Article | Macular Degeneration: In the Eye of the Beholder

Macular Degeneration: In the Eye of the Beholder

By Elaine Voboril 

I hear the wild laugh of the pileated woodpecker. I turn off the Mixmaster and peer out the kitchen window. She lands on my suet feeder and pecks away, pieces of suet flying, as she ratchets the frozen tallow. This is a mature female. She does not have the red stripe from her bill back to the throat and her crest is perfectly coifed -- not the immature feathers that stick up on a juvenile like the hair of a teenage boy. I was putting together my mother's recipe for refrigerator cookies, but … [Read more...]

Featured Topic: Fear, blindness and vision

Fear, blindness and vision

By Jerome Buchmeier 

Our featured topic: Coping with Fear I'm going blind. Little by little. Well, maybe. Five years ago, I had murky glue over part of my left eye some mornings. The ophthalmologist said, "It's a cataract." I said, "It comes and goes each day." He said nothing. I wondered if he heard what I said. And one day it stayed, and gradually clouded over completely. Not so bad. A little bit harder driving at night. The only thing I can't do is play ping-pong. I don't trust surgery, except maybe … [Read more...]