Pterygium

Something is growing across your eye. Slowly, quietly, persistently. A tissue that does not belong there is pushing in from the side across the cornea — millimeter by millimeter. Medicine calls it pterygium, or surfer's eye. A benign overgrowth of the conjunctiva that lays itself over the clear surface of your eye like a veil no one ordered.

In the early stages you barely notice it. Perhaps a foreign body sensation, reddened eyes, a little dryness. But as the tissue continues to grow, it begins to cloud your vision. It distorts the surface of the cornea, shifts the focus, makes it harder to bring things into sharp relief. At some point there is a film between you and the world — thin enough to see through, thick enough to distort everything.