Well, today was the day!!! I finally had the long awaited doctor's appointment with the optometrist with some good news and some not so good news. I pretty much spent the whole afternoon there trapped in an exam room with my mother or an assistant. That was fun, but more on that later.
When I was born, I had some complications that resulted in a mini stroke. I was lifeflighted and I stayed in a NICU for a week. It was only a week, but I was on oxygen for a couple of days. I have been going to see the same eye doctor for some time now, but the assistant decided to interrogate (in a good way) about what could have caused my vision to be so bad!!! None of the answers we gave her seemed add up.
I came in at 1:30 this afternoon and got checked in. Shortly after that I was taken back for the run of the mill pre-exam tests such as the air puff for glaucoma. I was then given to a new assistant who put me in a room where there was a white dome I looked in. I had to click a button every time I saw a light flash. That took about 15 minutes and then they went to get my mom so we could wait in a PRIVATE waiting area and be let into an exam room where we would wait another 20 minutes!!! NO JOKE!!! The exam took all of five minutes where she decided that my eyes only changed a 1/2 diopter and a 3/4 diopter ( a measurement for determining your prescription strength).
During the regular exam where they showed me a bunch of different letters to see how well I could see, my doctor put this rather odd looking thing onto the exam machine. I asked her what it was and are you ready for her reply? "I am going to implant this and you will become a unicorn, if you believe me, I can tell you more stories." My mom and just about cracked up. I guess I am a unicorn and the thing they put on the machine kind of looked like a horn. It was quite humorous in a stressful situation.
My doctor then proceeded to dilate my eyes. She gave me the tissues and that was it. She was ready to apply THE DROPS!!! I told her I needed to lay down and that she could create a pool of drops that she would massage in. That tends to help me more and out the door she went.
Earlier in the day I had reported to the assistant that I had a floater in the eye that I was at risk for retinal detachment. The good news is that I don't have a retina detachment, but I have a floater the size of the USS Enterprise as she said. It was kind of funny when she was looking at my eye. She was say stuff like, "oh there it goes, with that little tail." It is so weird how this thing essentially swims around up there. I have officially named it bob and he will live there until he multiplies and then settles into a sediment in the bottom of my eye.
I finally was let free when I was taken into the waiting room where you can browse the glasses frame. I felt like we were really let loose because we had no idea what to do. lol. Fortunately the assistant that normally helps us get frames recognized us and helped us when she was done with her previous client. Let me tell you what, I can't wait to get the glasses because they are pretty much totally j!!!
Along with getting a new pair of glasses, my doctor decided to finally discuss surgical options with us. Due to my age and my vision, I qualify for one eye to be fixed, but not the other. The procedure is minimally invasive and is only done with local sedation. Ouch!!! They will only do the surgery bilaterally which means that they want to wait until both eyes qualify instead of doing them unilaterally or by themselves. I have to have both my eyes within a half a diopter change for 12 to 24 months before I can get the surgery. My one eye is between 1/2 and 3/4. So Close!!! They want to do a lensectomy which is essentially the same thing they do for cataracts, but they will give me a lens that is fit to my glasses prescription and then I will wear a pair of glasses 1/10 the strength I wear now. Eventually I will then get lasik to correct the rest!!! If you know me this is a near miracle considering how thick my glasses are.
My doctor is contacting my other eye doctor to get his last report to see was the next immediate step is if any. I am opting out of the muscle surgery I had ten years ago as it is cosmetic and has some risky side affects that I have already experienced and still live with from the previous surgery. Please just HOPE!!!
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