THE BRAVE, FAIR, COMPETENT EYE DOCTOR ON DUTY: A WOMAN!
For days now, I've been struggling with my eyes. I paint, type and write my heart out, AGAINST INJUSTICE, for hours on end, and suddenly I can't see anything anymore, nothing at all: completely blind for a long time. What is going on? I contact my ophthalmologist's office. There, I am sent from pillar to post: help will be available next year, in January. How can I do my work without sight? Nothing else is possible, not even if I go by afterwards. Everything is black with glare. I decide to go to A&E to find out what is suddenly blinding me. I can't do my job like this, I work mainly with my eyes, the gateway to my thinking. I wait for hours for a doctor. A regular doctor who can't help me, because eyes need a specialist. And according to her, I'm not in the right place in A&E. My problem is not an emergency. She gives me the good advice to contact my GP to get a referral to an ophthalmologist. Which I do. So I end up here in the city on the riverbank where I used to end up with my cat and dog. My GP is a sweetheart, an understanding person.
The house where I ring the doorbell is made of steel , no human beings inside, just stairs and lifts and lights, thank goodness! I follow the directions : ophthalmologist in dark handwriting and scribbles on the door and see the equipment in an open space , necessary for eye examinations : on the 3rd floor. The door is open. I sit down in the waiting room and then hear a voice. I follow it to the examination room. There I sit among machines: a sprightly 50-something asks me questions. Name, telephone number, medication, blind people in the family, what is the problem?
The testing begins. A very astutely designed questionnaire, correct... leaving nothing to chance. The usual letter reading and chart tests that are ultimately incomprehensible to me. Left, right, a hand in front of my eyes, and suddenly nothing seems to follow logic anymore. Why can't I see logically? What's going on here? My right eye seems to be dominant, which makes the logic inexplicable to me; hocus pocus to me. The ophthalmologist is charming, correct, sociable and witzig, as they say in German. She is no longer taking any more patients, blocking my upcoming questions. Did you drive yourself here, she asks?
She then launches into a comical explanation: you can drive an old car for a long time, but you shouldn't speed at 160 km/h. A very understandable lesson. My eyes need rest at appropriate times; they are overworked and shut down: good lighting is a must, always.
I also have to use eye drops every day, frequently, and then the problem will go away. Perhaps! I hope so!
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