I owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Dean Gurley and Owens Drugstore owner Louie Dudley, who turned a scary Christmas morning into a fairly pleasant Christmas and demonstrated the spirit of the season.
The kids woke my wife and I up about 4 a.m. Tuesday, eager to see what Santa left under the tree.
I went to make some coffee and couldn't quite focus, which wasn't too concerning at the time, considering my glasses were still on the night stand.
I put them on and watched the kids quickly rip through the wrapping paper from each gift, though something wasn't right.
My left eye was focusing fine, but my right eye seemed filmy, and the images appear as though I was looking through an out-of-focus camera lens.
About an hour passed, and I still couldn't see out of my right eye -- even with my glasses on. Then I began to get these sharp pains and a constant watery eye.
With a big day planned, I tried to shake it off, if you will, with plans to get it checked out the next day.
But the extreme discomfort persisted and the inability to see through that eye made it too difficult to do anything, let alone enjoy Christmas.
So my wife drove me to the emergency room. The doctor saw no foreign objects in my eye, but he feared I might have a detached retina, and if it didn't have attention within a few hours, I would be blind in that eye. Talk about a gut punch on Christmas Day. The first thought that came to mind was: How will I provide for my family? Being able to see well is vital when working at a newspaper, the only business I know, quite frankly.
The doctor suggested checking with a hospital in Jonesboro or Memphis to see if they had an optometrist on call. He also gave me the number to a local eye doctor, who was out until January.
Calls to both Memphis and Jonesboro were unfruitful, but my wife did manage to get Dr. Gurley's office.
Although I hadn't seen him since 2010, Dr. Gurley left his family on Christmas and met me at his office, polite and as caring as could be. Fortunately, I didn't have a detached retina, but instead I had a large abrasion on my cornea and I was missing the protective covering.
He cleaned out my eye and put some drops in it as well as a contact lens that basically serves as a bandaid.
To no avail, he scrambled for some antibiotic eye drops, saying an infection was the biggest danger at this point.
Being Christmas, my pharmacy was closed, though Dr. Gurley said Dudley might be willing to go to Owens and fill the prescription.
Mr. Dudley was actually already at the store helping another customer when we pulled up. With his grandbabies waiting for him, he still took time to fill the prescription.
Both men saved Christmas Day for me and I'm extremely grateful to them for taking time away from their families to allow it to be an enjoyable one.
I was even able to come to work Wednesday, albeit having to squint and work under dim lights.
I can't thank both men enough for what they did. God answered another prayer on Christmas.
mbrasfield@blythevillecourier.com