Interesting

I think it is funny how all the bloggers that I follow from the PNW have pictures of the snow on their blogs. Now we need some pictures of the rain. :P

Mail

When I went in to the retina specialists office on Tuesday I was asked if I had filled out my paperwork. Well....no...I hadn't. I hadn't ever been there before. So she gave me the paperwork and I filled it out. All that normal stuff...medical history, insurance, etc. This morning I noticed that the mailbox looked different. So I looked in the box and lo and behold we did get mail last night, well after 5 p.m. One of the envelopes was for the retina specialist telling me of my appt. last Tuesday and the paperwork I should have filled out prior to my appt. At least now I know what Wendy was talking about. Just amazed me that it took that long to get to me. I'm sure the snow had something to do with it. :P But they did send it out on the 19th.

Coolness

The pictures don't really do it justice. This is one of the outdoor lights that line our driveway. When it snowed they were covered up, but still worked. And it looked really cool seeing the light come up through the snow.

Christmas Morning

The best present given had to be Pat's new blanket. He opened it as soon as he was done opening all of his gifts and put it right to use.

Adrianna says Nana is hiding behind me. You know she doesn't like her picture taken.

Adrianna was not really all that interested in the packages or the presents. She spent most of her time eating, taking ornaments off the tree or trying to get the dirt out of the ficus tree pot.

Elizabeth was showing off her new present and trying to take pictures. Don't know how they turned out, but she is taking them. Guess that is how we learn. Her best present at our house had to be the oil pastels and paper from Grammy.

All in all it was a very nice Christmas even with the eye thing looming at the time. I am glad that I opted to wait until after xmas to get the shot.

Picture

Doesn't that look like it should hurt? At most it kind of feels a bit bruised, but not big pain. The doc must have hit the little blood vessel pretty good.

Eyes Again

I survived it. I actually saw a different specialist today as the one I saw on Tuesday is on vacation. This one seems to think it is probably not macular degeneration, although it is all the same for that eye. There is a lining under the retina that degrades in MD and usually in both eyes. Also it pretty much happens to people 55 and older. My right eye has no degradation. So he thinks that at some point in the last ten years I have had some sort of inflammation in my left eye which caused degradation in that eye. So from my standpoint that sounds good. Then I don't have to worry about this happening in the right eye except as everyone does when they get older. So once the lining is weakened then abnormal blood vessels can grow through it and then they leak. That is what causes the vision loss.
Once diagnosed with the abnormal blood vessels, which I have, treatment is offered. Do nothing and lose the center section of sight, use lasers which will leave a scar, or medication in the eye. The medications of choice right now are anti-colon cancer drugs. These drugs attack the blood vessels and hopefully make it so new ones don't form. That is what they do as cancer treatment...attack the blood vessels that feed the cancer. This option gives a shot at some of the vision loss maybe reversing. So I choose that one even though I may have to have multiple shots...that all depends on how I react to the medication.
So on to the story of the shot in the eye. First I was again dilated. Tuesday's dilation lasted for 24 hours. Guess it will this time too. Then the doc came in and talked to me and then he gave me a drop of anesthetic before he gave the the anesthetic shot. Told me it would sting a bit. It did for about six or sevens seconds, but it was a weird stinging, almost electrical. Then I had to use the restroom and it felt like I was drunk walking to it. That was rather weird. Then it was time for the iodine wash. She put it all around my eyes and in my lids. It stung more than the numbing shot. Next I got an eye speculum put in my eyelids. The first one popped out. Once the second one was in he measured where he needed to put the shot. Did the shot and I felt nothing. I did see swirling in my eye like cigarette smoke. Then he went to take the speculum out and it didn't want to come. He was like oh yeah...you aren't old and your lids work right.
I look like something smacked me hard in the eye. They said the blood will reabsorb in about a week or so. I was to expect the feeling of sand in my eyes, but other than the drive home haven't. Now I just watch for signs of infection and other than that I am good to go. I don't know how long it will take to see results if they are going to happen. I have another appointment in Feb. They will take measurements of my retina at that point. And for now we just wait and see.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas. Staying in and staying warm here.

Eyes

So my eye appointment on Tuesday did not go as well as I expected. I do not have a little retinal bleed that will go away on its own. At the office I got to do some eye tests I didn't know about. I got pictures of my eyeballs taken. That is quite trippy. Colors are wrong after that for a bit. Light is pink. Interesting. Anyway I have a form of macular degeneration in that eye. Yeehaw for me. There are two treatment options. One is a form of laser surgery which if successful would keep my eye right where it is. The other form is medication in the eyeball. And that requires a thin little needle (or so the doc says). If that is successful I may get some of the sight back in that circle of blurriness. And then he tells me he would like to do that as soon as possible like xmas eve day. Nope. Don't think so. Need time to think about that. So I have an appt. on Friday for my little shot in the eye. Everything I have read says up to three shots in the eye. Can you tell I am just so excited about that prospect? I am not liking all the things that are happening to me since I hit the 40's.

