Losing Well Part 3

Continuation of my series Losing Well. Part 1 can be found here.


   I threw myself into my new job as an IT consultant. I was working long hours and  didn’t get to see my wife much. This was probably good for our relationship. At least at first. I was having increasing problems driving at night and this did cause some stress between us. After a year of consulting, I was hired to work for a bank in their IT department. She was excited about my new job because it meant stability. She wanted to stay at home and have kids.  
    Late that spring, I went to the an optometrist to get a new prescription. My wife was sick of my complaining about not wanting to drive at night. So I explained to the doctor that I had problems driving after sunset. I also told him how I tripped a lot and couldn’t find things that I had just set down. The doctor had me take a visual fields test. The test was easy enough. I looked at a blank screen and whenever a flash of light appeared, I just had to push a button.
    At first, I thought the machine was malfunctioning. I didn’t see any lights flash for the first couple of minutes. Finally, after about ten minutes and a handful of button pushes, the computer evaluating my performance stopped the test. The computer thought I was lying. I was below it's level of peripheral vision measurability. At first I thought it was a software bug. That’s something that I could understand. The doctor had me retake the test.
    By this time, the practice had closed and the doctor was acting nervous. He’d dilated my eyes several times and the sun had set. I was fearful of the drive home. The doctor pulled out his old college textbook and handed it to me. He told me that I had an eye disease of the retina, retinitis pigmentosa. The disease had no treatment or cure and it was probably going to lead to blindness.
    I thanked the doctor and went to my car. I was numb. I called my wife. I told her that I probably needed to stop driving. Her reaction was to get angry at me. She told me that since there was nothing I could do about the eye disease, I shouldn’t change my life. I should just keep doing what I’d been doing. I thought this was preposterous. I didn’t realize it at the time but finding out about RP would destroy my life.

Part 4 can be found here.