An Eye for an I (part II)

In the previous post I wrote about my stinkin' eye and how they are going to slice it up to fix it.  Sounds a bit like Bush and how he had to kill capitalism to save capitalism to me.

When I was at my Oct appointment, the doctor wrote out some prescriptions and gave me a brochure for medical equipment rental.

First the prescriptions.

As the operation was scheduled for early December, I didn't fill the prescription right away.  No need to have those hanging around home where I could lose them was my thinking.  So about a week before the surgery, I waltz in to the pharmacy I've gone to for the last 35 years.  Gave them those four slips of paper and left.

The next day I came back to pick up the prescription.  Hmmmm.  Only three of the four are there.  Of course I ask where the other prescription is.  Well it turns out that what is missing is the pain reliever.  It is oxycodone, a narcotic.  Unknown to me (and probably you) prescriptions for narcotics have to be filled within 30 days.  The war on drugs I guess.  I dropped the scripts off on day 31.

So I talk to the pharmacist (the managing pharmacist also the owner's son in law).  He has called the doctor's office and is waiting for a call back.  Ok.  No big deal.  I've had them call a doctor before and it's always ready the next day.  But I wait two days and come back.  Still no pain reliever.  Talk to another pharmacist who has also been there as far back as I can remember (he was also a leader in the 4-H cow club).  He calls the doctor's office while I'm there.  Of course he doesn't get an answer and will wait for a call back.  OK.  I leave again.

As a side note, I think about how any drug dealer can get this stuff.  I remember this is the very stuff Rush Limbaugh was hooked on, but I can't get it.  What a country.

A couple days later I called the pharmacy and they say that the doctor has mailed the prescription to them.  WHAT?  So I call the doctor's office.  They tell me the same thing.  Apparently narcotics can not be faxed in.

Consider this.  We're talking about the doctor's end faxing to the local pharmacy that has been there at least 50 years.  And that is risky so it has to be mailed?  I'm not a real critic of the mail system, but which method seems more secure to you?

I am getting a little worried as the operation is at the other end of the weekend and I gots no drugs here.  I figure the doctor doesn't write a prescription unless I am likely to need this.  Call me a wimp, but I'd like to have this stuff on hand after they have been chopping away at my eyeball even if I end up not needing it.  Hopefully this gets resolved in the next couple days.

But let's move on to the medical equipment.

After reviewing the brochure, I realize that basically I am renting toilet seats that I put my head in to force me to keep my eyes facing down. 

That way the gas they injected stays pressing against the back of my eye (now the topmost area as I face down).  Doesn't look too bad and I had a bit of practice at this sort of thing during my college days although even at my worst I didn't need to pray to the porcelain god for a straight week.

They have a pad you put on the bed.  You lie on the pad so now you're elevated a few inches.  The toilet seat sits in front so as you lie there with your head in the toilet seat a few inches above the bed.

There is an entire chair with the toilet seat attached to the top as well as a table top model that I have to use while eating.

I decide to rent the Vitrectomy Max Comfort Package or as I call it the Deluxe Toilet Seat Package.  I get the sleeping pad, the chair, the table top and a mirror gizmo that I can use with the table top to watch TV.  I even end up with the porta potty.  When I'm going back to the doctor for my followup the day after the surgery, I have to remove one of the toilet seats and insert the vertical support rods in to this cube.  I hold the cube to my chest so I can continue to keep my head in a toilet seat while being driven insane to the doctor's office.

The price is pretty reasonable.  $235 for the whole shebang for a week.  And that includes shipping both ways.

All the stuff came in two large boxes and was pretty easy to set up.  So far I've tried the table top for about 20 minutes and it seems to work pretty well watching TV with the mirror gizmo.  Of course 20 minutes isn't 24x7 so we shall see.  I also spent a couple minutes on the bed pad and it seems like it might work.

Next.  Pre-Admission at the hospital.

An Eye for an I

Post Alert.

Readers are cautioned that reading this post may result in digust and nausea.  Be forewarned!

For a couple years I've been seeing an eye surgeon.  Seems my left eye wasn't built nearly as well as my right eye.  I had the doctor write out what it was but I can't read it completely.  What can say is that it is well over 40 characters long.  The doctor says it is similar to macular degeneration but not the same thing.  The doctor also says it is a rare condition so it doesn't have any FDA approved treatment.  So every three months I have to go to the doctor's office and get avastin shot in to my right eye with a needle.

yes it is

1) disgusting

2) the same stuff they use for breast cancer treatment.

It appears that it is the same effect.  Shrinks up the blood vessels.

But wait K-Mart shoppers.  That's not all.  This stupid eye also has a hole in the macula.  It's been there awhile.  The doctor said that as long as there was some tissue (not sure what maybe retina?) across the hole he wanted to leave it alone.  But back in October, he changed his opinion and suggested it was time to fix this thing if I was going to.

So I went back for a consultation in Oct and we put plans in motion for fixing this.

