Last year when I was cutting a Christmas tree for my mother, I managed to poke myself in the eye with a tree branch. It stung and bothered for me a week, but then I pretty much forgot about it.

Over this fall and winter, as the air has turned drier with lower temperatures, my eye has bothered me on occasion again. This Sunday it really flared up and started watering profusely. It turned bright red, and bright lights became painful.

So I went to the doctor today because it is still bothering me. It turns out that last year I scratched my cornea. It is an injury that will never entirely heal, and may flare up at times, possibly causing more problems as time continues. The drier air does make it worse. There is, I guess, a layer of skin that covers the scratch. It's not a perfect cover though, and the dry air of winter, combined with the large amount of time I spend in front of a cathode ray tube, can leave it susceptible to aggravation.

The doctor gave me an ointment to put in my eye a few times a day for the next week. Then for the next month, I have to put it in before I go to bed. For the rest of my life, I may have to go through this same process every winter.

I had been considering get that laser surgery to correct my vision this year, but now I've been told that scratch on my cornea may make this difficult.

It's a pretty minor impairment as things go. Still, from now on I buy the pre-cut trees instead of sawing down my own.