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| Collage of my granddaughter Jassy |
None of us are getting any younger. This has never been clearer to me than this
year when my husband’s vision has been threatened by a chronic condition
triggered by high blood pressure. Even
though his blood pressure is under control the vision condition has continued
to grow troubling.
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| Work in progress on Ivy Collage |
About two years ago he suffered a Retinal Branch Vein
Occlusion (RBVO), which basically means that a blood vessel in his right eye
burst and stopped supplying that part of his retina with necessary oxygen and
nutrients. A large portion of his retina
died in the right eye. He now sees a
large black area in the middle of his vision with only sight in the upper quarter
and side right quadrant. Over half his
vision is obstructed. This has caused
him to loose some depth perception and he often has to close that eye just to
use the computer keyboard or risk hitting the wrong key. He began looking like Popeye, with one
squinty eye.
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| Work in progress #2 on Ivy Collage |
The problem didn’t stop there. Because our bodies are so wonderfully made,
his eye sent signals that there was a lack of blood flow in that eye and the
brain sent back signals to “replace” or grow new blood vessels to replace the
ones that were missing. That sounds
great only the new ones were malformed and actually obstructive in
themselves. They look like cauliflower
rather than smooth veins and they tend to burst and cause more blood floating
in the vitreous of the eye, which causes more obstruction and cloudiness.
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| Work in progress #3 on Ivy Collage |
This happened again a couple weeks ago and he
had to have surgery to vacuum out the cloudy blood from the vitreous in his eye,
as well as cleaning up and cauterizing the new vessels. Just when my honey gets used to the small
amount of vision in that eye, even that is taken away. He is having trouble gauging something as
small as a curb and nearly tripped stepping into the parking lot.
All this has made me look at my art differently this
week. I’m so grateful for my vision, for
my work and my ability to continue working.
No one knows how long they have on this earth or how long they even have
the strength or vision to do that which makes them most happy. I’m grateful for each day I have, and each
day I have with my dear husband.
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| Work in progress #4 on Ivy and the Chicken Collage |
