A Little Background

This is a blog about me becoming a doctor, among other things. So it's only appropriate that there is something on here somewhere about why I chose to become an eye MD.

Some time ago, like at age eleven, I thought I wanted to be a geneticist (thank God that didn't work out). But then something happened. Two of my brothers, one older and one younger, were one day firing broken paper clips hooked over rubber bands at each other. I maintain to this day that I wasn't partaking in the games. In fact, I distinctly remember going into the kitchen to grab my sixth-grade English book off the counter when I turned to the doorway. In it was standing my younger brother, locked and loaded. Before I knew it, I was pulling a paper clip out of my eye. Who knows if that was really a good idea or not?

We immediately went to the emergency room and I recall waiting a good long time for the ophthalmologist on call to show up. I had gotten a chance to see what my eye looked like and found it with a teardrop shaped pupil. My vision was slowly improving (from just a yellowish light) but was still pretty crappy.

Dr. M. finally arrived and after only a brief look decided I had what we affectionately call an open globe, or more specifically a corneal laceration. I went to the operating room that night where he put five stitches on my cornea. I spent two nights in the hospital (odd, I will have to expand on this later) without much excitement and then went home. I just remember the awesomeness of having a Nintendo at my disposal at all hours.

I visited Dr. M several times over the next several months, finally getting the final stitch out about six months later. I was very fortunate. To this day, with glasses, my vision is 20/20 in that eye.

At that time, I had decided I wanted to be an ophthalmologist. Sure I was young, what did I know? But I stuck with it and knew when I started freaking high school (way, way, way, before medical school) what I wanted to do. Sure other things caught my eye, but for various reasons, they didn't lead me astray.