Oops

Mean to post this one, done this spring. With my friend Vada who trusts my ideas and shares her's as well. Like the peaceful nature of this one. Thanks

The Eye

Well I apologize once again reality has tunned this blog to health issues.

Recently I was mowing the yard at a friend’s house, being a cloudy day I didn’t wear my sunglasses, I did not wear my safety glasses either. As fate would have it a small piece of wood hit my eye, but no harm was done so I press on. The next morning I noticed that it took longer for my eye to wake up and get with the program. I put some drops in and really thought no more about it, like most men I put it out of my mind. A few day later again my eye was having trouble waking up but now I saw a haze around shiny objects. By mid-morning it would clear but I called my doctor and made an appointment.

A week later I saw my doctor, told her what had happened to my eye and wanted to know if I’d done serious damage. After the examination she told me I was right to come in there was something going on with my eye. Then for the next few minutes she let me sit there while she finished her notes. I was on pins and needles waiting for her to give me the bad news. She said that when she looked in my eye I had many tiny hemorrhages in the back of my eye. Still had 20/20 vision but I’d need to be followed by a specialist, made the appointment for the following month and gave my condition a name. Central retinal vein occlusion is one of the leading causes of blindness in older Americans. Not to worry I was told I still had perfect vision with my glasses.

The week before my appointment I had a scare and went in as an emergency patient, thought I saw bright lights and thought I had separated my retina. I hadn’t but I still needed to see the doctor specializing in CRVO, vision still 20/20. I saw her the following Tuesday, was told I was very lucky and we’d take some photos of my eye and go from there, vision still 20/20. Told it wasn’t as bad as she first though, keep taking my eye drops and come back in a month. I was very happy and went home and almost forgot about it till later in the month I was aware my vision was quite as good as it had been. On the next visit my vision was 20/30, I was told the treatment consisted of a shot in the eye. Visions of Clockwork Orange came into my head, all I could think of was this pretty lady coming at me with a needle for MY eye. Told me not to worry, we’d give it another month and see what my eye did.

Next appointment vision down to 20/40, I could no longer see clearly out of my right eye. I knew there was a car on my right side but I could no longer tell you what the license plate was. I couldn’t read with my right eye and focusing a camera you could forget about. Now we talked about the shot in earnest, she told me about a new drug that they’d just approved only drawback that it was $2000. Gulp! my Medicare would cover it, but lately I have a lot of health issues what would happen if I reached the donut hole? I decided I’d ask her the next week when I got the shot, in the meantime I turned to Google and YouTube to see what I was getting myself into. Found lots of literature on the drugs and the procedure, then saw the right way to get the shot and the wrong way. Saw what must have been an intern giving the shot, his hands we shaking so badly his assistant had to steady them. But it gave me a great overview to the procedure and answered a lot of my questions.

The following Tuesday I was ready, my vision was worse I knew and didn’t need to be told it was down to 20/50. Before I could even speak my piece about the cost of the medication she told me she was switching to the tried and true medication. I might need more shots, but the other stuff had too many side effects for her comfort to take the risk. How really nice that we were on the same page, still visions of Clockwork Orange were passing through my head seeing the instruments. After a quick check of my eyes, she prepared and disinfected my eye and gave me the shot. I couldn’t really see her stick the needle in my eye, but I saw her finger on the plunger; down, down, down it went shooting the medicine into my eye. Now I was truly blind in that eye, everything was absorbed into the haze. She cleaned my eye, gave me a prescription for drops and I was on my way.

Thank goodness I had a friend driving me, as a reward I took her to lunch at my favorite India food place. Then pick up my prescription and got home into the air conditioned coolness of my place and took a nap. My eye was driving me crazy, felt like I had eyelashes in there, as the medication to numb it wore off my eye throbbed. At lunch my eye started leaking blood and that got worse till later that afternoon I could almost feel it begin to drip. I squatted down to get something out of the crisper, something came over my eye and I almost called a cab to take me into the hospital. But after a few moments it cleared, I was ever so thankful that I had to go back for a test the next morning.

In the morning my vision began to clear slightly, I could focus with my right eye. Full of hope I went back for my appointment, the tech photographed my eye, showed me what was wrong and what they hoped I’d get. I ask if we could check the pressure in my eye, just for grins she said lets test your vision... almost back to 20/30. I could see the damn eye chart again, could read almost four lines down. I am trying to not get my hopes up too high, giving my eye a chance to rest and repair itself. Neither one is easy for me, went for a walk in the park, it was turtle day, watch as a big one glided over the creek bottom and I felt free of worry for the moment. Because of the drought I could cross the creek without getting wet, climbed the little hill I ran as a boy and explored till it got too hot and I needed to get under the air conditioner. Feel very peaceful now as I write this, I can see better not quite as well as I did before but now I have hope. Its been a really tough couple of months for me. More health issues are coming up, but I feel hopeful now that I can see better. May not last forever, but I have my friends and the people who care about me. I am a lucky man.

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Farewell

I went to a party last night for a friend of mine who was laid off earlier this year. It came without warning and surprised the community. It seems like three of the head people were laid off in the same period, three top earners in the company gone. Now we’re left with a hole in the tourism community and her parting will be missed. There were at least two others who were well connected with city projects who were also let go. We’ve always been well insulated in this state of ours as we do a lot of tourism business. But the time are hard and we’re not immune from the downturn. Our community also has a strong military base and in recent years that too has been affected. Now the life’s blood of our community is undergoing a new phase of development, the rules have changed and no one seems to know what they are.

I used to make a pretty decent living off tourism and the film industry in the days went they were humming. But now all bets are off and only the agile will survive. Everyone is left scrambling for a job the will give them some cash and hoping they can recover that lost income. But the days of easy money are over and we must all learn new ways of doing business. I’m thinking that the world of business has been shook up pretty good and that better day’s are ahead but we’re in for some rough times until then. I also feel that this is for the long term good of the world’s economy. We have to change out ways of doing business, get back to making things and not finances that no one can figure out. Blue collar, decent hard working people the world over have been hurt. Their share of the pie has been squandered and they have been left holding the empty bag. There is nothing wrong with labor and hard work, it’s been devalued for far too long. When my father was a young man he worked with his hands. He was a glass blower in his younger days and put in some really hard days. His handy work can still be seen in a few signs around town.

I think it also time that we as a country learn to grow up and start paying our own way. For too long our leader’s have been putting off the present by expecting the younger generation to foot the bills that we’re too cheap to pay. Everyone wants their cake and to be able to eat it too. More and more but let’s not bring up how much it’s costing, we’ll leave that to the future. We have to be willing to pay more in taxes to cover health cost. We have to be willing to pay more for gas to promote energy efficient cars and policies that make sense going forward. For a long time Republicans and Democrats have been playing a game of smoke and mirrors with us. We need to pay a more realistic cost to cover that expense. No one wants their taxes raised but we all want more services. We have to pay for them now and not put our expenses on the backs of the children. Europe has the right idea, they pay more in taxes and pay more for gas. Gasoline has been undervalued for so long that we have been cushion for years and years. That hasn’t meant that we haven’t been paying, it just’s come out of a different pocket. The government has been subsidizing a part of each gas purchase so we don’t know how much gas really costs. Smoke and mirrors, concentrate on the small stuff and watch the public divide.

I don’t know if the government plans will work out, I hope so with all my heart. We’re off to a good start but good start still means you have to run the race. We all have to pitch in and do what’s right for our country; Europe has one idea, Germany another and France yet another. Let’s hope they all succeed no one has an edge on the truth or know’s what to really do. But it’s time we level with the people who have the most to gain, the hard working people.