My rounds

Friday started The Week of Doctor Visits for me. I put off making doctor appointments as long as I possible can, because I hate making phone calls. The appointments themselves don't bother me that much. But the phone calls.....

So a couple of weeks ago I made a bunch of calls one right after another and set up a mammogram (I swear I had one a few years ago, but their records go back 10 years....), a physical (so I can get my drugs), an appointment with my retinologist, and one with a head surgeon to remove a cyst on my head. Right on the very top of my head. I bet it'll leave a bald spot.

The new digital mammogram is so much more comfortable than the old film one, even though it squeezes every bit as hard. So that's one down.

Tuesday I saw the head doctor about the cyst. Seems they run in families, and we're one of the lucky ones. That'll be removed on Tuesday morning. Yesterday was Retinologist Day, and, as it turned out, Long Needle Stuck in My Eye Day. That pesky ol' Wet Macular Degeneration is acting up again so I got another Lucentis injection. See, the good thing about that blind spot in the center of my left eye is that I can't see the needle coming at it.....

Joan met me at the office and drove us to lunch at Olive Garden afterward. We had a nice, leisurely lunch, until I could see again, then we went our separate ways home. How about that; a needle in the eye at 1:45, drive home at 4:45. Without an accident, at that.

Already my vision is better than it was yesterday. When I made the appointment my vision felt the same as it has since the last checkup 15 months ago (because I'm so bad at making appointments after I cancel one), but Friday I felt like something wasn't quite right, and it's a good thing the appointment was so soon afterward. I'll have another injection on June 17, then on the 18th Betty, Joan, and I will leave for Florida, where we'll spend a few days at the beach before Betty and Joan fly home and I spend a few days with Jennifer and kids in Orlando, then on to my new life in the Keys.

This afternoon my eye is achy, but the scratchiness that is usually pretty painful after an injection just lasted a couple of hours, not until I went to sleep last night, as it usually does. Maybe my eyeball is getting tougher. I didn't take as much percocet as I usually do, either, and no xanax before the procedure. Most of the time I spend the night with Mom and Dad after the injection so I don't have to drive home that evening, or Tom drives me, but they're all in Florida now so Joan and I just hung around for a while. And it was nice.

In an hour I have to be at the doctor's office to wait for my physical. There must be 50 doctors in that practice and they're all running late all the time. The waiting room is always filled with sick people spewing germs all over everyone else. I've had to wait as long as 3 hours for my doctor (ONLY because I was out of cough syrup and I have to appear in person to beg for another month's supply); the shortest time was maybe half an hour. Once. I hate that place. I'm hoping that this will be my last visit there ever. Maybe this time I can share my allergies/cold/bronchitis/whatever the hell I've had this week with my peers in that waiting room.

I think that's my first illness this year. I had some bug a while back, but since Christmas I've avoided colds. I hate colds. I get very angry when I have one. I don't know why. The flu doesn't make me angry, maybe because it's acceptable to stay home when you have it. But a damn cold can hang on forever and I just don't have that much sick leave.

Because I'm saving it to take off early for the beach. And my new life. In the Keys.



P.S. Cross your fingers, legs, and eyes; we're negotiating with a man who really, really wants to buy our WV property; he just doesn't want to pay enough for it. We might just persuade him to see things our way, then we'll be FREEEEEEEE! of a mortgage. Not much left over to work on our place in the Keys, but enough to save each month to get things done.

Eye stuff

I had an appointment with my retinologist yesterday (a whole day off school!) (yes, that's the second one this week, thank you). My eye is continuing to improve, thank goodness. So no more Lucentis injections this week.

I thought I was coming down with the flu last night, but today I'm just very tired. I'm glad it's Friday.

Have a lovely weekend! It's supposed to be almost warm this weekend.

I

It's clearing up, and it's still doesn't hurt. Never did. It feels kind of odd. My allergist called it "conjuctivitis", but it doesn't itch.

He also insists that I have asthma and that my only symptom is the cough, even though I "passed" the methacholine challenge. He says he's had one or two other patients who passed it and still had asthma. So he

**Alert to Betty**

prescribed this:

and I have to go back on Tuesday. If my lung test is improved, then I have asthma, he says, and I either have to give up my allergy shots or take Symbicort, which I refused to take after last visit because ads say it can cause "death".

