Yet another medical post
Dec. 1st, 2016 07:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fbhjrToday I took a long lunch break and went off to see my regular doctor.
(I had kind of forced an appointment when talking with her office manager yesterday.)
“What’s the problem?” she asked me.
I explained the vision problems I’ve been having.
“OK,” she said. “I’ll set you up to talk with some eye experts about this.”
“Did that,” I said. “I saw two in Worcester on Tuesday and one in Boston yesterday. Here are the notes from yesterday.”
I handed her the handwritten page from the doctor in Boston.
She read through them.
“You were right on top of this…” she said.
“Yeah. I’d really like to keep my sight.”
“It says he thinks the evening blood pressure medication might be making it worse. I’d want to see more results on your blood pressure.”
“Here’s all the readings I’ve taken for the last 6 months,” I said, holding out the data.
“I need to know time of day.”
“Right hand column.”
“Most of these are in the evening and are quite good! Some are even a bit low! He’s right, if your pressure is this low in the evening, don’t take the pill.”
She’s going to try and set me up with a round the clock blood pressure test. I guess several insurance companies don’t like paying for it. But, this should be enough to get it.
We’ll see.
So, everything the eye doctor asked for yesterday she agreed to.
No night time pill.
Aspirin once a day.
Eye drops twice a day.
I’ve been reading up on what I’ve got: NAION
The various things I’ve found about it on line are not optimistic.
Very few people get their sight back.
The good news is it doesn’t go to the other eye quite as often as I was led to expect yesterday. But, there’s still a good chance. (25% or so.)
If that happens it would probably destroy my way of life.
I’d be hard pressed to drive. Don’t see how I could sword fight.
And, I work by drawing shapes of things. Hard to do that when you can’t see them.
The lines in the National Institute of Health article that stand out to me are:
“NAION remains frustrating for clinicians and often devastating for patients.”
“It is uncertain whether any treatment will be effective”.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3721361/
The doctor I saw yesterday is in the acknowledgements of the article.
http://www.neec.com/Pages/Physicians/Hedges_Thomas.php
One of the strange things, is this doesn’t seem to impact my driving at all. The clear places in my vision are where I need to see things to drive: straight ahead, the mirrors and the controls. Who cares if I can’t see my legs, the car door or the ceiling of the car?
Who knows?
Hopefully it will get better.
I VERY much hope it won’t get worse or spread to the other eye!
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Date: 2016-12-02 01:13 am (UTC)Healing hugs
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Date: 2016-12-02 07:44 am (UTC)Hang in there Frank and please, do not focus on the "what if's". Those kill you. I know that really well.
Just take every day at-a-time and enjoy that to the max and just don't think too much about what might be.
It's not always easy, but it -is- possible for a fair amount of days.
I don't want it for you that it will get worse and I really hope it will get better again, but just in case... with the sword fighting? You might want to work out a routine. A practice you know so well you end up being able to do it blindfolded. That way, even if your sight might get worse, you can still be a part of it all.
You know the movements, you know your partners.. never forget there are options.
But.. as i was saying, I'm keeping it so crossed for you that it won't get worse for you at all
(((hugs)))
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Date: 2016-12-02 01:02 pm (UTC)But, I am a planner. So, I need to know where the different forks in the road go.
I've been doing some of my sword fights for more than 15 years now. So, I might still be able to do those ones. But, we'll have to see.
Hopefully things can continue as they are.
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Date: 2016-12-03 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-02 09:59 am (UTC)Anyway, we're both PRAYING VERY HARD for you -- and sending every possible GOOD WISH your way, Frank. Maybe in spite of the odds, you'll be okay -- we certainly HOPE so.
Hang in there and keep us posted, please, Frank.
(hugs)
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Date: 2016-12-02 01:03 pm (UTC)Don't worry, I can be counted to post on things!
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