fbhjr | Fantastic luck

I’ve got a problem.

Some where between Alabama and Massachusetts my left eye began to bother me.
I don’t know exactly where.
It was 24 hours of driving over two days with only 5 hours of sleep.
And, I had just spent a weekend in the sun, getting a bad sunburn.

Over on the side of my left eye, it began to get a big foggy. Not bad. I could still see. It looked like there was a smudge on my glasses.
But, I don’t wear glasses…

I had thought that I probably got a sunburn on my eye. I’ve done it before. I got quite a sunburn while down south. Bad enough my skin was peeling, starting about the same time as the eye started getting strange.

I thought it would get better on its own.
It didn’t.

This morning it was quite bad when I got up. Almost half of my vision in that eye was blurred out.
So, I called my eye doctor.

This is where my good luck kicked in.
"Oh, we just had a patient cancel for 1PM today," the doctor’s wife and receptionist told me. "Can you come in then?"
"Sure!" (My boss is very good about health things.)

I’ve been going to that eye doctor for years. I’ve never had such a complete exam. He used equipment I didn’t even know he owned on me.
I was somewhat happy that as the tests went on, I kept getting good results.
My vision is above average. My retina doesn’t look damaged. No sign of damage to the lens of my eye.

Then, a triple dose of eye drops to open my eye.
"Hmmm…" he said looking through several lenses at the back of my eye.
"Hmmm?" I asked.
"I think it is papilledema," he said. "But, it almost never happens in just one eye."
"Is that bad?" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilledema, yeah it is…)
"I’m going to make some phone calls," he said.

No. He’s never done that before.

He came back in after a few minutes.
"I know someone over at the Worcester Ophthalmology Associates," he said. "My wife’s trying to get you in to see him today. But, he’s very busy and I’m not sure you’ll be able to today. But, you need to as soon as you can."
"Is this something bad?"
"It’s very good you called me this morning."

He led me out as his wife was on the phone with the other group.
"2:30? He might be able to make it there by then," she was saying.
"Where is it?" I asked, seeing it was 2:12.
"Near Memorial Hospital," she said.
"I’ll get there."

While I was there and having my pupils triple dilated a rain storm had swept in that was so bad that the streetlights came on.
"That’s lucky," she said as she wrote me the referral. "On a normal day you’d be blinded and have trouble driving."
"That works out then," I told her.

Despite construction and bad traffic, I got there at 2:29.

"You’re lucky," the second doctor told me. "I just had a patient cancel, so could take you right away."

He redid all the tests. All the tests.
He added some new ones. Including high resolution of the back of my eyes.

"The optic nerve on your left eye is swollen," he told me. "And, I have no idea why. Sometimes this just happens. And, everything indicates this might be that.
"It could be something worse. It could be a tumor on the nerve. Or, in your brain. That isn’t likely, but it does happen. More likely this is just something that happens. It is most likely in overweight people with high blood pressure like you.
"I’d really like to send you to an Opto-neurologist to make sure. The problem is that we don’t have on here in Worcester. There are only a few in Boston and there is usually a 3-4 month wait to see them.
"But, I’m going to go call a few now and see if they can fit you in."

After I had sat there for a few minutes another doctor came in.
"Do you want tomorrow at 8, 8:15 or 8:30?" she asked.
"Where would it be?"
"At the Opto-neurologist’s office in Boston," she said.
"Make it as early as you can," I told her.

The first doctor came in.
"My instructor from 30 years ago has decided to spend a day in the hospital tomorrow and is taking patients for the day," he told me. "I’ve known him most of my life and never known him to do this before. But, it works out well for you!"
"Great. I appreciate it. Is he going to expand my eyes? I need to know if I’ll be able to drive home at the end."
"Yeah, he probably will. That might be a problem."
"Is it near a T stop?"
"Yes, he’s across the street from a subway stop."
"I’ll do that."

Tomorrow I’ve got a 3 hour appointment to see.
I’ve been told to be ready for any level of test up to MRI if needed.

Apparently I’ve been fantastically lucky in getting all these appointments as quickly as I did.
I still can’t see out of parts of my left eye.
And, I’m still not at all sure that it isn’t something horrible wrong.

I hope to find out tomorrow.
But, the way this is going, it will be "sent to someone else".

I guess we’ll see.

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Fantastic luck

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