If Letty is our resident bruja, I would like to apply for the position of resident brujo. But I can't help until we hear of the results of Tuesday's meeting with the retinologist. Please inform us.
Si, si, signor. Won't leave til Mon. morning, and then won't be back til Wed evening. Doubt I'll run across an accessible computer in between those.
The eye IS better with this recent blast of drops though, so I see there hasn't been complete permanent damage, I bet it is somewhat reversible. I am in an oddly good mood, as in what the hell, I get to go for a pretty drive amid the che sera'.
As I said to our friend, ONan, (who has been dealing with cancer so magnificently), courage is the highest, most valuable, virtue. This does not mean that fear and depression are unacceptable. But to accept them and still enjoy every bit of meaningful life we have despite our vulnerablity and suffering is SO admirable. I'm talking about you, Osso. You are showing me how I should behave when my inevitable turn comes.
Hmm, I read somewhere that ONan was sick, but haven't been back to abuzz and don't know her story.
Actually, I didn't call right away in an emergency mode this time out of some mix of cowardice and laziness and denial and acceptance, so I ain't no poster girl, JL.
Improvement sure seems steroid drop related...
I am still gleeful today that there is any improvement. Assuming this passes after the trip to Santa Rosa, which is a "who knows?", the continuing problem is they want to wean people off of steroid drops because they are trouble in that they do increase eye pressure - so taking them 4 to 6 times a day is only a short term help.
But never mind, seeing somewhat clearly with that eye (I still have little spaces looking at typed letters but not as many) - is a real high, and far vision with my glasses on is improved too, phew.
Well, I'll pipe up again here more on Wednesday.
Osso, you have been in my thoughts. Thank you for posting. I send all best wishes for a speedy recovery your way.
No poster girl? How about a REAL girl? Good luck Tuesday. I'm sure we'll have our fingers crossed. I'll even have my legs crossed, and I only do that when I have to pee.
Osso,
My dear, I finally caught up on the whole eye surgery string of threads. <zen hugs> So glad you are hangin' in there. (I've had a lacerated cornea twice, painful, scary, stuff, but nada compared to what you're going through.)
Wiyaka and I are praying for you. In fact I'll do the full 4 days of Canunpa, it pays to hedge your bets.
I know you will keep all of us posted on your progress.
Love, hugs, lots of healing vibes and best wishes
Sam
Sam1951, I wish I could be as expressive as you are. Osso, what Sam said from me too. Well, the spirit of it. The facts don't apply to me.
I appreciate this, Sam and Wiyaka.
JL, I will think of you with crossed legs as I go to the md's.
An aside - I am driving down for Tuesday's appointment on Monday, as I am in no mood to rush through the forest on Tuesday a.m., and am staying at a hotel down the street from the md's office for the two nights. The good news is, yippee, I just called and found out that Willi's is open on Mondays.
Willi's Wine Bar is a spot with some of the best food I've ever had, and I've had, trust me, a lot of good food. The chef is very good, the food is italian, but served like Tapas, on little plates of this and that. Plus, as you can tell by the name and would appreciate if you know about Sonoma County, there is a fantastic selection of good wine by the glass.
And Willi's is about a block from the hotel and dr's office.
Willi's
Hmmm, this reminds me of the last supper thread...
You're in my thoughts, osso. Please keep us posted.
Osso,
Sam just discovered this thread and lead me to it. You're tough and can deal with it, but I'll do Canupa for you anyway, if you don't mind.
I understand your situation fairly well. My mom had cataract surgery on each eye this spring. At 79, supposedly she was a poor candidate for this, but she's since put away her large magnifying glass to read and has gone back to doing small crotchet projects. She's even complimented my outfits and earings.
She's got one small spot that is grey in the the lower left corner of her right eye, but they can correct that with a laser. She did have a bit of disorientation the first week after surgery, but that subsided. One eye, I forget which, does cause things to rise up, sort of looking at a person with only the corner of the lip turning up into a smile on one side only. :wink: She does have macular degeneration too. Occassionally, she mentions floaters, but they're pretty common, so no major deal.
I figure that if she can do it at her age, you'll do fine. BTW, using the definition of bravery as overcoming one's fears, you're one brave lady.
Thank you, Wiyaka,
Thank you, Mac.
See what I mean? Your looking forward to Willi's is an example of your making the best of things.
I just found this thread. I haven't checked out Medical News & Health before. Please forgive me. I will have to start reading more than I have.
I didn't realize you are still going through such a hard time with your eyes, Osso. I hope you got good news today. I'm saying a special prayer for you right now, and I will check in tomorrow to find out how your trip went. Much love....Eva
Osso - Osso, where are you.....? How'd it go?
Yes, how?
Though I know that updates can themselves be enervating...
Remember, Osso said she would be staying there for two nights. Right now she's probably eating fine Italian "tapas" at Willie's and downing good Sonoma Valley vino tinto. She'll report in as soon as she can. She knows we are anxious for her.
Whatta three days, and unfortunately I can foresee them as a potential sequence into thenwhatville.
I rented a car, as Sue and I do that for business or personal trips out of our area as we both have old cars. Her husband has a bmw, but that is semiantique and has to be pampered too. Me, my last worst trip to LA, no, no, it was the one before the Worst One, I had at least four breakdowns of the Volvo at key intersections in SF and LA. The '91 volvo is fixed, but I rent, thank you very much.
