In 2016 I had a scary experience with my eyes.  Noticing that my vision was deteriorating, I had made an appointment to see the Optometrist in the town nearest to my new location.  He was an elderly doctor who had practiced forever in his little clinic.  As he was examining my eyes, he asked how many fingers he was holding up to my left side.  I couldn't see his hand (and I internally gulped).  He proceeded to ask how long I had noticed that "curtain" in my vision.  I was a bit baffled - how long had I had an entire part of my vision missing?  I knew something was wrong but I didn't realize HOW wrong it was.  And it had been off for a while too - a least a few months and maybe even more when I considered the fact that I had been experiencing floaters in my eyes for a year but figured that was just normal since my previous optometrist told me it was nothing to worry about.   Apparently, when you see a shower of black specks in your eyes, that's NOT normal!  And so