This week, and next, I’m posting a guest blog from my friend and fellow writing group member, Phil VanHuffel. Phil has been a wonderful member of our Non-Fiction Writing Group. He joined way back before the pandemic, when we met at Schuler Books and Music in Grand Rapids. We’re still going strong, Phil and several other members of the group have published their first books. Hope you enjoy!
Ageing – Part 1
It begins. Almost undetectable.
At 70 years of age, full of life, very active, working, traveling almost every week, there is a whisper of something not exactly right. What is it? No time to investigate.
It can’t be the quadruple by-pass that took six weeks to recover so work could continue. That went without a hitch and the healing was rapid. Three weeks after surgery you were an active witness at your grandson’s wedding. You fashioned a side ceremony honoring the bride’s grandparents. You wrote the words and actions for this.
Back to work like nothing happened. Airports, airplanes, rental cars, hotels, meet the clients, start the audit whether it was Quality or Environment. Ask the questions. Search documents for compliance. Observe operations in the factory and outside. Return and repeat the same scenario the next week someplace else.
There is no time for ageing.
Several years go by. There seems to be a change in the focus of the eyes. It’s nothing. Schedule an appointment with the ophthalmologist. Six weeks. OK. Back to work.
The ophthalmologist says there is a slight problem with the left eye. She schedules an appointment with a retinologist. Another eight weeks. OK. Back to work.
The new doctor says there is a distortion on the surface of the retina. He doesn’t explain beyond this but provides a card with a grid pattern and a dot in the center. He explains that it should be looked at three times per day with only the left eye, for at least two minutes. No reason. Come back in two months. This instruction lasts about two days. Back to work.
In two months, nothing has changed. Come back in two months. In two more months, nothing has changed. With no explanation of the condition and no advice on proceeding, I’ve become a billing opportunity, in my opinion, so I stop seeing this doctor. I have somehow compensated for the lack of focus in my left eye and things seem normal.
Fast forward 18 years. Now a different doctor says if I had surgery on the retina when originally diagnosed, it would have been corrected. The procedure now, didn’t work. My brain no longer compensates. I have lost depth perspective. Welcome to ageing.