So, I left on Monday a.m. after dropping Pacco off w/Sue - I have finally given up and at a2k I am calling my business partner Sue, which happens to be her first name - and having her drop me at the Dreaded Enterprise Car Rental (don't get me started on past difficulties). True to form I waited a long time to pick up the car, as there were two people working there instead of the usual five. Never did get a good cup of coffee that morning, just got going. No matter how grumpy I am when starting out, I devolve in the forest ride into hanging on to some kind of thrill in space. (More on this later.) This thing, this pleasure, happens right away.
I don't know if people who have always lived in this area feel this, but for me, the relative newcomer, I can hardly believe my luck.. the forest builds as one leaves the coast, and is quite quickly dramatic. I clutch for the cds I packed, where the hell are they. No, that's a shoe. No, that's toothpaste.
Ahhhh, there they are. I put on, what, a new one from the cheapo pile at our new Border's: Fritz Kreisler playing Beethoven and Mendelssohn.
The truth is I liked it but was distracted with my mind going here and there.
Look at the trees, I say to me. Lookit the curve, and the red car, I say to me...
I stopped at a place I cannot now remember the name of (something like the Big One) The sign says 'Espresso', and there are lots of carved redwood animals lollling about the parking lot, plus a gift shop with redwood earrings and stuffed wolf toys and hotplates with Elk, presumably Roosevelt elk near the Roosevelt Grove. And tees and windbreakers and so on, all redwood embossed. I always look at these and think ...maybe my cousins, and then walk away. But, in the case of this Monday, I got a sandwich, which was my breakfast, and moved on out.
And up and up..
well, I'll skip all this til later - I will start a thread on driving 101, the highway, although I may have done something like it before, have to research here on a2k.
Let's just say I turn off at Healdsburg and arrive at the town square in the warmth of late afternoon, when the Oakville Grocery is nearly empty - an unusual thing. Oakville Grocery is some sort of cooks' erotica. (You can't find a quart of milk, but....)
I walked out with two pint containers of olives - picholines and green bellas; a smidge of langhe robiola cheese ($about 24.00 a pound, but a smidge is not much) and some Morbier, and two tiny loaves of hearth bread and a package of chocolate almonds and then after paying I noticed the Parma ham (Parma, sob), not prosciutto, but parmacotto, and had some cut in slivers, yes! for a total $2.32 for the ham.
So... when I pulled into Santa Rosa and Mendocino Avenue and the Extended Stay hotel, I didn't feel like going to Willi's after all. Maybe Wednesday morning, as I think it opens early. after being closed on Tuesday.
So, that night, Monday night, I pigged out in my peculiar hotel next to the md's office, and read a mystery set in Sicily....
An aside - this hotel really is peculiar. I have to look it up on the internet.
I chose it because it is next door to the superretinalspecialists. But it is Very Institutional. Institutional as I think it might have been meant as a slightly low end business building. No decor value at all. High emphasis on security. Few amenities, although I gather all rooms have these amusing kitchenettes, which are only minutely useful if you wanted one. The refrigerator sings all night, off, on, off on, offenbach. I was about to dismiss it as "well, there are a lot of patients staying here, next to a building of specialists", but nah, the style is more rigorous functional, and the patrons I saw were going fishing. Weird. Maybe it is nationally weird, it intrigues me.
So I ate my delightful dinner and poured a bit of this and that, and read my book and arose early to have four hours before the appointment. Yes, I went shopping.
I checked out Santa Rosa Avenue, what a plethora of nationally renown shops. I have somewhat missed these since I left LA, and I did search out CostPlus.. to look at baskets. Northern Humboldt County is very poorly supplied with baskets.
All the time thinking, I was, of the appointment, but also of me and Santa Rosa. My father was born there, in 1906. Another story, another post. And yet I was now on my fourth short time in the city, not really knowing it at all.
Enough of that. I figure out that I can take S.R. Avenue straight back to the hotel and medical building, since the street names change but not the road. Get there. Go in. Wait. Get interviewed by the inevitable office helper. Not to be nasty, since I did that too and we all can't know everything all at once, but this young man was particularly stupid. I answered all his questions, which the md already knew, twice, and had an eye test and some drops.
Pre get to see the md eye test - much better (which I knew, multiplying the drops per day was working, I could tell as there were no blank spaces in typed letters)
In comes the specialist, who I like. He cuts to the quick. It is either this or that or maybe a bit of both. (There was a minute hemorrhage, probably not discernable to a patient, and an onset of macular swelling. Not clear if cause and effect,or separate, or what.) We'll do this to help clarify.
This being the fluorescein dye test/photography thing, to see if there were any blockages to the blood vessel network in the retina. No, it wasn't painful, in fact it was one more beautiful test, in that the range of colored lights going off beats the movies. Leaves one a little thwacked, though, after a barrage of bright lights direct into the eye.
I was glad after all that I was staying at the Dreadful Inn, as I could just walk back. Though it was only one eye that was way dilated, the Santa Rosa sun was brilliant enough without dilation, and I declined to drive for Thai food, which had been my intent.
No report yet, I should hear this week. I think I am going to be in a "watched" state.
Had a totally great drive home, one appreciates these things.
Osso
Osso, your description of the drive through the mountains brought back so many memories of my own many treks back and forth between Eureka and the Bay Area in the 1970s. I doubt things have changed all that much.
BBB
