I'm hoping there will be other "old" fans that I can latch onto and share the awkwardness amidst the anticipated sea of screaming teenage girls.

I'm literally going to be wearing earplugs... 👨‍🦳

I'm quite young to have this problem, and it's only the one eye (though maybe the other is just being slow - i do also see some halos in it), but doctors keep telling me my insurance is amazing.

However, she then told me that she had known the answer before we even started. The digital scan at the beginning of the exam showed a cataract had been growing.

So now I'm starting the process of fixing that. And even though I can tolerate a lot now that I know the problem, I don't want to wait.

Today I did my exam at a different clinic, with more modern tech. It was validating that their fancy machine couldn't figure out what my Rx should be. After a surprisingly delightful meeting with the doctor, I somehow STILL ended up with a not-too-different set of numbers. Annoying...

The next year I was hoping they could find something, but the updated prescription was mostly unchanged and I grudgingly soldiered on.

Over time the blurriness just got more consistent. Being outside in the daytime felt disorienting since one eye worked fine while the other refused.

We'll meet again in a few days, so I have some time to collect notes and prepare. I can also try approaching attention issues the way I've dealt with anxiety issues and see if it helps.

I avoid difficult situations. I'm on alert for danger. I want to please people and not fight. If I can't do well in an unavoidable task, I disconnect emotionally to prevent pain.

I assumed there was overlap in these problems, but didn't think maybe everything only had the one deeper cause.

I do have trouble starting or finishing certain tasks. I regularly fidget. And I'm easily distracted and have occasional mild problems with some working memory. Pretty typical symptoms.

But my mind doesn't race.

Reframing these symptoms in terms of anxiety was interesting:

Normally I'm annoyed by short-form series, but this one feels right somehow, at least in this first act.

He's scared and floating along the sidelines but anchored by the one person being nice.

Glad to meet you and then never converse again. I apologize for responding.