Howdy ... Bob(deckman)Nelson here.

Like most of you, I prefer to keep my personal life far away from the Internet. But ... I have just survived a medical condition that I want to share with you.

My ONLY reason for sharing this very personal story is to give hope to any Mudcatters out there that run into a similiar problem.

I started losing the vision in my right eye last December. It was a very slow process, but it was clear to me (that's a pun folks) that I couldn't see anything above the upper half of what was coming in through my eye.

I went for my yearly physical in January and told my Doctor of my concerns. He took it very seriously and had me into an eye doctor THAT afternoon. After many tests, he declared that I was fine and I should "stop worrying."

About two weeks later, as I saw (or didn't see ... another joke folks) my vision diminishing further, I went back to my G.P. and said, "somethings really wrong." He shedualed me with his personal eye doctor.

It turns out that my description of my vision problems matched those of a stroke. When he arranged for those appointments, he asked them to "look for symtoms of a stroke." Strokes are often diagnosed by way of an eye exam. So, he gave them a mind set to look only for a stroke.

After a two hour exam, he told me that at the age of 69, or is that 169, my vision loss was caused by a "drooping eye lid." I said thanks, I feel so much better now ... I'll go home and really sleep good tonight!"

Another two weeks passed and I knew that I could no longer build the beautiful decks I'm known for, I couldn't read my tape measure, I couldn't draw a straight line. and ... I COULDN'T SEE WHAT I SAW!

I walked myself into my reguliar eye doctor then and said, "Please help me ... no one's listening to me." He listened to me and gave me a 3 hour exam.

It turned out that I had a "dettached retina" (sp?). He got me into the one surgeon in my area that does that surgery. My condition was VERY DIFFICULT to diagnose, let alone see (oooops, yet another pun ... sorry).

Long story short ... I had the surgery two months ago, my vision has returned perfectly, and I feel like the luckiest dog on the planet.

Here's my lesson for all of you ... listen to your own body. You (we) all know ourselves better than any outsides (doctors). And if you know something is wrong, keep pestering until the "experts" get it right. I did and I'm glad I did.

Final note ... I'm doing just fine now and I don't need ANY sympathy notes! Hugs to all ... CHEERS, Bob