- - - CAUTION - - -

If you thought some of the above was disgusting, be warned that was the milder half.

I didn't quite understand what he said but he likened it to a balloon with a hole it.  If you stretch the balloon, the hole get larger and if you shrink the balloon, the hole gets smaller.  Apparently they somehow do this to my eye.  What I do remember is that they will remove a portion of the liquid and inject some gas in to the interior of the eye.  The gas presses on the area and it is supposed to allow the tissue to grow / reattach correctly.  As you might guess, partially filling the eye with gas to keep pressure at the macula hole means the gas has to be in the right place.  And that is the trick.  I have to spend a minimum of the next week face down.  Literally 24x7 face down.

The doctor provide a brochure for renting equipment to assist in face down week.

Next, getting ready for the hospital.

Red Line

I spent most of the week in Washington. The D.C. version.

We stayed at the Bethesda Hyatt.  The room was OK.  In fact it was a palace compared to what Captain Bob and I are used to on our bike trips.  But when you get over $300 /  day I would think you would have an exhaust fan in the bathroom.  Maybe even a wide-screen TV?

The hotel was about 9 miles from where I was going every day.  So the Metro was the only choice.  Fortunately the start was right under the hotel.  Good thing as Nicole hit the mid-Atlantic this week. 


I have never been on the Metro and I think the last time I was on a NY subway was in the early 80s so I'm a wide-eyed newbie.  When you look at the Metro Map you can get the heebie-jeebies trying to figure out how to navigate the thing. But it turned out to be easy.  All I had to do was hop on the Red Line, transfer to the Blue or Orange Line at Metro Central, travel a few more stops and I was there.

Now I did need to walk outside the hotel.  But it was to an area with a cover so no rain on me.  An elevator brought us down about one level.  About 50 feet to right was an escalator.  The longest, steepest escalator I've ever seen.  I'd swear this thing must be 1/4 mile long.  At the bottom there are a row of machines vending tickets.  For my $20 I got a small square piece to heavy stock paper with a magnetic strip down the middle.

So I put the ticket in the slot and it pops out a few feet away.  I took the trains to my destination and fed the ticket through the turnstile slot again.  When it popped out this time, a new balance was printed.

Come near the end of the week I was running low on money.  Just popped the ticket in, fed a couple bucks in, adjusted the total to what I knew I needed, pushed the button and out popped a new ticket and my change.

Now I'm no Luddite but I think the sophistication is pretty marvelous.  Yeah I guess if I jumped from an early 80s PC to today's PC maybe I'd find that marvelous too.  I have since been told that the Metro is cleaner and such than the NY subways but they have synthesized voices announcing stations and the like that you can actually hear and understand.  The Metro is still a human over a loudspeaker that you can't understand.

perspectives

Nippy lost the DVD I made of the Alaska pictures I took in May 2009. I found my copy and duplicated it.  Of course I spot checked the copy to make sure it duplicated correctly and ran in to some pictures I had taken at Glacier Bay.

The pictures do not provide a sense of the magnitude of the Alaskan wildness.  Perhaps it is the difference between congested New Jersey and the glaciers, but probably not.  I think even a Texan would find the landscape immense.

We headed in to Glacier Bay and on in to the Tar Inlet.  Two glaciers come in to the end of the inlet.  Like many glaciers, the Grand Pacific Glacier is receding.  This is where the Grand Pacific Glacier hits Tar Inlet:

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I know it's not very impressive. Although I couldn't get the entire glacier face in the frame, I'd say it's 90% there. You're looking at a 2 mile wide glacier face. A little perspective? If you laid the Empire State Building on it's side, it would be about (actually a little less) the length the dashes underneath the picture.

To the left is the Marjorie Glacier.

The Marjorie Glacier is about 1 mile wide and 350 high (250 above water).

Note that those caves are about 1/2 up in the first picture. The splash is about 1/2 to the cave. So the splash is about 60 feet high!!!

One of the other things that impresses me is the color of the water. I first encountered this at Glacier National Park in Montana. It was even bluer and clearer there. This picture doesn't capture it very well, but I think it gives you the idea.

The color is from Glacial Flour (also known as Rock Flour, but I like Glacial Flour better). Note that spectacular blue in the photo of Peyto Lake:

When we left Glacier Bay I was gripped by the sunlight on the water. It is a little out of context as it doesn't provide perspectives, but I liked it enough to toss it in.

The final perspective was the Gulf of Alaska coastline after we left Glacier Bay. Do you think there is enough elbow room in these parts?

Shuttle Delay

NASA announced that the last two shuttle launches have been delayed.  The last launch is now scheduled for Feb 25, 2011.  I talked to the Captain and we agreed to delay our Florida trip.  We're going to try to get tickets for the February launch and drive to Florida.

Whew.  The knee is still swollen etc.  I'm sure glad I'm not trying to do 50 miles a day in two weeks.  At least I've got a year to make this work.  If the knee isn't good by then, well perhaps the touring days might be over.