Report from the Eye Doctor

I finally made it to the follow-up with my eye doctor. To recap, I was having excruciating headaches, much like migraines, and sharp pain in and behind my eyes. When I initially visited Dr. Morrison, he told me it was likely caused by my eye pressure, which was very high, combined with the deteriorating condition of my eye tissue. He started me on a regimen of eye drops, 3 different medications equaling 7 drops in each eye every day! Whew, I have been having a time working them all in.

But about a week into taking the drops, my headaches began to decrease and the pain started to subside. That was especially encouraging to me, as the only other choice I would have besides the drops would be to have my eyes removed, which I do not want to do.

I was scheduled to go back about 3 weeks ago, but as luck would have it, there was severe weather that day, with pounding thunderstorms and lightning. Mom said that, despite the fact that we would get soaking wet trying to get to the car and then into the office, it is very dangerous to drive in those conditions as the roads get very slick. Needless to say, we had to reschedule, and the receptionist didn’t seem very surprised. I guess she had a lot of people reschedule that day because of the weather.

Anyway, I did make it on Thursday of this past week. We went through the normal routine: the nurse shines a light into my eyes a couple of times (not sure what she is checking for), then she puts some numbing drops into my eyes before she checks the pressure. She uses an instrument that looks much like a large ink pen that has a soft tip on the end. She has to push the tip into the center of my eye, which is a large feat since I cannot focus and my eyes kind of wander. One nurse described it as trying to spear a minnow (a very small fish).

She finally was able to get a reading and said my eye pressure was down considerably. On my previous visit, one of my eyes was 33 and the other was 27. This time one was 21 and one was 16, very close to normal. Dr. Morrison was very pleased and said to continue on the drops, but he did cut one of them down from four times a day to two. He wants me to continue the one drop for pressure indefinitely but said maybe the other two could be phased out over time.

He did say I had some discoloration around my eyes, most likely caused by pushing on them. He said this is very common for the visually impaired, as pressing on the eyes brings light and retinal stimulation. In other words, the person is trying to get the retina to see light. But he said that Mom should discourage me from it as I could damage my eyes further and also damage the area around my eyes. Other than that, I don’t have to go back until November!

I sure wish all my doctors were as nice as Mr. Morrison. He is such a kind man and always explains everything so well. And it only took about 30 minutes from sign in to sign out. A visit to my primary care physician usually takes at least an hour and has taken as long as 4 hours! It’s awful. But we are looking for another PCP, and hopefully my next visit will be to them.

I am still soda free, and lovin’ it! I should get my walker soon so Mom and I can start going to the park and walking on the trail. Thanks to everyone for the support and encouragement I have received. Please keep following along, and feel free to lend any suggestions you think might be helpful. I hope you stay safe, happy and especially HEALTHY!!