Death. It can cause death.

He says that it has to advertise that because one person died from uncontrolled asthma by taking the drug. I say, that if I have asthma and it causes my cough, then it's uncontrolled.

???

But. I have 5 days' worth of prednisone. I hope it doesn't make me hungry all the time. Sometimes it does, sometimes not. I hope it gives me energy. Sometimes it does.

Hmmmm, did my last course of prednisone make my depression worse, or did it get better? I need to keep track of these things. I don't remember exactly when I last took it, but my mood took a huge nosedive in September. I feel great now, have since December sometime. Unusual for me, since this is usually my worst time of year. Odd, that.

But I'll take it over the alternative.

I'm still here

And, in spite of the way it looks, still fine.

(Don't know what caused that.)

Googles

I'm noticing a bunch of google searches for "Paul Capon's The End of the Tunnel" or "The Cave of Cornelius". Would you kind folks who are searching for those titles and land here please leave a comment? I'd love to meet people who read that book.

Also, if you're searching for Lucentis or eyeball injections, please leave a comment, too. I've had six of 'em, and if I can help someone who needs them, I'm glad to do so.

Eyeballs

I had another one. Eyeball injection. For some reason it hurt more this time; not during the injection, but the next day. The injection didn't hurt at all. Love those numbing drops!

The latest seepage (I guess the correct word is extrudate, if there is such a word) in my eyeball has almost dried up, which means that I'm regaining my sight in that part of my eye. I'll probably never totally regain the sight I lost from the original "event" because I didn't have an injection right away; the doctor kept saying my sight was too "good". Knowing what I now know, I wish he'd given me the injections right away anyway, since I've permanently lost about 20% of my central vision in that eye.

But I really can't be upset with him, because Lucentis was only approved a few weeks before my first visit to the retinologist, and it can cause more damage if things don't go right. I'm thankful that I found that doctor (the first retinologist told me I'd just go blind in that eye) and that Lucentis is now available.

I've had six injections so far, and I'm destined to have more every few months (approximately) for the rest of my life. Insurance has covered it so far, and the price of the drug has dropped a bit, so maybe my insurance will continue to cover it. I guess I'll have to keep this insurance for the rest of my life so this won't be a preexisting condition.

Off-topic, I only have to work two more days at school until August. I'm ready for a break.

Opportunities lost

Sorry, I just haven't had time or the motivation to write this week. Work has been busy, although yesterday we went to a workshop in Winchester at the Handley Library. I highly recommend visiting it if you're in the area; it's an architectural delight.

And of course I didn't have my camera with me (or my jacket, but I didn't think I'd need that, either). I always have my camera with me. It's one of those Don't Leave Home Without It things for me, but the new one is too big for my purse, and I've stopped carrying the old one because it made my purse so heavy, and I just didn't think I'd need one for a workshop.

Wrong. Wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong.


This isn't a great photo of the place. The second I saw it, I was in love. Inside it's even better. The rotunda is the entrance; it's three stories high and has stained glass inside. I can't begin to do it justice by describing it. I have to go back and photograph it.

After the workshop, Mary and I ate lunch at the pedestrian mall a couple of blocks away. We ate at a small bakery/cafe and sat outside. Again, gorgeous architecture all around, trees just beginning to leaf, lots of restaurants with outside seating, people walking by with their dogs. So many photo opportunites, and me with no camera.

We got back to school just in time for me to go to Claudia's to work, so I didn't go back upstairs to get my bag. (It's a long long loooonnnnnnggggg walk from the parking lot to my office.) It wasn't till I was on my way to pick up Tom that I realized that my camera was in that stinking bag in my stinking office (well, the office doesn't stink; I have my little Ionic Breeze on my desk and I forgot to turn it off before we left for the workshop, and there are lilacs on my desk.) and didn't have the stinking camera all evening.

Which sort of didn't matter, as it turned out. Claudia didn't need me to work, but she wants me to knit some test garments for her new book of patterns. I cleaned my glasses, which had been filthy for several days, and they. snapped. at. the. nosepiece. In half.

