Rain

And so the rain has begun. It has melted most of the snow. Dave got this picture of my rain chain and if you look at the blurry background (it is blurry to the rest of you, right?) you can see our pond filling up.

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.