Mishka Said

That Minnie is getting all the glory. She wanted her picture posted on the blog too, but she was not going out in the snow.

Whiteness

We are now over 12 inches of snow altogether. It does appear to have stopped for the moment. Minnie has been having a blast playing in the snow. She likes the snow better than the ice. We caught the picture of her with a leaf on her nose and thought it was cute. She looked at us like why are you looking at me.

I got a snow day from work. Still waiting to see what happens for tomorrow. I do have a retina dr. appt. in the afternoon as long as they are open. I am sure hoping that the opthamologist was right when he said he thought I just have a little retinal bleed that will eventually go away. But this blurry spot in the middle of one eye is getting pretty annoying. But something that will go away without surgery sounds pretty good to me.

"White Christmas"

Dave estimates that all together we are at eight inches of snow. It isn't snowing right now, but we have more freezing rain predicted. It is beautiful. The only casualty so far, is the gazebo, that completely collapsed. Dave is now tearing it apart. We were talking about replacing it anyway, so I guess that works out all right.
Elizabeth and I were suppose to go to another symphony today. There is just no way we would make it over to Portland. So we are hoping that they reschedule it. If not we will just plan another activity soon.

Mica is a silly cat. Doesn't seem to mind the snow at all. Doesn't she know she is a cat and is not suppose to like precipitation?

Easily Amused

It is snowing here. Not a great amount, but enough to make our road a little interesting. We live at the bottom of the hill. So we have no problem getting home. There are quite a few people who live up the hill and we have been having a great time watching them make their attempts to make the hill. Looks like it is taking four-wheel drives or chains to get up the hill. I imagine in the morning there will be plenty of people parked on our road.

A Monday Afternoon Drive

Myk had a court date this afternoon in Stevenson. He needed a ride so I got off work early to take him. Now our weather is cold and there was snow yesterday. So I decided it would be best to drive up I-84 and cross at the Bridge of the Gods. No problem whatsoever driving. There wasn't even any moisture on the road until we crossed back over to the Washington side. Turned out Myk did not have a date today as the new dates were set for the first of the year. He felt it was a wasted trip and yes it wasn't productive. But we saw frozen waterfalls which are really cool. Then as we crossed the bridge back to Oregon two eagles flew out in front of us and up the river. I almost never see eagles. And the best part is there was almost no traffic on our drive. :)

Today

Minnie was so disappointed. We have started giving Mishka some special food. It seems like she isn't eating the dry kibble and we think it may be her teeth. Minnie waited patiently for Mishka to be done with her treat. Then she snuck over and got the container, only to find it had been completely licked clean.

Dave cut the tree yesterday. We let it sit and dry off. Then tonight I decorated it. Mica is excited. She loves being under the tree. Last year she spent a lot of time amongst the presents.

So did Mishka, but that is a different story. Mishka likes to do circles around round things.

Oh Yeah

I also won a free companion fare coupon on Amtrak. There was a contest going on that if you had changed how you go to work....ride a bike, ride a bus, start carpooling, etc.....you could enter. Well Brenda and I started carpooling back in Sept. so I entered. Was very surprised to win. Now to decide..a trip to Seattle or a trip to Vancouver, BC.

Girls

Tanya and the girls came over so Dave could work on Tanya's laptop. They also picked out

a Christmas tree. We had to take a picture of the cute little feet and Adrianna in her hoody. Here is also a picture of Elizabeth with some artwork that she worked on while here.

Today

This is a picture of the sunset out our front windows. Just beautiful. And of course as soon as Dave was done snapping pictures it became even more red.
Mom and I made it to Clackamas Town Center today. We haven't been there in years. Got to listen for a bit to a young band play. Then we shopped. She made more progress than I did, but she has more left to do than I do. Then we went out for lunch and home for naps.

Shopping

Going Christmas shopping with Mom today. I am almost done so it shouldn't be too bad.

Nathan

As we become older, family seems to become more important. That said many years ago I took it upon myself to make sure I visited my aunt and uncle out near the coast more often. Most of my relatives live in the Midwest and it is hard to visit with them much. But my aunt and uncle here I could see on occasion. They kept me up to date on various other relatives and how they were doing. One of those relatives they told me about is my cousin Nathan. Guess to be correct that is my second cousin Nathan. We share a great-grandmother in common. I have heard wonderful stories over the years. Right now my cousin is having a great adventure and teaching in Italy. My aunt gave me the link to his blog so I could read about it. And then me being me....I had to leave a comment or two. And then he left me a comment, but unfortunately he hasn't a clue as to who I am. So I told him how I got the link to the blog. And then I commented his comment about us being cousins. And maybe, hopefully someday we will meet in person.
That said I have to say his blog has really shown me what a wonderful young man he is. He is charming and funny and very smart. I think he got that from my side of the family. :P

Oops

Heather had a little fender bender yesterday. Wasn't her fault as the other driver pulled out in front of her. Still pretty much totalled her car. She is sad and probably pretty sore today. Said she was really glad she didn't fix the air conditioner yet. Man.