Diplopia, seeing cross eyed or double like when you’re drunk. But I’m not had a drop to drink.
I’m seeing double driving into town early one morning. Well actually, I have been seeing double for a few years, now. But this particular morning, I come upon an exit from the road that I’m on, across a rural stretch. Meaning that until this intersection, there are no lights and its as dark as a witches heart. I see double. There are tall light poles at each exit, one on my side of the cross road and one for the traffic coming from the way I’m headed. And far up ahead, there is another vehicle, red tail lights barely visible but double. I have found, by accident, that if I force my eyes to cross, like we did as kids for a good laugh, my double vision will briefly correct itself and I can see a single entity for a few seconds immediately afterward.
Remember when we were kids, too, that falling down was funny? It ain’t any more. As we age and loose our agility and resiliency, falling has become the real threat to our physical well being that medical statistics report. Injury and death are a high on the risk list for the elderly. The specialty of geriatrics spends a lot of time in designing ways to prevent falls and guard against the injuries that occur from falls. Nursing homes have devices that monitor whether a resident gets out of bed or not. Like a baby monitor we put on those precious little bundles of joy we create. But, this monitor sends an alarm to the nurse and staff if the resident becomes vertical, allowing staff to rush into the room to prevent grandpa from getting out of bed. What a life? Not only do our kids banish us to a nursing home from the comfortable surroundings that we have lived in for umpteen years, they force us to stay in bed for the remainder of our life. But I digress, we were talking my diplopia.
So, I cross my eyes. No luck, still seeing double. I do it again a couple more times and I still see 2 of the lights ahead. Oh well, I guess the diplopia is progressing. When it comes to health in the elderly, it’s always something new. Id relate that to a comedic icon of the past, but you wouldn’t know her.
And then, I come closer to the intersection, close enough that I usually don’t see double. Then closer. Then I notice that I’m not seeing double, there are actually 2 lights atop each light pole and that the vehicle now not-so-far ahead of me actually does have 2 tail lights.
Well, as they say, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Just don’t expect any sugar with it!
From your grumpy Uncle Dave, more a fan of grapefruit juice than lemons.