Now, I'm extremely nearsighted, and I really can't read just using my left eye anyway (macular degeneration, 20% blind in that eye, the rest blurry, blah blah blah), so I was fortunate (?) that it was the left lens and earpiece that broke off. I tried to superglue it together, but that didn't work. It glues my fingers together, so I thought it was worth a shot.

I could wear the right half of the glasses, since the nosepiece was still intact for that much of the glasses. I drove to pick up Tom, very carefully, and we went to Costco to see if they could fix them. I was sure they couldn't as they don't keep actual stuff there; everything has to be sent off for a week to ten days.

I couldn't possibly go without them for that long, and I'm not sure where my old glasses are.

Anyway, long story shorter, they were able to take the piece off another pair of old glasses they had lying around. I can see again. And I've made an appointment with my regular eye doctor (retinologists don't "do" glasses prescriptions) for another eye exam and prescriptions for both glasses and contacts. It's not till May 9, so I hope my glasses will hold up till then. I hope they'll stay clean till then.

And this time I'll buy a back-up pair of cheap glasses.

Eyeball stuff

Ah, the joys of aging.

I had another injection of Lucentis yesterday to try to clear up the new "leakage" in the macula. I think that's what it's called. Macular Degeneration, anyway. Right now I can't read with my left eye because of the extra blurriness from the newest leakage, but I'm hoping that it'll clear up soon.

Can't see my knitting, either, but my right eye is the dominant one, so I can still see well enough to do both!

On a happier note, the retinologist said that there's no reason that I can't try to wear contacts again. I don't know if that's good or bad, but I'd like to try them. I wore them for years and loved them, but perimenopause destroyed that. Now that it's behind me, I'll try again.

Those house photos I promised

*sigh* Someone else will get my dream house, but I can still dream about it.

Entry hall

Rooms to the left of entry, including a huge bedroom and full bath.

Huge great room looking into family room (so many public rooms that it's impossible to name them all!!!)



This room would be our library:



Lanai and side yard:



Gotta go now; I have an appointment with my retinologist this afternoon, and it's a 2-hour drive. I suspect I'll have to have a shot in the eye again, but it's worth it if it works. I'll put up more photos when I have time, maybe tomorrow afternoon. Maybe not.

Did I say stupid?

Have you ever heard your eyes move? It's really freaky.

It happened to me yesterday. It's happened before, when I started taking a new antidepressant or antianxiety drug, but I'd forgotten how bad it is.

I started out taking neurontin last Wednesday at noon. I took it Thursday at noon, too, then realized that it wasn't working out too well. I tried Friday at bedtime, but I was stupid by Saturday. I took it Saturday and Sunday evenings earlier, but by yesterday I was pretty much reduced to being a mouth breather. I could feel my IQ dropping.

I had an appointment with my allergist yesterday morning. For the first time he didn't insist that I have asthma. I kind of knew that because none of the many, many asthma medications he insisted that I try over the last few years worked, including albuterol. The tests that the pulmonologist sent me for a few weeks ago proved that I don't have asthma. Dr. Allergy finally said, "well, I guess you don't have asthma." But. There's one more test that I could take to see if I do, and Dr. God could do it. I nixed that idea fast.

So, Dr. Allergy went along with it and prescribed prednisone. I know it's bad bad bad for the body, but it clears up my stuffy nose and, best of all, my cough. Unfortunately, I can only take it for such a short time that the symptoms come right back. This time he prescribed it for a few days longer with a few days' worth of tapering off. Already, after one dose yesterday at lunch, I can breathe through my nose and I'm coughing less. It's a miracle drug.

But oh I was sick yesterday. I took the prednisone with lunch, and within half an hour I was so sick I could hardly sit, much less stand. Of course, that was my time to answer the phones in the main office, and there was no one who could "sit" in for me yesterday. I just hope that I gave the right meds to kids who came in for them. (I haven't heard of any deaths yet.)

