Let today, August 31st, be forever remembered as the first all-around fantastic eye appointment of 2009.
Good news #1: I made significant gains on the eye chart. I was just rattling off all these letters and the technician just kept giving me more and smaller lines to read...crazy. Granted, I didn't read them all in order; it counts nonetheless. For example, a line of the eye chart might read: C A O V. My flashes of light and shadows often crawl over my field of vision, so I generally see O V, wait for the flashes and shadows to drift, then the C and A emerge. Indeed, when I cover up my good eye and try to read, my brain is able to understand words even when I read 'backwards'. I don't get it either, but I'll take it.
Good news #2: After three doctors shined bright lights into my dilated eyes and an OCT scan (sort of like an ultrasound but for your retina), I was deemed "activity free." This means that I have no neovascular activity and thus, no fluid (blood) in the back of my eye! Always a good thing to hear especially when all those lights literally left me seeing hot pink for minutes afterward.
Good news #3: Activity free means no injection! In fact, this was the first appointment in 2009 that did not end with a needle penetrating my eyeball. I know you love that visual...This news was doubly good to hear because my insurance is apparently not thrilled about the heavy cost of my last Lucentis injection. They "nicely" covered my last one but today I was informed that future injections might not be covered. Crummy, huh? I kind of liked Avastin better anyways...but I'm not thrilled about the prospect of having insurance bail out on me.
2.5 hours later, I walked out of the hospital feeling fancy-free. I celebrated my successful appointment by buying some much-needed clothes for work and a book. When I got home, I ate a tomato and fresh mozzarella salad with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Now I'm gonna sit back and let all those anti-inflammatory goodies do their magic...
wow, hannah, that's great. i'm super happy for you. bastard health insurance. all the more reason we need a national health care plan. hey, i thought tomatoes were a big no no on your eating plan...
ReplyDeleteoh yeah...how come i can't rss feed your blog?
ReplyDeletei eat tomatoes but only fresh ones when possible. nightshade pfffft. they seem to be doing a body good. i disabled RSS because it freaked me out that I had no idea who was subscribing...maybe i'll enable it again. who knows? and health insurance...booooooo! new surprises every time i have an appt these days.
ReplyDeletethat is sweet, sweet, sweet progress. Well, I say tomatoes are a goody b/c they have tons of carotenoids. they are super anti-inflammatory. You know that plants use carotenoids as sunscreen? when they absorb too much sunlight or when super radicals are near by the carotenoids can deactivate the radicals and shake off the sunlight. pretty cool, eh?
ReplyDelete