Timothy Birdnow

Just a few personal notes.

For some time I have had to see a retina specialist, and my vision has been degrading. I have considerable vision loss in my right eye but my left had been holding steady. Well, that has changed and I've been struggling for the last year or so.

At any rate, over the last month and a half I have visited the retina doctor three times, and each time she wanted to give me an avastin shot. Avastin was a drug originally developed for colorectal cancer, so she wants to inject butt medicine into me. Well, I'm not from San Francisco, but I'm no square either, so what the heck.

Actually, I've had it many times before, and it hasn't worked, but she was determined to do it.. So I agreed.

Well, my left eye is inflamed and very sensitive. The first time she tried she gave up, then the second time she used stronger pain killers but it was still too sore.

So yesterday I had to try it again. She kept me waiting until last (I was there four hours) because she knew it was going to be a rough one. She wanted to give me a shot in the eye so she could give me a shot in the eye; something patently ridiculous on the face of it, but what they heck.

So my doctor (and I think she's probably a good one, but it sure didn't seem like it yesterday) lays me back in the chair and starts dribbling my eyeball like she was Meadowlark Lemon. I mean that woman was doing spins and twists and back rolls with it. I asked twice "are you done yet" because I kept feeling stabbing pains. She told me I probably wouln't even feel it, and I didn't, because after a couple of minutes I yanked her hand away and said "Enough!"

So they (she had a resident in training) tried to insert Q-tips into my sore bulb. I felt like one of the Stooges facing Moe's wrath!
"Stop! You're crushing my eyebrows!"

It hurt too bad and the resident trying to insert them had to surrender.

I then suggested they use the numbing eye jell (which all of my past eye doctors used). They said "it's locked up". The supervising physician in Ophthomology didn't have access to a topical pain killer?

So they decided to try to inject me with just the drops. The doctor piddled around, and finally stabbed the needle in my eye. I couldn't help but jerk my head. I asked "did you get it?"  "No" she replied "you jerked".

But she DID manage to nick a capillary in there, and had to give me topical antibiotics.

So, after four hours I got an eye bleed, a bunch of pain, high blood pressure, and another three weeks to recover before Frau Bluecher devises some new torture for me!

Also, I have been unable to drive most of the summer and fall because of aneurysms inside the eye, and they gave me a medication that will blur the vision where I won't be able to drive again. It's getting worse than annoying; I have commitments and I must have a way of getting around. I took my wife to a doctor in a cab once; we got there and they told us "oh, we were trying to call - the doctor got called away." That cost us about fifty bucks. A pox upon them!

So, at any rate, I may be hit or miss for a while. I'm going to try to run as many errands as possible in the next couple of days, then I'll be limited in my blogging as I'll have to use my bad eye.

It really is a pain, because my wife's muffler went out and I have to fix that before I can take my car in to get a state inspection to renew my plate. I've been putting it off due to blindness.

At any rate, there you have it. Hopefully I'll be able to get a few things up and Dana and Jack can keep everyone company.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:13 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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