Life is already tough without adding anything to it. My lack of discipline in my younger years left me with diabetes.
I didn’t make much money then, so my news came from a free clinic. I got more threats than education. I have always been strong-willed so I doubt I would have listened either way.
As I was coming around a bin in the mountains of Colorado, it became evident that my vision was fading. I didn’t know or understand the damage that was taking place. This was 2019, almost 20 years after my diabetes diagnosis.
When I got back to Atlanta, I vowed to go to the eye doctor, but I continued to tour. I did a two-week run with Jonathan McReynolds, traveling to Detroit, Columbus, Manhattan and Brooklyn, down the east coast, and all the way to LA.
I finally made it to Sam’s Optical and received a less than great report. Blood vessels were forming behind my eyes and causing me to go blind.
I was shocked and in my ignorance, I waited yet again. Months later, I finally went to a professional. The news was not good. My right eye was pretty much shot and the left one was on the way.
The doctor informed me that I needed surgery and would be face down for two weeks.
"Two weeks?" I repeated. "I can’t do that, Doc. I have a business to run." I waited yet again.
There is so much more to this story but I will save it for my book. I would eventually undergo surgery on May 27, 2021, a day after my birthday. There is now oil in my eye to keep my retina in place.
As I write this blog; as I run my business; as I record my podcast and YouTube videos, and as I grocery shop and cook dinner, I now do it with impaired vision.
I live life through the blur.
