11/22/2025
So I’ve been laid up for over 8 months and unbeknownst to me, under the influence of my condition since late last year. So basically I haven’t been operating at 100% for about a year now. I share this not for symphaty, although I won’t turn the sentiment away, I share this to show the impact something like this can have on your business. I thought I was good. I had prepared for a permanent loss - death. Personal and business life insurance, a will, trust, detailed instructions in case of my untimely demise. I operated my business without regard to what I thought was my greatest fear. Then I suffered a retinal detachment. At first it was nothing but confusion. I thought I was suffering from dry eye. After all, in early 2024 I had underwent surgery for cataracts. Dry eye was a reasonable side effect of the recovery process. I had no pain, i hadn’t experienced any strike to the head or other trauma so I carried on. Fast forward into early 2025 and I began to realize that there was a small white circle in the middle of my vision field of my right eye. Again, there was no pain so I didn’t panic. As the months progressed I began to notice the little white circle was getting larger. That is when I scheduled an appointment with the eye doctor. After a quick exam, he says to me, “Sir, you have a problem. You nee to see a retinal specialist.” I asked, “When?” Expecting him to say next week. He said, “Tomorrow.” I visit the specialist the next day and after a thorough examination he says, “Sir, you need surgery.” I ask, “When can you schedule it for?” Expecting him to say next week he says, “Tomorrow. I’d do it today but t’s too late to get an OR. You will be first yhing in the morning.” I had surgery first thing in the morning. The next month was pure torture. 4-weeks of being in a faced down position. Having use of only one eye for three months and instructions to not exert myself during ghis time was not something skmeone in my profession looks forward too. You might as well be in a coma. Anyway, I was prepared for a few months of inactivity. This was something I prepped for, I built in contingencies to weather that storm with both cash reserves and appropriate personnel. That was until a week after my all-clear post op visit I feel a sharp pain in my left eye and then my field of vision begins to diminish from top to bottom in a matter of hours. I leave a message for my specialists that night. I get a call from him first thing in the morning to come ASAP. I get to the office and after being examined he says, “Your other retina has detached as well. You need surgery today.” Within 3-hours I was on the operating table having surgery on my left eye. Mind you, my right eye is still healing. So now I am basically fully visually impaired I have another 3-4 weeks of faced down protocall. I cannot read, anything. That includes computer screens. I cannot drive. And this continues well past the 3-4 week period. I share all this to make this point concerning my business. During this ordeal my business was basically in standby. All this happened during a period that I was starting a major project. There were a lot of pots on the business fire. Then this happened and then what was to be a 3-month slowdown has now become a 8-month slowdown. And when I say slowdown I mean temporary shutdown. It became quite evident quite quickly how inactivity isn’t so inactive in business. You can pause, but the world around you keeps going. My vision is still not 100%. At one point I was considering shuttting down my business. Now getting the business up and running again is the goal. All this to say that no matter how prepared you yhink upu are, there is always a blindspot. Today I was walking the site, taking inventory and saw this guy. Nature has a way of reminding us how wonderful life is.
