Termyn8or
Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline
|
OK, I do not have a regular eye doctor. I have let my prescriptions age a bit, because at least in my family, whatever makes us nearsighted does not give up easily. Get a new pair of glasses every year and you will be wearing Coke bottles. It tends to progress with morre correction. My uncorrected vision was about 20/450, average of both eyes. Left eye is about the same but the right eye is the problem.
I had not considered the possibility of an infection causing this, mainly because I've had the eyelid problem repeatedly and it never did this. However things do change, and there is a chance I am screwed. However looking at my eye, it really doesn't seem like a cornea problem. As bad as the vision has gotten, I think there would be some external indication.
They probably will want at least an EKG, then I guess we'll see who I take after. Dad, at seventy had the heart of a teenager. His problem was strokes. But Ma and that quad bypass is another story. The stress test is not going to come out all that great I'm sure, I am out of shape. When I was sick there was a time I could barely walk. I am still recovering from that, it will take time to build back up. But it's a far cry from where I was. At one point at work I had to tell them I lift nothing. Not purely weakness, but there was a bit of loss of equalibrium. I did not want to drop expensive things. The half a block walk between where I park and work seemed like a mile, now it seems like nothing.
One thing this condition left me with is that I am always cold. My bedroom is about ten degrees hotter than the rest of the house and I might still be cold. When winter came I was sure that I was going to drop dead going outside, but surprisingly it wasn't that bad. I'm just hoping whatever is causing that won't cause a problem for this.
I called the clinic today to see what I could find out, but they were closed for the holiday I guess.
I know there is no home remedy for this, at least not something I can do. Recently an old paper from Linus Pauling has turned up that asserts that flooding the body with vitamin C can help such a condition, as well as greatly improve one's cardio health. If I recall correctly this paper was the first he had ever written that was rejected for publication in the journals and such. In same he asserts that the required level of vitamin C is many times more than the RDA. I am not qualified to argue that point either way, and I am not going to attempt using it as a treatment in lieu of an eye doctor.
As I sit here right now, it seems the swelling has gone down, and that condition might be abated by the time I actually get in there. It does go away on it's own, I'm just hideously ugly until it does.
The choice between my beloved beer and seeing is an easy one, I like dogs, dogs like beer, the right seeing eye dog would be invaluable. But I am joking of course. All it would mean is going to the store and getting a case of bottled water instead of beer. No problem.
No matter what I need to get better and stay that way because I am never going to retire. When I can no longer function I will welcome death, but I just don't want that day to come too soon. When I was ill I actually considered it as I was useless, but I used my most powerful argument against it. I have counselled others during some of those bad times and I would tell them "First of all, what is going to happen tomorrow ? Well you can always do it tomorrow then right ?". Something like that. It was not time. I could have as much as a good twenty years left in me, I am not going to give up all that easily.
I need to regain the rest of my vim and vigor, and then I need to be able to see what I am doing. I don't want to be running around like Mr. Magoo. I used to like that show, but in time I changed. That character was a menace to society, and I no longer find it funny.
Truth be known, my eyesight never was all that good. Light and dark have been a problem since I was a kid, but I learned to live with it. The way I see it though, is even though some can run a three minute mile, I appreciate being able to walk a mile. In other words I would like to at least keep what I have.
I might have to call tomorrow at work. I don't usually make personal calls at work but I guess I could call this equipment maintainence. A blind bigscreen TV tech is not very useful. Once fixed it will be great. I'll be able to see the screen on my laptop I think, which is a big thing. I bought the biggest screen laptops I could afford, they are 17" wide, and I can barely make things out. Even before the onset of this, I had two pairs of glasses, one for driving/outside and the other for reading computers and such. My weak pair is very old and are now too fragile to carry to work, so it is a bit worse. Matters not though, my prescription is going to change, so when I get new glasses after all this I will just get two pairs. I cannot wear bifocals or progressives due to the nature of my work. I have to be able to see if something is square and true, and that would be quite difficult. Using the old glasses for this worked well, but now they are made more out of glue than anything else, seriously.
My last script was for bifocals, but I just had them make them to the strong spec, figuring I would get a weaker pair later. Never got around to it. In fact my last script, now that it comes to mind, was right after that big power outage we had across half the country years ago. While everone else ran amuck, we say calmly in my dark house and at one point I took my glasses off, said "It's pitch black in here, what the hell am I looking at ?". Of course they were gone, only to be found $200 later. What was that 2005 ?
I did intend to get that other pair, but never got around to it. I could plainl see that the old glasses were not correcting my astigmatism, or actually after looking at the script, I think they were overcorrecting my astigmatism which is just as bad. It used to run in around 45 diopters, but the last script said like 15 in one eye and 0 in the other. Something had actually improved. The overall lens strength was upped about 50 diopters, but this was in about 8 years. I am pretty sure if I had a new script every year I would be wearing Coke bottles. When you get up to around -500 diopters, even small plastic lenses are a bit heavy.
At any rate, thanks so far for the advice. I wll be calling and getting this taken care of. Anything else is also appreciated. Actually now that I think of it, I believe I know someone who knows a really good opthamalogist, I might just get a crack at a free phone consultation at the least. However this is someone I would have to pay. The clinic I can get it done and then later make a donation. I really don't want to eat up taxpayer money for moral reasons. If they don't botch the job I will be happy to send them a couple grand. Just give me a little time to go make the money rather than throw it on the card. This time of year is financially hard for me, because I do not get paid holidays and I do not have an income tax refund to which to look forward. I usually recover sometime in April or May. By about June I should be able to send them some money, and I will, but I want to see now.
We'll see how it goes, pun HOPEFULLY intended lol.
T
|
Cataract with complications - 
Profile
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread