A couple of years ago, I was startled to see that when I read the pages on a book, the top half of the letters disappeared. It was shocking and was steadily worsening.

I didn’t waste much time.

I got to an eye specialist quickly, and he said there was a good chance I might go blind, a bunch of aneurysms – broken blood vessels – was causing part of the eye to swell and block the retina.

He said it was serious, a by-product of diabetes and heart disease.

The thought of going blind got my full attention, and I went to see a retinal specialist outside of Albany named Dr. Naomi Falk.

We began a series of procedures and surgeries that went on every few months until today when she said with a happy smile that the swelling had receded so much and so far that no further surgery was needed and I didn’t need to see her again for four months.

“Your eyes look good,” she said.

We are out of the woods, she added, at least for now. If she realized this had taken two years, she didn’t let on. She just told me how good my eyes looked now, said I didn’t need any more eye medication and left the room for another patient.

I wondered what it might mean to her to help somebody like that, it was pretty tense for a while.

I was happy to hear this news and was touched by her compassion, focus, and skill.

I had four or five laser surgeries during this period, took a number of different medications and I had faith every step of the way that she would help save my sight. She just inspires confidence.

The visits were arduous, each visit took between three and four hours and involved lots of tests and photographs and scans and then, surgeries.  My eyes are light-sensitive, and it takes me a full day before I can seen comfortably again. Because of the dilation, I couldn’t drive myself, and Maria generously drove me and sat with me during every one of those visits

I know how much she hates to be interrupted in her work, but it is a measure of her character that she always seemed cheerful and engaged, as if I were doing her a favor by letting her drive me rather than the other way around. I’m grateful to her; she was delighted to hear Dr. Falk’s news today.

I like Dr. Falk. We talked easily to one another.

Like the other female doctors I saw, she listened and explained and wanted to know a little bit about my life. She loved seeing photos of my dogs and went wild today when I told her about the penguin I met at the Bronx Zoo. She’s going.

She has a crazy border collie.

Today was the day it became clear that she had succeeded, that this chapter was ending. It was tricky stuff when we started; the images of my eye then are grim and disturbing. Hard to imagine at first that she could make it so much better.

She was wearing a mask today in response to the coronavirus, but was, as always, cheerful, funny and focused. She still laughs when I take a picture of the photo scan of my eyes.

She pulled up the color pictures of my eyes and carefully explained what I was seeing. A miracle of medicine, I thought, for all the bitching we do about health care, my heart and my eyes can testify to the wonders they can sometimes perform.

You can see the red swelling in the top frame and the improvement in the bottom.

I explained to her that I tend to share my life on the blog, and she made sure the pictures were bright and clear.

I am older, and when it comes to health, I know that one chapter leads to another. There are few days or weeks where I don’t think about my body.

A doctor once told me that you know you are 40 when something hurts every day.

I feel quite healthy and engaged with the world; I have learned that this is health in its way. I am busier and more fulfilled than ever, getting older has been good for me, perhaps even necessary.

My knees sometimes have other ideas.

For now, I can put my eyes aside and move forward towards finding the right shoes and making sure my fingers stay nimble.

My eyes are important to me; they read my books, help type my words, and it’s nice also to be able to see the words when I write them..