Viewing 1 - 10 out of 44 posts tagged with 'righteye' (Oldest First :: Newest First) Show related: tags

Prev. 10

Thursday, October 25 2007, 11:33 AM

Here's a short update for those that check back regularly on the status of my cybernetically-enhanced laserbeam-shooting eye. Well, it's not really cybernetically enhanced, and it does not yet shoot laser beams, but it is doing remarkably well considering how much its been through. I had another routine checkup with Dr. Saxe last week, and he is still seeing no further evidence of the Coats' Disease that was plaguing me beforehand. Things have been calm and stable for close to a year now (at least), and I'm still seeing the "slow 20/20" that I've been seeing for some time now.

To the others that read up on my situation - may your dealings with Coats' Disease go as well as mine have.

righteye

Tuesday, January 23 2007, 12:45 PM

Yep, I'm up early, so I can play catch-up today. A week ago, I had an eye check-up with Dr. Saxe to evaluate the progress being made in my right eye. Dispite some issues with the Swiss-made and supposedly infallible examination gear, he was able to see that my eye is doing quite well, and showing no signs of issue at this point. At a 'normal' distance, I was able to read the 20/20 lines on the vision tests, but at a closer range more akin to reading a book (or a computer), my vision fell off significantly to 20/80 or worse. This is due to the artificial lens, and completely expected and normal. I've got a prescription for glasses that I haven't done anything with, but I've been considering them to help with the issues with reading.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my eye situation. It was looking somewhat bleak for a while, and I was pretty pessimistic about the possibility of being done with the whole situation, at least for a semi-lenghty amount of time. However, at this point, everything has been calm for many months, and it seems I'm getting my respite. Hopefully it's lenghty.

righteye

Saturday, November 11 2006, 2:02 AM

It seems that I don't ever take the time to post anymore. I'm sitting here on the floor in this hallway of a hotel in Indianapolis typing this because I'm bored out of my mind, and Bob is asleep already in the hotel room. Since I'm not tired, I'm out here.

I'm down here for my buddy Andre's wedding. It rained like crazy coming down here, and there were some wind gusts that probably could have blown me off the road if I wasn't paying attention. Good thing I got the new wipers on my car the other day...

Now onto news... First off, I came up with names for my cats. I liked my dad's suggestion of Marshall for the black cat, since he's always sleeping up on my Marshall 4x12 speaker cabinet. Running with the cool guitar equipment names, I called the gray cat Mesa, in honor of Mesa amplification. Now I have to get used to calling the cats by those names.

I also had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Doshi on Wednesday. He said everything was looking good, and my vision tests showed I was seeing a "fuzzy 20/20" with my righteye, which is pretty damned good. I guess that equates to being able to see the 20/20 line with significant effort, as opposed to seeing it at a quick glance. I don't ever remember seeing 20/20 with my right eye even before the problems started occuring, so that's something to be happy about. In a related note, I was able to get a pretty good sampling of night-time driving this evening with the associated headlight glare. It still gives me problems, but it doesn't seem to be as bad as it was.

cats friends indianapolis righteye roadtrips

Monday, November 06 2006, 12:51 PM

Yep, I've defintely been rather lax on the posting front. First (and fastest to type) is some eye news. It is definitely somewhat better, but keying on how much better is difficult. I'm not seeing as much glare as before, and I'm starting to see more of the general debris that floats around in there as a result of the Coats' Disease. I take that is a good sign that the fog is thinning, but it kinda sucks that all of the crap is still floating around in there.

Second up is something more fun, cuddly, and lovable. As of a week ago, I'm now the proud owner of two cats. The were given to me by a coworker, Jay, and they're some of the coolest cats I've ever been around. Most cats are tempremental, grumpy, or just downright mean, but these two are outgoing, friendly, and affectionate. I've yet to give them names, but I figure I should do it soon.

Edit: I forgot to post the links to the cat gallery. Here it is.

cats righteye

Wednesday, November 01 2006, 2:01 AM

For those that are curious, the laser procedure today went off without a hitch. It was actually very short (around five minutes), but I had to wait a good half hour to fourty-five minutes before hand while the dilation drops did their thing, and around twenty minutes afterward so they could take a pressure reading. Oh well. I suppose I can't complain - there was no need for anesthetic, needles, or steroids. I do have a prescription for anti-inflammatory drops though. But, of course, they had to prescribe something new. I've got like 5 bottles of leftover drops from previous procedures that probably could have served some purpose, but no! New prescription for me.

Dr. Doshi says that I should start noticing gradual improvement over the next few days. I haven't noticed anything yet, but it's probably something that I won't consciously see until I do before and after type comparisons. Hopefully the improvements don't take their time.

righteye

Thursday, October 26 2006, 1:30 AM

Last Friday I had another appointment with Dr. Doshi. He confirmed Dr. Saxe's diagnosis about the foggy membrane. He put the scheduling for the laser procedure in motion, and I'm scheduled to have some membrane zappage on 10/31. It seems like it'll be a really low-key procedure. There's no real preparation, and I should be able to drive myself home according to the surgical counselor I talked to.

