Hi everyone. Thanks again, Judy, for letting me know about this site. It's so good to be with my BT friends again!

I had an eye exam recently. I dread those exams because they're so painful - I'd rather have a root canal. What made it worse was the days leading up to the exam were the toughest challenge I've faced yet.

Every symptom from head to toe decided to flare all at once, and the pain was pretty harsh. My stomach decided to join along, so I spent three solid days crying and heaving in the bathroom without any sleep, food or water. Several hours before my appointment, my legs gave out and I tripped over Geneva. It startled her, and when she got up it flipped me face first into my dresser. Fortunately, I turned my head before impact - had a huge lump on the side of my head though, and bruises all over.

I managed to clean myself up and make it to my appointment. All that pokin' and proddin' made me start heaving again and feeling faint, but the only way out of there was to finish the exam.

There were some fun moments too though. A doc friend of his interrupted our visit because he had a patient from Boston in his office he wanted to brag about - a fascinating case he was researching and writing about.

Dr. Sugar puffed up and said he had a pretty interesting case too, leaned back and told his friend of his most amazing discovery some 25 years ago - the story of my mother. He remembered every detail.

He then told his friend to take a look for himself. The doc looked into my right eye. My doc said "check out the diffuse lattice lines all around the periphery, and the thin wispy lines through the center. His friend remarked "spectacular." My doc then said "now, check out the left eye." His friend looked into my left eye, sighed, then said "Ahhhh, beauuuuutiful." He then realized he wasn't just looking at a slide, he was looking at a patient who was obviously very sick. Before he could apologize, I laughed at him and told him it had been a while since I'd had a man react that way to my appearance.

I had a long talk with my doc about some concerns I've been leery about discussing with him - was afraid maybe he'd have me committed, lol. Thing is, I see dead people - just kidding - no, really, I see visions - usually when I've gone through these phases or when I've allowed myself to cry.

When I close my eyes, there's a strong, bright strobe-light effect. Added to the mix is an amazing fireworks display, and it shoots me into "outer space." It looks like I'm speeding through a tunnel with stars all around me - or they are speeding past me, not really sure. Then I see objects, landscapes, and faces of people I don't know. The exception was when I saw the face of a girl I went to grade school with, but we weren't friends, and I never even thought of her when we went to school together.

My doc assured me I'm not crazy, and said my "visions" are probably due to extreme pain/exhaustion. He also explained why my daytime vision is so strange. The overall haziness has increased, but the visual acuity is still there. The diffuse lines around the periphery, give me no peripheral vision, only a kaleidoscope effect. I still have central vision, but sometimes it's very surreal. I was downtown one day and looked across the street to see if I could see anything. Everything was out of focus, except for a man and his dog - he and the dog appeared highlighted. I watched him and his dog cross the street, and they remained highlighted, while everything else remained out of focus and distorted. My doc said it's because of the thin lines through the center of my cornea that made it look like there was a light on that man and dog.

It's been a few years since I've seen my doc. At the end of the visit, I told him it was good to see him again, that he was looking good. He smirked back at me - "Yeah, well, your vision is very distorted."

I'm still recovering from this recent bout, but I'm feeling MUCH better. I look forward to reading about all the happenings in your lives since we've been apart.