Library Notes
December 11, 2003
By Pansy Hundley, Librarian.
I have not been seeing pink elephants, thank you very much. BUT, I have been seeing something, something that should not have been there. And it sent me very quickly to seek out and find an ophthalmologist. And you know good and well that I’m about to tell you what I saw.
It all started with just a little black dot, right in front of my eyes, moving about as my eyes did. It only lasted a short while, long enough for me to be aware of it. Then it went away, only to appear later in the day, when I was in my Dr. Smith’s exam room. That black dot appeared right in the middle of Doc Smith’s face. That lil’ sucker gets around. I told the doc. about it, so he had me look to the side, the ceiling, the floor and everything seemed to be alright. BUT, then the Doc said if that dot were to start to get bigger, I should get myself to an ophthalmologist, not an optometrist, right away. Naturally, Pansy’s next question was what would it mean? He said maybe a detached retina and I did not want to hear that! May have to wash his mouth out with soap!
People lose sight in their eye, with such a thing. Didn’t want it, didn’t need it. No more black spots appeared. However, something else "appeared" that scared me plenty.
When I pulled out into the street, going home that night, as I looked to my left, checking for cars, there was a lightning flash, right there in the corner of that left eye. Whoa!! I didn’t like that at all. That silly flash continued on and off for a few days, always in the same place and worse in the dark.
I was really getting worried by then, thinking about torn retinas and detached retinas and I found myself an eye doctor. They worked me in the day I called and told them what was happening. My eyes were dilated and finally they were all ready and the doctor appeared.
He really tried to blind me then, with that bright, bright light he shone in each eye. If I wasn’t going blind already, I would be shortly, it felt like.
After he got through with all his examining of both eyes in all directions, he sat down on his little stool and began to write. There I sat in that exam chair, dying to know what horrible things were going on behind my eyes. And there he sat, writing on his little paper. Even if I had jumped up, ran around and read over his shoulder, I probably couldn’t have read it.
Finally, finally, he stopped writing right before I started yelling at him or had heart failure. And here is what he said.
There is a gel behind your eyeball (except, of course, he had a fancier name for it). That gel was pulling loose and that was what I was seeing. The little things are called floaters and what you’re actually seeing are little pieces of gel floating around. Well, I never!
This doc is, however, a man after my own heart. When I asked if that started as you aged, he said "As you mature." I told he had given just the right answer! And got a big doctor-smile for that.
He tells me there is nothing that can be done for it. I informed him that I was hoping for a magic eye-drop, but he didn’t have one.
Naturally, I next asked what if the gel tears the retina coming loose, and he talked about laser surgery then. When asked about complete detachment, he said then it would mean a specialist and surgery. Gonna use that same bar of soap on him!
He told me what signs to look for in the event the horrible happens. And I should get to an ophthalmologist immediately. I, and my insurance company , paid him good money to scare me like that.
The floaters are still floating and the lightning is still flashing. But I don’t panic and I take it easy, thinking maybe I might keep a big chunk from coming loose and tearing something.
I go back in a couple of weeks, to make sure nothing has gotten any worse. I guess this happens to everyone as they "mature", but I’ve never heard of it before, have you?
Now that I’ve written the newspaper for the week, let’s read a book. Let’s read a NEW James Patterson. I thought that would get your attention. "Big Bad Wolf" is the title and it has just arrived. You know that it will be busier than a cat in a roomful of mouses.
"Alex Cross battles the most ruthless and powerful killer he has ever encountered – a predator known only as the Wolf.
Alex Cross’ first case since joining the FBI (Well, how about that???), has his new colleagues stymied. Across the country, men and women are being kidnapped in broad daylight and then disappearing completely. These people are not being taken for ransom, Alex realizes. They are being bought and sold. And it looks as if a shadowy figure called the Wolf – a master criminal who has brought a new reign of terror to organized crime – is behind this business in which ordinary men and women are sold as slaves.
Even as he admires the FBI’s vast resources, Alex grows impatient with the Bureau’s clumsiness and caution when it is time to move. A lone wolf himself, he has to go out on his own in order to track the Wolf and try to rescue some of the victims while they are still alive.
As the case boils over, Alex is in hot water at home too. His ex-fiancee, Christine Johnson, comes back into his life – and not for the reasons Alex might have hoped."