The oneeyed man
I don’t believe in past lives but I have often felt that I was born in the wrong century.
I have always been drawn to stone castles, reading by firelight and a simpler way of life. If you asked me what century I would probably tell you sometime around 15-hundred would suit me just fine. I can tell you without hesitation today that it’s a good thing I wasn’t born 500 year’s ago because if I was I’d be blind right now. No kidding. Three years ago, almost to the day, I had blood in the vision of my left eye. I rushed to the hospital, fearing a brain bleed, and was relieved to learn it was just a torn retina. My tear happened right on a blood vessel so that’s why I saw so much blood and got help right away. Lucky me. The laser to fix it was the most painful thing I’ve ever felt but it needed to be done.
One week ago today I woke up in my home in Rensselaer County and noticed a problem with the vision in my right eye. It was very different than what happened before with the left eye so rather than rush to the hospital again, I called the eye doctor and described the symptoms. It was Sunday morning so they had an exchange service handling calls but within five minutes a doc called me back on my cell and told me to come into their office even though it was closed.
He looked inside the eye and asked me if I ate breakfast? I knew exactly what that question meant, I would need surgery as soon as possible.
An hour later I was checked in at Albany Med awaiting my emergency surgery for a detached retina. Had I waited another day it would have come off entirely and I would have lost vision entirely in my right eye. They could fix it of course, even if that was the case, but it makes it that much tougher to get all your vision back perfectly.
As I write this column to you right now I can’t see out of my right eye. It looks like I’m looking through a window that has a quarter inch of Vaseline covering it. They tell me it could be weeks before the vision comes back fully.
I mentioned at the top it’s a good thing I wasn’t born in the 15-hundreds because back then they couldn’t fix a detached retina. I would have lost vision in my left eye in 2017 and today I would be blind. So thank God for small favors and talented surgeons.
I’m also lucky I needed the hospital last week and not a week or two from now. I’m worried this Coronavirus is going to have many of their beds and staff very busy, very soon. It’s frightening how fast this went from a few cases and people being told to wash their hands, to the closing of Broadway,. Disney and no March Madness.
We all know what we should do right now as a nation but it’s too hard and scary and costly to do. If we shut everything down for three weeks and only essential employees left their homes (police, fire, hospital, media) and everyone else just stayed shut in and watched TV we could stop this thing in its tracks.
That move would of course cripple the economy and put people who live paycheck to paycheck in a terrible spot. Although one could argue losing your life is quite a bit worse than losing your paycheck.
I’ve been touring schools reading my children’s book; I suspect that’s about to stop. I was supposed to see Michael Buble’ tonight at the TU Center but that got cancelled too. I’m not upset. This virus spreads too easy and hides in our bodies until we have already given it to grandma, making it especially dangerous and sneaky.
We’ve lived through a lot in the last 20 years including an economic meltdown and 9-11 but this is different. This one will require some sacrifice and discipline. I hope we are up for it.
In a strange way I’m also hoping this pandemic will bring us together. We are so politically divided right now but it’s clear this virus doesn’t care who you voted for or what color hat you wear. I know the president hasn’t handled this perfectly but I wish, just once, we could all row in the same direction and not jump on every single mistake and say, “See, he’s terrible.”
Governor Cuomo has been particularly strong in his response, in my humble opinion, and I hope people listen to him.
Life is so fragile. A virus like this reminds you of that. Maybe for a few weeks we can forget about the presidential race, help one another and root for the human race.
It’s the right thing to do. Even a one eyed man can see that.
John Gray is a news anchor on WXXA-Fox TV 23 and ABC’S WTEN News Channel 10. His column is published every Sunday. Email him at johngray@fox23news.com.