That's when I could hear my eyes move. They swished. Loudly. I couldn't think. I had a big project to finish by 3, my laptop cord has decided it doesn't want to work for the school system any longer and I had maybe 3 minutes of power left before the laptop battery died, and people kept talking to me and expecting me to talk back. And make sense. I managed to make the changes I needed to make to the database I was working on, saved it to a cd and also emailed it to myself in case I needed to use another computer until I can get another power cord, and then the cord started working. (It's worked on and off today, and another one has been ordered. I love that the school system buys three-year warranties on its laptops, and even if it isn't covered by the warranty, they order parts without question.)

I called my after-school yarn job and begged off for my afternoon shift, all $10 worth of it. I hated to do it, but my eyes were swishing. I was afraid to attempt to pick up and walk with a 14-gallon stainless steel pot, and I'd probably mix up the dyes and really screw things up, so I very very very carefully drove the 4 miles to pick up Tom and we went home early. Luxury! Except that my eyes were swishing. And the sun flashing through the trees was absolutely painful.

Poor Tom wasn't feeling well either (but his eyes weren't swishing, thank goodness) so he went to bed at 6 p.m. I made it to 7:15. (I watched "Everybody Loves Raymond", which I rarely have a chance to see. Guilty pleasure.) I slept soundly till 1:30, and that was it. Ambien can't overpower prednisone's insomnia after 6 hours.

But this morning my eyes weren't making noises and I don't feel so bad. I haven't taken any meds yet either. I'll do that after I leave my yarn job.

And I'll pray that my eyes don't make any more noises.

Eye stuff

I had the second of three injections of Lucentis in my left eye on Monday. It's not as bad as it sounds, and it actually seems to be working. The blind spot is smaller and I think it might be breaking up some. My vision went from 20/50 four weeks ago to 20/30. I am relieved.

Eyeball injections and flights of fancy

Well, I'm now an official member of the exclusive club, "People Who've Had Injections in Their Eyeballs", also known as "It Doesn't Hurt, But It Really Feels Weird".

Evidentally my left eye has gotten old without my permission. For the last 15 months, my retinologist has been calling it something else, but yesterday the RN who assisted him in holding me in the chair while I levitated called it Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Fortunately there is Lucentis, which is the medication in the 3-inch-long-needle-attached-to-a-shot-thingy (my mind has totally blanked out there, sort of like my left eye); Lucentis was approved shortly before I was diagnosed in July 2006. My retinologist claims that he helped to develop it, but I haven't found any proof of that on Google.

Okay, it wasn't a 3-inch needle. Actually, I couldn't see it. My right eye was covered, and I can't see out of the center of my left eye, which is where the needle was headed. The RN was very good; she narrated what the doctor did a split-second before he did it, so I was kinda distracted.

Originally I had a small blind spot just off-center in my left eye. I've had "floaters" (no, not that kind) in my eyes as long as I can remember, and this just looked like they were getting bigger. My optometrist sent me to an opthamologist, who sent me to a retinologist, who told me I'd lose the sight in my left eye. I didn't like that diagnosis, so I went to another retinologist in Richmond who said it was peripapillary choriodal (I think) neovascularization, and if it got worse, he could just shoot my eye with Lucentis and everything would be hunky dory.

Now he's claiming that 70% of patients who receive three of these injections 4-5 weeks apart (oh goody, I get to go back for two more) at least get no worse, and 30% actually improve. But people I've talked with in his waiting room(s) (and last time I did wait for 3 hours to be seen, but not yesterday) say that their eyesight cleared up completely. I'm hoping to be in that bunch.

Meanwhile, I can't read with my left eye anymore, or see much of anything. My peripheral vision is okay; that optometrist didn't trip me up when he asked "how many fingers" was he holding up. But it's scary to lose your reading vision, especially when reading (and knitting and so forth) is so important to you.

But it's okay for me to fly tomorrow. And I am. JetBlue (I think; it's whoever was cheapest last month) to Florida. Four whole days. A is planning a production number (dance moves to be rehearsed tomorrow night when I get there; I told her that I don't have any "moves", but she won't be deterred); I am to draw pictures of the clothes I want to pack so I don't forget anything. "Do you have anything with a sun on it? Good! That's perfect! Do you have any light-colored pants? Tan? Perfect! Bring those! Do you have anything with stars on it? Your nightshirt! Oh, that's great! We can cut out stars and I'll sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and throw the stars on you!"

Magic Kingdom, here we come!