up to elevation. You know how the bag nearly bursts?
Pop!!! Splat!!!
Wanna avoid that.
So like the last time my right retina detached a few years ago, and like during the big fire in 2010, we encamped in the closest hotel, ordered Chinese and hunkered way down.
We’re here until Monday.
We get free fresh baked chocolate chip cookies at seven.
I can finally see just a bit to be able to type.
I had one question for the doc.
“No. If that works for anything, it’d be for glaucoma. You do not have glaucoma.”
“But it can’t hurt just to be safe, right?”
So, my elder friends, if you think you see the Reaper sneaking up on you from behind, pay heed. Act fast. But check carefully. It may actually  be Bengt.