righteye

Wednesday, October 18 2006, 12:00 PM

I had another eye checkup yesterday with Dr. Saxe yesterday. I've actually been trying to move the appointment up due the apparent worsening of my overall sight from my perspective, but his schedule was full. He seemed quite surprised when I told him that I felt my vision was degrading. After looking things over, he said my eye is looking better than it has in a long time, and is in quite good shape considering all of the abuse it has endured. I'm seeing around 20/30 on the standard vision tests, and there's little-to-no trace of swelling or leaking blood vessels associated with my case of Coats' Disease. He did agree that the foggy membrane he noticed on my last visit was most likely causing my degraded vision. He put me on track to see Dr. Doshi again for an examination on friday. Hopefully then I'll be able to line up the laser treatment that will blast the fog away. If everything else is doing well as Dr. Saxe believes, I'm hopeful that getting rid of the fog will help things immensely.

righteye

Friday, September 08 2006, 2:04 AM

Yes, the fog in my eye has returned with a vengeance. Any progress that I made by getting the cataracts in my eye removed has been erased. For a while, my sight was pretty good compared to all I've been experienced, but now it's most certainly worse than before. I should probably head back into the doctor earlier than my next scheduled appointment, but I'm really not sure if it will do much good. My eye seems intent on destroying itself, without regard for laser treatments, surgeries, artificial lenses, and happy thoughts.

This sucks.

frustrations righteye

Monday, July 17 2006, 3:50 AM

It's been a while, so I'll bring everyone up to speed. I've had a busy last week, in my terms anyway. I had another eye checkup on tuesday, and it confirmed something I've been noticing over the past few weeks - my sight is getting foggy again. This time it's a membrane behind the new implanted lens that is starting to fog up. The pre-op videos and information packets mentioned that was a possible side-effect, so I can't say I'm surprised. They seemed to downplay the risk though. From what I could gather from Dr. Saxe's words and inflections, it was is less a question of 'if' it will be a side-effect, and more of 'when.' Well, I guess when is now. He seemed pretty optimistic that the haze could be blasted away with a simple five-minute laser procedure, but I've heard that before. I'm trying to stay optimistic, but it's kinda hard when everything they've done seems to have a short-term benefit, with a subsequent regression in the not-so-long term.

Wednesday and thursday I demonstrated once again that I have little regard for schedules, clocks, eating, or sleeping when I get started on a project and want to see it through. I put in 16 hours at work on wednesday, and another 14 on thursday. I can say that I accomplished phase one of my goals, which is good. Phase two, three, and whatever number I decide to count up to are stil quite distant in their completion, so hopefully I won't be tempted to do any marathon sessions. That's a good thing, since I was pretty much dead on friday, with a nasty headache I can only attribute to lack of sleep.

The weekend has been a good one though. Yesterday (saturday) I cleaned up the apartment some, and then went with Jon to see the Shadows Fall concert, which was located in Detroit's sweaty asshole - Harpos Concert Theater. More on that in a later post. Today my family and grandmothers came up for a belated birthday dinner and giftgiving. Much good steak was had by all. My parents surprised me with gifts, which I've stated more than once aren't really necessary for my birthdays anymore, but they brought them anyway. I can't say I'm disappointed though. They bought me a gas grill, all the various utensils to go with it, and a nice grilling tutorial/recipie book. I'm no ace in the kitchen, so I'll need all the help I can get. I've been meaning to get a grill since I moved out of vegetarian hell and into my own place, but my tendency to procrastinate won out once again. Mom and dad came though where I fell short though. Thanks mom and dad!

family righteye work

Friday, June 09 2006, 1:11 AM

I just realized that I've neglected my small but faithful audience by not posting news covering the progress of my right eye over the past month since the cataract surgery. While certainly not a 100% turnaround, I have noticed a marked improvement in my sight since my last post. I can pick out things at a much further distance than I could before now. I always try to assess my progress by looking at street signs on the highway when I'm heading into work. Before I had the cataract removed, I could clearly make out the signs at maybe five car-lengths of distance, if that. Afterwards, things have improved enough so that I can see the same level of detail at 3-4 times that, maybe more. It's hard to tell since I have to worry about driving the car, but it's still an improvement.

I think there are two things that are still holding me back though, and neither is likely to go away completely. First is the garbage that's still floating around in my eye. It's always there, floating and swirling, and it can be quite distracting. The second is the underachieving reflex action of the iris/pupil that I've had since the first laser treatment. I've shown a picture of it before here, for those who aren't familar with what I'm talking about. My right eye is extraordinarly slow in reacting to changes in light level, and it seems to be stuck in a less contracted position than the left eye.

As a result, I'm really really uncomfortable in bright environments, and I notice a pretty large degradation in my sight when I'm looking at things with a lot of difference in light levels. For example, the vision tests I've been taking involve a dark room, an illuminated screen, and dark letters. Everybody probably knows what they look like. Anyway, when I'm looking at the letters, the bright illuminated areas 'bleed' into the darker areas quite heavily, and it makes it hard to pick out the letters. A week after the cataract surgery, I was seeing 20/45 with normal vision, but when I looked through this pinhole-mask-thingy (can't think of a better name for it), which blocks a significant portion of the light and glare, I was able to see 20/20. It was a strained 20/20 though. With my left eye, I read the 20/20 line at a glance, but it takes a concerted effort to make things out with my right eye at anything lower than 20/50 or so. Eventually I can make things out when the crap floating around in my eye shifts to the right position, but it's certainly not effortless.

The good news is that I've received a clean bill of health from Dr. Doshi. I see him again in a year. However, I'm sure Dr. Saxe isn't finished with me yet. I'm probably about due for another steroid injection. I tell ya... I can't wait... Right.

righteye

Related Tags

Prev. 10