needle-in-the-eye doctor

Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye has a whole new meaning for me now.


About this time a couple of years ago, I woke up one Sunday morning, made tea, and assumed the position in my big comfy chair with a good book.  It wasn't until I put my glasses on that I realized that there was a rather large grey spot in my vision.  At first I thought that it was a spot on my glasses, so I took them off and cleaned them and put them back on.  Still there.  Now what.  Thinking that whatever it was would resolve itself, we carried on and put up with it.  By Wednesday, it was no better so I called my optometrist and told the receptionist what was going on and she got me an appointment for Friday at 10am.  When I saw the doctor, he had a look and told me that he was going to send me to a retinal specialist and that it was very hard to get in to see her but he was going to send a fax in and then follow up with a phone call.  Oh oh, starting to sound serious.  I left his office and went and had lunch with a friend of mine who owns Eamor's in High River and just after we finished, my phone rang with the news that I had an appointment with the retinal people the next Monday.  Ok, now sounding really serious.  I kinda fretted over the weekend with not knowing what was going on but we made it through. 


Monday I told the boss what was going on and later went to my appointment.  First they take you in and check your vision, you know, the ever decreasing size of print.  Right eye, very good.  Left eye.............not so much.  After that they put the drops in to dilate your pupils.  I don't know if any of you have ever had those drops in your eyes, but that shit's nasty as it stings more than just a little.  And then you hurry up and wait.  Typical time in that clinic is 3 to 4 hours and you can't even read!  It's pretty much impossible to focus when your pupils are dilated.  After sitting for what seemed to be forever I was called in and they took some pictures of the inside of my eyes.  And then?  Go sit and wait some more.  I finally got to meet Dr. Ells and she looked at the pictures and decided that we needed more comprehensive pictures, so back in the hall with me to wait for a different type of pictures.  This time they injected some dye in me and took a whole lot more.  And then it's sit and wait some more. 


Dr. Anna's assistant Cheryl finally called me in and I waited some more.  Finally Dr. Anna came in and had a look at the latest round of pictures and said that I had an internal bleed going on and that was what was causing the grey spot and that she was going to treat me with an experimental drug called Avastin.  Dr. Anna told me that Avastin was developed for treatment of colon cancer. Hmmmmmm eyeballs, assholes.... having a hard time seeing the connection there.  I was thinking some sort of surgery to vacuum  that crap out of there but ok, I can do drugs.  Not so fast Deb.  It's not an oral but rather an injectable that gets injected in to the offending area.  Now I broke a sweat.  I don't do eyes..............  I've seen enough cows with pinkeye that between eyeballs and knee caps they just gross me out.  First they put some freezing drops in and you wait (again) and then they inject more freezing in your eye and you wait some more.  Now comes the good part.  By this time I was sweating so bad I must have smelled worse than a linebacker.  Dr. Anna came back and told me to sit very still, look right at the tip of her nose and don't blink.  Don't blink?  I was so focused on the tip of her nose that I could have counted the nose hairs in there!  The best part?  Come back in 6 weeks for round 2 and another 6 weeks for round 3.  I told Dr. Anna that between the Avastin and my internal knowledge that this was going to work, I'd be well in no time flat.  Dr. Anna was so very impressed with my progress when I went back for round 3 that I almost had her convinced that round 3 shot wasn't necessary.  Nice try. 


I've had one relapse since then that took only one shot to clear up and both Cheryl and Dr. Anna are extremely pleased with the way things have gone.  I still see Dr. Anna but have gone from every 6 weeks to every 8 weeks and now 3 months!  I still get the lecture that if I have any sort of distortion or spot I am to call and get in immediately, no waiting around thinking it's going to get better.  Yes ma'am, I'm all over that!