aging sucks

Before leaving for theater, I sit down for a quick bowl of gazpacho soup.  I am seeing a matinee called Murder in The First.  Alexander asks me a question. I look up to answer, and all of a sudden I see specks of black in front of my right eye, sort of like looking through a spider-less cobweb.   Wow, this is weird, is my first thought.  It’s like having a tangled hair in my eye, though it doesn’t hurt.  I’m pretty sure it’s a floater but I call my ophthalmologist to be sure.

From my description, my doctor thinks I’m right.  “But to be sure, you might want to go to the emergency room,” he says.  My immediate two thoughts are time and money:  it’ll cost $200 and I’ll be waiting forever, watching people with far more serious reasons to be there.  My ophthalmologist advises me not to do any heavy exercising (which of course won’t be much of a sacrifice), and to see him on Monday.

I go to the play (excellent), cancel plans with Zelia for the night, have sushi for dinner and google floaters.

As we grow older, it is more common to experience floaters as the vitreous gel changes with age, gradually pulling away from the inside surface of the eye.

Damn.  I was hoping it wasn’t age-related.