People who send out alarming news and then fall silent about the eventual outcome are among the most annoying type of animal inhabiting our modern world. Oh, they have every colorful excuse for the lack of updates. And, they are filled with good intentions and deep remorse. Still, they leave the folks they worried worrying longer than strictly necessary.
My friends, I am a card carrying member of that exact breed of annoying animal.
All the way back to last April, I sent out an email and posted a ramble about my vision. I awoke one morning to find a change in my right eye. There was a dark, liquid like haze shaped in a large circle in the dead center of my visual field. It formed a perfect ring around a blind spot I had been told was a un-repairable scratch of unknown origin on the cornea.
My Mom went blind so I didn't screw around with this. I raced over to the nice folks at our local Mass Eye and Ear satellite. The emergency covering eye doc that evening told me I needed an appointment with the retina specialist, try not to worry too much in between then and when I got to see him, and there was no immediate active disease. The retina guy several days later diagnosed Central Serous Retinopathy. He explained it was like a cold (head cold not shiver cold) in one eye which usually ran a course of three or four months and went away on it's own. There was no treatment unless it lingered.
Mine lingered.
Okay, the retina specialist saw me more this summer than my family. The condition was not changing. Good that it was not worsening. Bad that it was not just healing.
Treatment time.
Laser beams! On the first Friday in November, the retina guy injected a chemical into my veins which was super sensitive to ultraviolent light. Then he flashed a laser for less then sixty second at the spot we wanted to fix.
Done.
I mean done. It worked instantly. Well, instantly in a relative sense. Once the flashing after effects from having a light shine in your eye faded, my vision was 100%. The unrepairable blind spot was actually the source of the problem and it healed. The retina guy didn't think that would happen. During our last follow up visit, the usually dour man grinned at me and said, "we got really lucky." "No," I told him. "I got you to treat me."
So, my disastrous year of 2009 drew to a soft close. 2010 has started busy with family illness and a birth of a grand niece; Lucy. Work that pays the bills blows but my writing is going strong. My website hit IT problems in the last quarter of 2009 but I hope they are on the way to resolution for all of 2010. My vision is clear and my health is good and that, my friends, is a lot more than some people can say. To paraphrase the retina specialist, I got lucky, really lucky.
Phair, take all the luck you can! May a bit more follow you around. Have a great night y'all, enjoy the updates!
Elisa
- BtVS
- Chapter 4 of Keeping the Faith: S1E03 - Sotto Voce by SlayersAnonymous (BuffynFaith.Net).
- Chapter 11 of Cross My Heart, Hope to Die by Jinxgirl (BuffynFaith.Net).
- Chapter 9 of Welcome to Bon Temps by lizardmm (BuffynFaith.Net).
- Chapter 7 of The Princess of Denial (Conclusion) by Salix (BuffynFaith.Net).
- Chapter 16 of 100 Photographs by Electra (Saffic).
Original - Chapter 6.20 of Flowers of Edo by Nene Adams (her web site).
- Notes by Mary Dawn (Sapphic Voices).
- The Fallen - Reunion by S (Sapphic Voices).
Sherlock Holmes - Music from Another Room by Geonn Cannon (his lj).
Stargate SG-1 - Face to Face (Meant to Be 6) by SJSlashfan (Area 52).
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