Today's Appointment

Okay, this morning Trudy was gonna go to the Dickens Festival to see her daughter sing, so lucky for me she was able to give me a ride down to St. George. We got to my appointment, and I'm sure glad she came with me. Lately I've felt like my brain just doesn't work at all. I don't seem to be able to remember much, I don't' know what my problem is. Anyways, she asked the doc questions I didn't even think about, but still wanted to know. We went back in a room where one of the nurse lady's dilated my eyes, again! She also brought in a consent form for me to sign, which of course Trudy had to read to me since I couldn't see a dang thing. Dr. Gibbs came in and took some pictures of my eye, he told me that next time I come in I can bring a thumb drive and he'll down load copies for me for you all to see! Then he injected some dye into my system to change the color of my blood, so they could see "the problem" better. He put the needle into my arm, and slowly pushed it into my system. It reached my eye very fast. Faster than we thought it would. As soon as he injected it he started taking more pictures of my eye. He then showed me the difference between both my eyes. The right was what it should look like, and the left had a big cluster of blood vessels and some kind of crater looking thing on it. The dye made me sick to my stomach, I though I was gonna hurl, but I was able to hold it back.

Later some lady from the billing department came to talk to me, because I was going to get an injection today. From what I understand, and to dumb it down, cuz me is dumb. My eye has some kind of virus, I guess. Not that it's contagious or anything, that's just the only way I can explain it. This has stumped everyone, because this is only something they find in people that are 70 and 80 years old. Dr. Richens told me that this is just a freak thing, there is nothing I did that caused this, it just happened. That kinda made me feel good to know that I didn't do anything that caused this, but it's like, where did it come from. Nobody knows, it's crazy! Anyways, they have to inject my eye with an antibiotic of sorts. The actual medicine they put in there costs $2,000 a shot! Luckily we don't make over $100,000 a year, so we don't have to pay for that part, YAY! (that's where that lady mentioned above came in, I had to fill out paper work to qualify.) However, we do have to pay for the procedure, which cost roughly $150, plus anything else they have to do, like taking pictures of my eye and stuff. Unfortunately this is not the only injection I will be receiving. I have to go back once a month until it clears up. Even after that, it could still come back, so I have to be very careful, and make sure I watch it very closely.

The name of my "disease" is Ocular Histoplasmosis. It has something to do with the central serous retinopathy, whatever that means. Dr. Richens suggested, after Trudy asked, that I take some specific vitamins, and Omega 3, especially for eyes. Basically for the rest of my life! These "vitamins" should help prevent this from happening again, but won't guarantee that it won't. Just a couple years ago, they didn't have treatment for this disease, lucky for me they do now, or I'd completely loose my site in my left eye and would never get it back. This is so scary, and I am just so glad I went into the eye doctor on Monday, you have no clue. I'm so thankful that they can help me get my sight somewhat back to normal. They say the injections may leave some scaring, that will cause my site to be altered a bit, but it will still be a whole lot better than it is now. I will never see as well as I used to, there will probably always be some kind of gray area blocking a part of my site, which is very sad to me, but I need to focus on the positive and forget the negative, at least I'll be able to see! I'm still freaking out about it a little, that's to be expected, right?

Luckily Trudy had her camera with her!

The nurse lady that was prepping me told me to make sure NOT to wear makeup on my left eye next time I come in! I don't see why :)

Just "Relax", easier said than done

ARRRR Matey! I couldn't open my left eye, that stuff dried on and left it all crusty and I couldn't open it!

The nurse lady, lets call her "Shay", because that's her name, is putting numbing drops in my eyes. She put a TON of that junk in my eye too. By the way, she just so happens to work with Brenden on the ambulance as an EMT.

More "relaxing"! I was trying to stay calm, but it was hard "knowing" a needle was about to be put into my eyeball, yikes!

This is them filling the needle thingy with my stuff, check out the size of that needle! Luckily that isn't the needle that went into my eye.

I know you can't see the size of that needle very well, it was hard to get a good shot, but there it is!

First of all, check out the size of my pupils! Before they injected me they had to tape my eyes open, this was so freaky! I couldn't help but to laugh! After this Trudy told me they got a long Q-Tip to hold my eye still, then they poked me, I could feel the pressure, but didn't actually feel any pain, thank heavens! Later my eye started throbbing, and I started to get a head ache, but that was about it. They also told me that I had to go get a prescription filled, it was very MANDATORY! I had to go get some eye drops, some Zymar. Guess how much that one cost me, $88! Good stinking heck, do they think I have money growing out of my butt or something!

I didn't take this picture until we got home, because my eye hurt so bad. That is where they poked me. Anyways, on our way to Wal-mart to get my vitamins and prescription, my regular eye doctor called, Dr. Albrecht. He was very worried about me, he didn't know that I was able to get into see the specialist. Last his office had heard, was that Dr. Richens didn't have an opening until the 17th of this month. He was very glad I was able to get in, but just wanted to make sure, he wanted to know if he needed to try and pull any strings. I thought it was very thoughtful of him to call, it was nice to know that he was that concerned about me. It's crazy at how fast everything started moving along. This thing that is wrong with my eye is so much more serious than I think I give it credit for. To see how stressed out everyone of the doctors have gotten about what is happening to me shows me how serious this is. Dr. Richens is so booked with patience right now, and that they were able to squeeze me in, they didn't think it was a good idea for me to wait at all. Glad I've got it started, hopefully I don't have to have many more injections. I'll be getting a blessing on Sunday, and I know that will help. Send your prayers my way!