The Emergency Room

I didn't blog yesterday.

I spent the day in the emergency room with someone who was having sudden vision problems. It turned out it was a reaction to a medication and all should be well, but I was scared.

Scared, because I was worried for the other person. But also scared because I was reminded of how I once went totally blind in one eye and partially in the other. Surgery worked, and my vision was nearly restored. (The loss is mainly in the peripheral area.)

But I do worry that I will someday be blind. Could I ever learn to be happy without written words in my life? For me, that would be the worst, even knowing there was a way to substitute text-based words with audio-based ones.

I saw others who were scared, too. An older woman having an extreme allergic reaction. A very old man whose wife had had a heart attack. A family whose father had had a stroke. A young woman who looked as if she had been beaten. A very young woman whose baby was about to arrive too early.

I wonder how many would remember it was Thanksgiving.