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!