Looking Back

As another year draws to a close, it is a time to reflect.

When I posted an account of my accident on this blog, (Dec. 7, 2006.) two days after it happened, there were 20 comments from people wishing me a speedy recovery.

This was a large number when I consider that my blog only got a 100 hits a day back then, and 20 return visitors a day.

Those 20 comments probably came from the entire regular readership at that time. It was this thought that kept me going and helped me tremendously over the months that followed. The thought that people cared, and these were mostly people I had never met.

The bicycle and the love of riding was the common element that connected us. For four months my vision was so bad (From a damaged nerve.) that I couldn’t drive a car or ride my bike; I was pretty much house bound. My computer and this blog was one thing that prevented me from going stir-crazy.

I used a pair of eyeglasses with a piece of black electrician’s tape over one lens, so the computer screen did not appear double. After four months my vision was improving, I could now focus on the computer screen or a book, without the aid of tape on my glasses. It was just my distance vision that was still a problem.

My doctor told me I could drive again if I used an eye patch over my right eye. I tried this, but the eye patch would not fit over, or under my glasses; I went back to the single piece of black tape on the inside of the right lens.

Actually, this worked better than the eye patch, which blocked out all vision to the right. The narrow piece of tape cuts out the double vision, but still allows me to look to the left and right, without any blind spots.

I have a tendency to get arthritis if I am inactive. My joints were stiffening up, and there was some pain. When I ride my bike, the stiffness and pain go away; it was obvious I needed to get back on a bike. I did so in March of 2007.

After a couple of months, my fitness level improved and I discovered, quite by accident, a strange phenomenon with my vision. I had noticed if I worked on the computer for a while, afterwards my distance vision was good for a short while, before returning to double.

One day I decided to ride my bike without the tape on the glasses, and found I could see just fine. I got all excited thinking my vision had suddenly returned to normal. Later that day I drove my car and couldn’t see worth a shit.

I discovered, if I look straight ahead, for example, at the TV screen or a picture on the wall, I see a double image. If I keep my head straight and look up at the light fixture in the ceiling, I am perfectly focused.

Riding my road bike, my head is down and I am looking up all the time, so my vision is fine. All these strange variances in my vision convince my doctors and me that the normal vision will return eventually. The eye itself is fine; it is the nerve that moves the eye to focus that is damaged.

It is appropriate that my insurance claim and settlement came to a close this month; the end of a year being a symbolic time for putting the past to rest and moving forward. My next post will be the last of 2007 and I will write about my plans for the coming year.


Photo by Joshua Curry