His Incredibly Perfect Ways

I think I already shared with you that my middle-aged nephew suddenly developed tunnel vision in his right eye over a month ago, causing him to not be able to see anything in the center of his vision of that one eye. We feared macular degeneration. After waiting two weeks to get enough money for the optician, we discovered it was a blood clot.

That scared us, too, because he said if we'd gone right in the day it happened, the chances of breaking it up were good, but not currently. Our next appointment was an opthalmologist, which came almost a month later, again after we'd gathered the money. That visit scared us even more because at that one, they feared glaucoma.

He drives a cab. We have been fearing many things since this began. Worries about possible job loss, safety for himself, his passengers, and other drivers on the road, many things. Today we had the next stage visit, with the glaucoma specialist.

The bad news is that he does have beginning stage glaucoma. The good news is that we caught it just in time. Had he not had that blood clot which sent him to the optician over a month ago, we'd probably just kept on getting him off-the-rack dollar-store reading glasses instead of fresh prescription glasses, and the glaucoma would have progressed out of control.

One Friday soon, over the next week or two or three, we'll be called in for laser surgery for the glaucoma. These days, at his stage, they do an outpatient surgery right in their offices, much like cataract surgery. They laser a tiny hole in each eye, not visible to most because it's under the upper eyelid, to relieve the pressure and keep the fluids from building up. At that visit, we'll also pick up new prescription glasses for reading, which will relieve some of the eyestrain he suffers now. Shortly after that, they look "behind" the blood clot to see if they can break it up with lasers.

His job will not be affected. It turns out his field of vision, using both eyes, is fine so long as he's only a cabbie (up to 5 passengers) and not a limo driver (7 or more), and this is very good news. The other very good news is that they are extremely willing to work with us, money-wise, knowing it is all coming out of pocket because he has no insurance.

He is sleeping now, getting ready to go in tonight, and feeling a lot more relieved, as am I.

Dear Father, thank you with all my heart and soul for your help, for the push you gave us to get in and get this looked at, for always being there; I am full of awe at the extent of your compassion and mercy; help us to continue on the right path to resolve this affliction.