fufaraw | Entries tagged with eye can't do that dave

I'm sorry I haven't been around much. Truth is, I've been feeling pretty crappy for several weeks, now, and haven't felt up to engaging. The neighbors all think I'm a standoffish bitch (well...yeah. Little bit), but I haven't felt like being really present here, either. The lack of spoons came on slowly--so sneakily I didn't notice until the change was really apparent. Along with the pain and the eye issues, my blood sugar has sneaked up a mildly alarming level, so I'm making some lifestyle changes and hoping that will make the necessary difference.

Meanwhile, I'm reading, nodding, and cheering or sympathizing, my friends. Those reactions have just failed to materialize by keyboard, and I'm sorry. I'm working on it.

I just had an email sneak past my junk filter and read the heading, "dark-monkey floodgates". Then I read it again, correctly, "dark-money floodgates." Well, that's not nearly as intriguing. Junk mail it is, then!

OH and I are both suffering a bout of slight eye irritation, from either airborne irritants, or a possible approaching cold (makes warding sign). I mentioned that my eyes were itchy, and he said, "Mine too. I took a benedryl, and washed my face in cool water, and I washed my eyes out with eyedrops."

I made a skeptical face.

"If you don't want to take anything, you could at least use the eyedrops. It's just saline."

...aaand my compulsion to set words to music kicked in. To the tune of "Sailing...(takes me away)" I warbled, "saaaline..."

He closed his eyes and did the headshake and fought a reluctant grin. And then it occured to me: in our relationship, he's the Jensen, I'm the Jared!

I've been anxious about it, but it turned out pretty great! The last synechiae attachment has broken, and my pupil is round and reactive, so that's great. There are still some pigment cells from the back of my iris clinging to the lens, which contributes to some slight obscured vision, but at the moment, there's no inflammation, and no more "sticking".

I still haven't seen the rheumatologist--there were four in town, two retired, the remaining two are seeing all the patients, and despite references from my PCP and the eye surgeon, the rheumo just hasn't even been able to give me a rough date when I might be able to make an appointment.

The PCP said the bloodwork was inconclusive as to the cause of the inflammation, so the surgeon just treated with steroid drops and dilator drops--beginning doses multiple times a day. We eliminated the dilator drops, and reduced the steroid to twice daily, then daily, then every other day, and then none. It's been a month since I've been off the steroids completely, and she's pleased with how my eyes look.

I still haven't gotten new glasses, and she said the right eye is at 20/25, the left eye (the one that caused all the trouble) is at 20/30, which isn't optimum, but it's manageable. I have "really big" cataracts in each eye, which will grow more opaque over time. She wants to see me in four to six months to monitor them. But chances are pretty good I'll have them removed from both eyes in a year's time, and that should reduce my myopia significantly. So we agree that it would be pointless to pay out of pocket for new lenses when in a year's time I'll have to have my prescription checked and adjusted. So for now, I'm keeping the glasses I have.

There is still lots of veiling from the PVDs (posterior vitreous detachments), but there isn't a lot that can be done about them. Any surgical removal attempts usually leave scars, which obscure the vision more than the PVDs do. I just have to keep my zen and concentrate on seeing past the veiling and not let it annoy and irritate me.

She did say that cataract removal would result in much clearer and brighter vision, as well as reducing the myopia. And so we wait. I'm to contact her if I develop new symptoms, or if there's pain. But otherwise, I'm good to go, for now.

Whew! That's a relief. While it doesn't fix anything, at least it's not a deteriorating, untreatable condition. I'll take it.

The eye surgeon is pleased with the improvement in the eye. The pupil no longer looks like Quasimodo's lumpier cousin, OH says, but like a football. The atropine drops have broken some of the adhesions that were pulling it out of shape. But they've done as much as they can do, so I'm to stop the atropine drops, and finish the week with the steroid drops twice a day, and once a day thereafter until my next appointment at the end of October. Vision itself has improved--the opaque "floater" that obscured more than half the vision in the left eye has reduced to about the size of the end of my finger, and is nearly clear. No pain, and much less light sensitivity. However,

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It was all sunshiney this morning, and now, Thunder! Hail! Torrential rain! Wow, very rain, much wet!

We were staring dully at each other last night like we'd forgotten how to language. "What do you want for supper?" asked OH.

I'm on a raft of different meds right now, and my appetite is verschimmlt. "Nothing. What do you want?"

"I had those cookies. I could probably just eat a banana."

I nodded. "Banana sounds okay."

Both of us fully aware we need to eat with our meds, and if we don't eat, by bedtime we'll be crunching on the furniture. In a little while there's rumbling and thumping coming from the kitchen, and then something starts smelling good. In a little while longer, he brings me a bowl of OMG SO GOOD soup. Frozen chicken breast, nuke for a minute, shave off the thawed bits, return the rest to the freezer and cook the thawed bits in canned broth with shaved ginger and carrot, minced celery and garlic, green onions, rosemary, thyme, savory, wide rice noodles, a crap-ton of cracked black pepper, and a dash of sea salt. Serve.

Both of us operate on the principle that making people laugh helps them see you as human and not just another case, and they'll remember you fondly. I am attentive, as a client or a patient, I'm just not reverent. And OH is, well, me squared. We had the receptionist, two techs, and the doc in bursts of laughter, riffing back and forth on one-liners. The rest of their patients for the day should thank us.

