A couple of days ago, I went for my first ever visit to the Emergency Room. I have been there plenty of times before with the kids, but never for myself.

While cutting grass in the yard, something went in my eye. Didn’t know if it was a bug or dirt or a piece of grass or a woodchip. It stung my eye, but as usual, I ignored it. As I was washing up after coming inside, I noticed that the eyeball was fiery red and swollen. Putting in Visine reduced the redness but the swelling was still there. That got me concerned.

I drove myself to the University of Michigan hospital and I could still see properly with my eyes and didn’t want to disturb kids' bedtime. Surprisingly, the ER wasn’t too crowded. I had to wait only one hour after registering in. As it is a teaching hospital, by the time I was interviewed and checked by the nurse, the medical student, the resident and the fellow, more than another hour had passed by. The resident put a dye in my eye and checked the cornea through a microscope to look for scratches and thankfully, there were none. By the time the attending physician came to see me, my eye was almost back to normal. I liked her comment after she checked me out. She said,“It is good to see that we cured another patient without any treatment.”

So, in the end, everything was alright. If I had stayed home for those 3 hours, my eye would have come back to its normal condition, but it was good to know that there was nothing wrong. I don’t mind losing an arm or a leg, and I know that hearing loss is in my future due to all the abuse, but I can’t imagine my life without eyesight. Thanks to some good inherited genes, I still have a 20/20 vision and need no corrective lenses. Without eyesight, I won’t be able to enjoy my hobbies: astronomy and photography. That would be very bad. I think after eyesight, taste and then smell are important to me.

What is your most treasured body part/sense?