More eye stuff

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Yesterday I took the afternoon off and went to see the opto-neurologist in Boston again.
Unlike last time, this time I drove in.

I find that the Tufts medical center garage is designed to channel the wind through it right to where anyone is waiting by the elevator. Maybe that makes it nicer in the summer. But, in the winter it makes it bone chilling cold.

Google said it would take 45 minutes to get there. I left 2 hours. It took me 1:45.
But, I was there on time.

They didn’t do as many tests as last time. They did the basic checks of my eyes. I still have 20/20 or better everywhere I can actually see. I have full color vision. I have normal eye pressure.
They did do the laser scanning of the back of my eye like last time.

It took me a bit to actually see the head doctor as he wanted to talk about writing a book with an ex-Cabinet member of the older Bush administration who was there getting his eyes checked too. But, eventually he did come and see me.

The laser check says that most of the swelling that caused the damage has gone down, and there is no sign of it in my right eye.
That is very good news.
It means my sight should not get worse and, at least for now, should not spread to the other eye.

But, nerve damage is nerve damage.

“We used to tell people they’d never recover any sight from this,” he told me. “Now we say ‘nerves grow back very slowly’ so maybe you will get some of your sight back.”
“How likely is that?”
“It is very likely that you will get ‘some’ back. It is very unlikely it will ever be back to what it was.”

I got out of there at 3:30 and hoped to beat rush hour out of the city.
My 37 (60km) mile drive home took 105 minutes. More than 75% of that distance had 65 mile and hour (105kph) speed limits.
So, I guess everyone decided to try and leave the city early yesterday.

This morning I went to see my regular doctor.
Even though taking me off one of my two blood pressure medicines has made my pressure go up, she agreed to keep me off it if it helps my vision.
But, in her office it was very high. It is always high when I go there. Something to do with how she always calls me fat… But, I did lose two pounds (1kg) since my last visit there 14 days ago, so that’s something.

The end result:
There is still no clue as to what caused my left optic nerve to swell up. The list of what could have done it is several pages long. My best guess was something about the trip to Alabama. An allergic reaction to the things in the air down south, the smoke we drove through for more than an hour or eating at Waffle House three days in a row. But, I will probably never know.

The swelling caused damage. That damage may or may not heal. If it does heal it will take months to years to happen. The damage reduces the vision in my left eye by a little more than half.

At this point, it does not look like my other eye is in jeopardy. But, since the trigger for this is unknown, I could trigger it without ever knowing it. It comes on fast and gives practically no warning, so I wouldn’t know unless I lose part of my vision in that eye.

Having lived 53 years without this happening before, it is likely I can avoid whatever it was. But, I just don’t know.

So, mostly good news.