I went to the eye surgeon this morning. The practice is large and I arrived for my 7:30 appointment at 7:15. I did pre-appointment online check-in. I did the forms. Yet they handed me more when I arrived. They did not take me back until 7:50.
They did a bunch of tests. Most I had never had before. Then they dilated my eyes with three different drops and put me in the small waiting room. It was a child's space with child books and toys. Yes, I did read children's books while waiting. The one that fascinated me the most was a "find the hidden object" book. It was like someone had a copy of Photoshop and merged every picture they had onto each page. There was an animal spread, toys, glasses, everything was green. OMG it kept me occupied at least a half hour. And no, I did not find everything on each spread. It did give me an idea for a Photoshop assignment though.
Finally they called me back and the doctor came in. She looked at the test result, and then looked at my eyes while calling out letters and numbers. The tech was sitting at the computer writing everything down. Then she looked in my good eye. Not dilated yet. More drops. While we're waiting we should talk. I began to wish Bonnie was with me. However, there is a sign on the front door that said no guests. Patient only unless medically mandated. (Also one that said no audio, video, or still photos in the building.) Very friendly. Right?
So she told me my right eye was dead. No big surprise there. It's glaucoma. No surprise there either. She said I also had pseudoexfoliation glaucoma; an accumulation of protein-like flakes forms in the eye. And they are running away and headed straight for my other eye. This is not good news. It basically complicate things.
She checked the dilation and did it the third time. I had to sit with my eyes closed for 5 minutes. Finally she could look into my eyes. Confirmed that there is pseudoexfoliation glaucoma present. So now I need to have to take care of that BEFORE we can deal with the cataract that's causing my ghosting vision. Wednesday I'm going back to see the glaucoma specialist. Then the two will confer and figure out a plan. The probability is that the two surgeries will be done at one time. One to stop the glaucoma from spreading, and then the removal of the cataract.
Bottom line things will continue to get worse. That is a given. It's my decision to try and save my sight or let nature take it's course. Best case scenario—everything is fixed, including my nearsightedness and life goes on.
But she also listed some bad and worse case complications.
One would leave me blind for about three weeks. She even asked if I had someone at home to help me out. Basically during the process of the surgery the lens moves to the back of the eyeball. They have to call in a retina doctor to fish it out, and then they can ad the artificial lens. The two-three weeks would be healing time before the retina doctor can get in there.
The worse case is it doesn't work and I go blind. Permanently. But then not doing anything will have the same effect. It's a Catch-22.
So my family will be delighted that I will apply for social security before all this goes down. If I'm blind, I cannot work. I'm also forced to find a Medicare Supplement plan that I cannot afford. And I'm applying for PACE-Net. I have to dig out my tax forms. They encourage you also to have Part D, but that needs to wait for enrollment in November.
More news Wednesday after the next appointment.
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