Sometimes, when life seems to be going smoothly, we are interrupted by problems we did not want. Just a week or so ago, one of my eyes went south. That is, it stopped functioning properly. Over two days, I lost eyesight in one eye and that eye became so sensitive to light that I could not open either eye. Pain, yes, in spades. What happened? How does an eye just seemingly ‘quit”? The lesson to me is that our health is not all under our control. Regular exercise, periodic medical checkups, and watching my food and drink intake are all good practices, but we still can be put down, even when we think we’re in the best of health.

Our challenge is that we deny our body’s messages to us, messages intended for our health. My eyes had become uncomfortable days earlier, but I convinced myself they were just tired and that it would pass. Not an uncommon strategy, right? Hiding from problems is our strong suit. Whenever we experience ill health, whether a pain in an elbow or an unknown pain in our chest, our first defense is that the experience was irrelevant and unimportant. Hope springs eternal. Until it doesn’t. And that was my eyes, slowly going south.

Yes, I eventually pursued help. My first approach was to family members (What was their opinion? Had they ever had the same issue?). Did they solve my ailment? Of course not, but that tactic seemed safer than asking a doctor. Doctors tell us what we don’t want to hear—everyone knows that. After another day of pain, I finally went to an urgent care center. By now, I was sure it was just a minor bug and a pill or prescription was likely all that I needed. Well, that wasn’t it, was it? Big problems are rarely simple. Within minutes of seeing me, I was rushed to a nearby eye clinic for immediate assessment and treatment.

So, happy ending, right? Wrong. After a week of seeing the doctor several times, the pain is now gone, and the glare is now gone, but the eye still isn’t working 100%. Fuzzy, yes, clear, no. Is the prognosis good? Yes. Would the issue have been smaller, had I seen the doctor earlier? Probably. Have I learned from this? Probably not. The next time my body has an ailment, I will likely use the same strategy: deny, ask others for reassurance, seek help when the ailment becomes worse, and promise myself not to continue with this insane strategy that never works.

Was there any good news? YES. In my normal pursuit of medical professionals, I would never have found this particular doctor. Finding a doctor whom one respects, and who easily develops doctor/patient rapport, is rare. I had been seeking a new doctor to help me with my eye care and this, to me, is fate. Or was it just serendipity? I think it was fate.