The Eye Doctor Appointment

I made that eye appointment I needed; it was today.

As I glanced back at my blog, to verify that I had in fact written about the eye thing, I noticed that I had mis-written the numbers. My latest numbers (before today) was 39 not 29 and a previous high number in one eye was 29 not 39. So I need to change that online, it has been changed in my private copy and since I have been emailing a copy of my blog to my dad, I am clarifying here that I had made a couple typos.

I took the new glasses back a few weeks ago and told them they were not working well. I could not see distance stuff clearly and while I could find a clear focus point for the "reader" part, it was 8 to 10 inches from my face. I can't read a magazine that close without hitting my nose with the page, spending anytime reading that close gives me a headache because my eyes are being forced to cross to see and I spent much time training that right one NOT to do that, filling out forms or doing a checkbook is impossible at that distance because one's face gets in the way of the pen. You know, that doc told me *he* could read that close. Cool, I can't. So, he decided that my distance lenses were fine and he would change my reader part "back" to 1.5. I asked what he meant by that. He said he would put them back to what I had before, down to 1.5 from the 1.75 that he had raised it to. I told him these were the first bifocals I had ever had. I was wondering how he had missed that. He said he wrote a Rx for a bifocal the time before if I had wanted it he just never bothered to check my glasses or ask about it when I came in this time I guess.  But fine, whatever, change the magnification to 1.5, if it works, great, sorry you missed the obvious and have to change the glasses. But it still is/was not rectifying the fact that looking at anything is out of focus. He checked my eyes and said the Rx was right and was not changed much from my glasses of two years ago. I told him that was a problem because that was why I came in, I was not seeing well with the glasses. He said there was nothing he could do and did I want them to re-order the glasses with the different reader part. No, I got my money for the glasses back. To bad one can't get the money back on a shoddy appointment. I never did hear anything back on the referral to the glaucoma people either. And as it turns out, they have a partner office in town and I did not have to go all the way to the city like that doc had told me; probably because it is in another optometrist's office close by and surprisingly competitively priced to Walmart. And I finally called.

I went to the new eye doctor that was concerned enough about my eye pressure that I got an afternoon appointment on a day they don't do afternoons. As it turned out,  it probably was a good deal for them because we are expecting a nasty weather day tomorrow and so they had called their Thursday appointments and had some come in this afternoon and scheduled others for other dates. But it was kind of a busy office for initially being told I would be the only one there. and it was getting busier. I had to miss my soap opera (pity me) because they would tag me onto the end of the day but people were still coming end after left. I hold no hard feelings, I understand. Anyway…My eye pressures were 14 and 18; normal is 14 to 16. That is what happened the last time an eye doc freaked because  of high pressure. No sign of it by the time a …um…more experienced, yeah, that works, more experienced doc sees me. So I got a class on Glaucoma 101. No real answer on why the variable pressures but it is not unheard of for pressure to fluctuate, just not usually that much. I had already gave myself that class over the last few years though. He was also very informative with how an eye was put together and worked and what happened with lazy ey and whatnot, but I have been dealing with this my whole life and took various biology classes in college (even got to dissect an eye). I was polite and smiled and listened without letting drag out too far any of his "lessons" by letting him know I knew by asking a question from a point beyond what he was talking about. It was the first time I had talked about the patch therapy in many years. That is where one with a lazy eye where a patch on the strong eye to force the weaker  one to make connection with the brain. It works well if started young enough. And it worked very well for me; though my right eye has always been a wimpy little brother to the left, it works well enough that if I lost the use of my left I can do  utilitarian reading and could watch TV, and generally get around; I would not be close to blind. We talked for a while about the occasional visuals I thought was high pressure, it is not. By description he suggested what it was. I am choosing to tentatively believe him, need more research. I had a gynecological surgeon suggest the same thing to me back in '94. When she suggested it I had never heard of it and doubted it and I have never heard of it again until today when the eye doc said it. That is good enough to look into it. So, what the heck is "it"? A certain type of migraine that is considered "painless." Considered painless because it is not a typical migraine with extreme pain but  it has some mild pain or often a lot of pressure  involved. Maybe. I'll look into it; some of those visuals could be scary if I weren't used to them.

Okay, so after the talk/lesson on the biology of the eye and glaucoma he takes a look at my eyes. He told me that my optic nerve, the thing damaged with glaucoma, was boring; there was no damage no anything that looked to be the slightest worry of even developing glaucoma at this point. I had no sign of cataracts, nor macular degeneration. I should just have the pressures checked every time I go for new glasses. This has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster over the last ten years, albeit not constant, and certainly a back burner during the cancer treatments and stuff, but the concern of  the high eye pressure and possible blindness has been there. Now…I guess don't worry about it until further notice.

I did have more confidence in this guy after the first few minutes than I have had with the last few eye docs even after a few visits. I talked to him about the problems with the current glasses and the ones that were supposed to replace them. He told, and showed, me that the doc Rxed my readers at 2.75 not 1.75 in order for my focal point to be that close. Wow, glad I got out of that place with little damage. I am really hoping that my new glasses will be good. One and a half weeks...