God's Practical Joke

     Today I am 44 years old. It's hard to believe, 44 doesn't seem as old to me as it did 30 years ago. It is what it is and the best thing for me to do is go along with it. I am sure you have heard stories from people over 40 saying that once they hit their forties their bodies, respectively speaking, started falling apart. I thought that was a little bit funny since I was in an accident at 38 and my body went through some incredible changes before 40. Thankfully, turning 40 was not a big life changer on my body or my health.

     Other than the fact that I have ocular histoplasmosis and from time to time I deal with double vision from the Traumatic Brain Injury. I am always thankful for my great vision.Other than those minor problems my vision is 20/15 or so it was at my last eye doctor visit. But today when I woke up my vision was drastically altered. Everything was blurry. I couldn't even read the messages inundating my iPhone. As minutes breezed by I started seeing everything else pretty clear, but I still couldn't read the text messages on my phone.

      Anyone who knows me knows I am a textaholic, if there is such a thing. So it was a huge disappointment for me to wake up on my 44th birthday and not be able to read the text and Facebook messages coming in from all my great friends and family wishing me a happy birthday. I kept thinking, maybe I am still sleeping. Maybe I have something in my eyes. Then, I started to recall a flood of stories I had heard from people over the years who told me about their bodies falling apart after their 40th birthday.

     Although I was terribly upset, I started going through my morning ritual but couldn't stop thinking of how depressing it is that my vision would leave me on my birthday of all days. A great friend called while I was in the shower. We spoke for a few minutes before I explained what I was doing and I would call her back.

    After I got out of the shower and dried off, I looked at my phone and could see my messages. I started laughing out loud because I think God was playing a practical joke on me. I guess that is what I get for all the practical jokes I play on my close friends and family all the time. Either way, I am so thankful to God that I can read the text messages on my phone.
Below is a picture of what my retinas look like. The dark area is where there is blood and the only way to stop the bleeding is with Lasers. I have to sit very still during the procedure or I will go blind.