Like so many of life’s new experiences, the novelty of a diagnosis of glaucoma has a tendency to wear off. The evening Xalatan eye drops become automatic, even banal. One can become quite used to the idea of the eternal vision faculty, saving it, that is. Even on the less good days, when I was aware of cataract sneaking in, a memory of the "Which would you rather" game on the subject of blindness and deafness, recommended for young people only, was not particularly oppressive. Well. until ... Until last week when I went through a cataract surgery on my right eye.

It wasn’t so much the cataract surgery itself that reminded me that life often isn’t considerate but the additional after-surgical therapy because of the glaucoma. And on the subject of glaucoma, on a leaflet in the waiting room, I read that controlling the eye pressure by eye drops like Xalatan one can prolong his vision faculty for five, ten, even fifteen years. I’ve probably read or heard something like that when I was diagnosed with glaucoma but I wasn’t wary then - it was twelve years ago. Now I doubt: is there a light at the end of the tunnel?