The eye is much improved--I can read...well, recognize letters, rather than just smudges on a white page. The inflammation is much lower, and the adhesions are fewer. I'm to drop two doses of steroid per day this week, two more next week. She's referring me to a rheumatologist to determine the cause and possible treatment, if necessary, of the inflammation, since the relevant part of the determining blood work wasn't back yet. Luckily OH had the same rheumatologist several years ago and likes her. So it looks like we're taking this show on the road. Spreading cheer wherever we go, Smartass & Smartass, pull my finger.

The fridge and freezer did their jobs and we didn't lose any food from the power out. There were still a few lights out here and there, a few intersections working on manners and patience, and limbs and leaves down everywhere. DOT trucks had cut the tree across the highway from us off the power lines and short enough that if it falls the rest of the way it will miss both lines and road. They also cut and moved the two downed trees out of the street behind us, and they've been busy all over town doing the same thing. Pockets were still without power up the I-5 corridor from Everett to Blaine, with power restoration expected by midnight last night. It's rained all day Sunday and Monday, with the wind getting up again at night, but no more significant damage.

Unfortunately, almost none of the rain has made it over the mountains to where it's needed to help contain the fires. Our thoughts are still with the firefighters and residents there.

I had an appointment with the eye surgeon yesterday morning to discuss what the bloodwork taken on Thursday showed, and to assess any hopeful reduction in inflammation due to the round-the-clock steroids. The practice had also lost power, and one of their exam-treatment-surgical suites was still dark, and they had a backlog of patients waiting. After sitting an hour and change, we arranged to go back on Wednesday morning, continue to take the steroid drops meanwhile, and add in artificial tears for the dryness caused by the steroids. My drops schedule, worked out by OH, looks like this:

Steroid A: 9AM, 12N, 3PM, 6PM, 9PM, 12M

Steroid B: 11AM, 10PM

"tears": 1PM, 8PM

Also, thank heaven for OH, because I can't drop my own eyes, truly. I just see it coming and blink, can't help it. We're staying pretty close to home to keep on schedule.

The bruise in my left elbow from the dry stick is spectacular. There's just the faintest smudge on the back of my hand where she finally hit a gusher, and no soreness at all. Gold star for the phlebotomist!

$180.00 for a teeeeny bottle of eyedrops? Really?

And that's the generic! Oy.

Thank heaven for OH, though, because I can't put drops in my own eyes, to save me, and one of these is 6 x day, the other is 2 x day. The sweetheart, he even sat down and drew up a schedule.

This morning was a consult, to see if a procedure was needed. It's not great news, no "Take these pills and use these drops, and it should clear up within seven to ten days," which, you know, would have been optimal. But it's not dire, either.

Turns out, it's autoimmune related, probably the psoriasis, but possibly some other lovely little disorder tucked in there all secret-like. Whatever it is is causing inflammation in the eye, which is attacking itself and making the iris adhere to the lens, which pulls the iris out of shape and prevents it from iris...ing. And also is causing scarring to the lens, or a cataract, which is the giant floater "veil," and the longer it goes on the worse it gets.

So I have bloodwork tomorrow, searching for specific autoimmune markers, and depending on those results, she wants a spinal x-ray. I've known about the soft tissue damage for a while, but I've always run from systemic psoriasis drugs--they do so much harm, and I'd rather manage the symptoms, and have done, for years, with diet, exercize, and behavior mods: stress release and control. I had a friend with severe psoriasis for whom the drugs meant a good quality of life. But they also meant a fast and horrific end, so. As long as I can avoid them, I will.

I have steroid drops for a definite and brief period, blood work tomorrow, and I see her again on Monday to find out if she has enough information to treat, or if she needs more info, i.e., the spinal x-ray. First we get the inflammation treated, then she'll do a six-minute procedure to remove the damaged lens and slip in an artificial one, and I should have my vision back. Hey! As long as she's replacing the lens, maybe I could get a vision-corrected one. That would be neat.

Thanks for all the well-wishes. It didn't go as badly as I'd imagined. Bright lights hurt, touching my eye, DNW! But it was okay and now it's done...till Monday.

Off to the eye surgeon in a few. Wish me...well, no monsters at least.

After the eye doc called the clinic and detailed the problem and did the referral, I got a call from the clinic's central Seattle office, instructing me to call the local office and book an appointment, which I did, finally, yesterday.

So I should see a surgeon next Wednesday, the 26th, and we'll go from there.

Meanwhile, half the time I'm reading with a gauze patch folded and held in place by my glasses over the eye, because it's too much strain on the right eye trying to focus with the left, the vision in which is definitely occluded.

In more interesting news, the giant floater which I dubbed the "space paramecium" after an alien creation in an episode of TOS, and which seemed more fixed than the other PVD floaters, has become less tethered in place. It retains, more or less, its paramecium shape, and is darkly translucent, speckled with darker mottling. On a good day, I can, by quick eye movements, make it swoop and dive from one side of my vision to the other. It resembles those starling-flock fall migration maneuvers called "murmuration". Endlessly (well, no, not endlessly, but it does relieve the challenged vision tedium) entertaining. Aren't you all envious? Don't you wish *you* had a space paramecium of your very own? No? Well, can't say I blame you.