Southern Hospitality

• I woke up one morning and I kept seeing spots before my eyes. Thinking it was the start of a migraine, I took one of my pills. I walk around all day a little out of it but I can function. I still see the spots, but there's no pain. The next day I woke up again with the spots in front of my eyes. Rather than take a chance of getting a real painful headache, I take another pill. The next day I'm no better.
• The only way I can describe the spots is to tell you to think of a camp fire. When you put a newspaper into the fire pieces of the paper fly up, they look like black flakes that just flow.
• After a week of this, starting to think I have a brain tumor or something, we decided it's time to seek professional help.
• We get a car from the marina, we can have it for one hour. Its around 1 o'clock. Mike drives me to the walk-in clinic. They tell us it will be a two to three hour wait. Mike gives me money for a taxi home and I get comfortable while I wait.
• Two and a half hours later, I go in to see the doctor. Well its Doogie Houser. This man can't be over 21. He's handsome and has just enough of a southern drawl to make me melt. He must have spent a good hour just talking to me and asking me questions. He called a collegue of his and made an appointment for me to go right over to his office. I explain that I do not have a car, that I have to call a cab. He offers to drive me to the other doctor. I decided to call Mike, I'm a little nervous. Mike gets the car, it's 5:30 and he must have it back by 6, the office girl wants to go home and can not as long as we have the car.
• Once again Mike lets me off at the second office with money to call a cab. This doctor is just as nice and young. Maybe I'm just that old. My mother once told me when the police, priests and doctors look young, you're over the hill. No, he is very young, he just opened his practice.
• After examining me and taking several x-rays, he tells me I have Posterior Vitreous Detachment. PVD is a common condition which occurs in about 75 percent of people over the age of 65. The jelly-like substance inside the eye changes. To make a long story short, the central part of the vitreous becomes more liquid and the outer part peels away from the retina. This causes the floaters or flashing lights. I have to learn to live with it. I can handle that.
• The only people in the office now are the doctor, his assistant and me. It's near 7 oclock and I'm about to call for the cab. My eyes are dilated and very light senitive. The doctor says, "Don't be silly, I'll drive you home." Can you imagine that. I have never had a doctor keep his office open for me before, much less drive me home. That's what I call southern hospitality.