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Topic: light (05/24/04)
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TITLE: A LIGHT AT THE END OF A TUNNEL By B Price 05/26/04 |
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During this six week wait, John’s vision began deteriorating very rapidly. His vision became very distorted, often seeing double images. Even the simplest things we take for granted became very difficult. Trying as hard as he could to refocus his eyesight, images remained twisted and out of shape. He was seeing images such as animals with six legs and water towers appeared to be fallen down with 2 tanks instead of one. Reading even became impossible. John’s life as he knew it was suddenly turned up-side-down and out of control. It even got to the point that he couldn’t even recognize people he had known for years. He had a hard time hiding all these changes. John’s way of trying to handle the situation was to stay quiet about his feelings. He tried his best to keep me from worrying by using his quick humor. He often made remarks like, “If I could paint what I see, we could make some big “bucks” like Picasso. Maybe he really had an eye problem, instead of a strange imagination.”
A wedge was forming between us that was never there before. We had always been so open with our feelings. My heart was breaking for him. My fear was he was in danger of losing his eyesight completely. I could relate to what he was going through. In the first year of our relationship, I lost my eyesight for two weeks due to an infection in my eyes. We realized that the only way we were going to get through all this was by the Grace of God. We stayed in constant prayer and had many prayer warriors uplifting us in prayer. Thank goodness that God is on His throne and in control.
When John saw the retina specialist, we were unprepared for the diagnosis. We were told that there was damage to the eye due to degeneration along with the blood. John had not had the vision in his right from birth, now the vision in his left eye was 20/87. The doctor did not recommend surgery because the damage was so close to the center of vision. He felt the only chance for John to regain any of his vision was to undergo special treatments. The only problem was we had no insurance and John had not been able to work.
Thank goodness that God was in control. He began opening doors that we never knew existed. First of all the, Optometrist was able to refer John to a specialist that was hard to get a quick appointment for. Second he was a specialist that was working with a study program that involved degeneration such as John was experiencing. Third, John was able to qualify for the program. The specialist could give us no guarantee if any benefit could come from the treatments. What he did not realize was that God had brought us this far and He wasn’t going to let John go through the treatments for nothing. We were told that John had to remain in the study program for two years, coming in once a month for shots directly into the eye. John has now under gone eight months of treatments and his eyesight has improved to 20/20. We now are at least able to see there is a light at the end of our tunnel.
What I wish for now is for everyone to feel compassion when they see people that are blind. Please don’t treat them with pity, for they are people with feelings just like us. Just open a door for them or speak a kind word to them. It might just make their day. Then say a prayer of thanksgiving and never take your eyesight for granted.