In his official cleaner’s uniform with the cell phone pressed tightly to his left ear, he suddenly sprang up from his seat, leapt into the air with his mouth wide open, saying something I couldn’t really understand. “What is it?” I asked. “I am a millionaire! I’ve just got a call that I won a sum of N100million!” he shouted looking dazed and out of this world. Almost simultaneously he started shedding tears – tears of joy.
I was happy for him. I wonder what he would do with such a staggering sum of money. With the meagre salary of a cleaner, I was sure he must be having considerable difficulty making ends meet.
In a jiffy the whole area was engulfed with shouts of “Congratulations! Alleluia,” from his co-workers. I didn’t see him again after that brief encounter and I was wondering if he had left his work and relishing his new status as a millionaire.
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About a month later, I was passing through his office and out of curiosity decided to ask after him from one of his co-workers. “Where is our millionaire?” I inquired. “Do you mean Mr Tayewo?” “Yes,” I responded even though I never knew his name.
“He’s back at work,” she told me. “Why? What happened to his millions?” I asked, startled by her response. “Oh! It was a case of mistaken identity and false alarm! His Lotto number was different but a worker in the Lotto office who knew him thought he was the winner and had called him unofficially,” she said.
She led me to Mr Tayewo’s new section. I was surprised he recognised me. He was a ghost of himself, having lost considerable weight. “You see me sir, I’m now a laughing stock of all the workers in this establishment,” he said, sobbing. He added, “Everyone mocks me and call me Millionaire.”
He wanted to say a lot more but emotions would not allow as torrent of tears flowed down from his eyes – tears of sorrow. “I already know what happened but let me assure you that if you continue to work very hard you’ll never be in want,” I said reassuringly.
Many years later, Mr Tayewo came to my clinic complaining of redness, itching, gritty feeling and burning sensations of the eyes. Symptoms seem to worsen in dry and windy conditions and with prolonged use of the eyes especially while reading and watching TV towards the end of the day. He didn’t recognise me. I decided not to introduce myself until later.
After a comprehensive examination of his eyes, paying special attention to the ocular surfaces including an assessment of amount, thickness and stability of the tear film, I came to the inevitable conclusion that he was suffering from insufficient tear production leading to dry eyes which is otherwise known as the Dry Eye Syndrome.
Now I felt it was appropriate that I introduced myself to him. Before I finished reviving his memory of our previous meetings, he announced with glee, “Oh yes I thought I had seen you before but I didn’t know you were a doctor so I dismissed the idea.”
“Doctor, could this have been caused by excessive crying leading to burning out of the tear glands with nothing left to lubricate my eyes? I really cried my eyes out when I lost my million?” he added. “Lost his millions!? Millions he never had!” was the thought that flipped across my mind.
“Mr.Tayewo, when you thought you won the Lotto you cried for joy; when you were told it was a gaffe and it wasn’t really you who won, you cried in sorrow. These are emotional tears – tears stimulated by emotions through reflex action.
“They have little to do with the tears of sight. In joy or sorrow you may not be able to cry and people may say you’re hard-hearted or unfeeling but nothing would happen to your eyes.
“However if you don’t secrete enough tears in quantity or quality to lubricate your eyes 24hours a day, the integrity of your eyes will be severely compromised and your sight will not only fail, you may become blind! The tears secreted for the maintenance of ocular surfaces are like water to life.”
“What else could have given rise to my dry eyes if not excessive crying?” he asked resigned to his fate. My reply was almost like giving a lecture. I couldn’t help it even though it was no medicine after death.
“A variety of problems may cause dry eyes. Recurrent and longstanding inflammation of the conjunctiva, eyelid diseases, frequent use of some eye drops, drugs used to treat high blood pressure, anti-allergic drugs, decongestants, hormone replacement therapy and certain antidepressants are known to cause dry eyes.”
and then