I feel like a science fair project, I really do.
It's an every week occurance now. At some point I am at the whim of the medical profession doing...something. Just once I would like to have a week where I don't have to see a white lab coat or scrubs. Or to not have to drop a vial of blood and not have my arm squeezed in a blood pressure cuff. There is light at the end of this tunnel...and I can actually SEE it, but it's a long way off.
No...wait...it's just the lingering aura from laser surgery. My bad.
This week is round 4 of laser eye surgery. This one, like the last one, I felt. It's hard to describe pain for me. Not so much as it's subjective to the person but I guess I tolerate it better than other people do. I have had more pain since I have been up on the prosthetic and that has to do with changes in my stump...err...residual limb. That I guess is programmed into my receptors as a regular pain associated with being me and therefore tolerable. Indeed, I have not felt much pain since my foot was taken two years ago, which surprises me because for all intents and purposes the bone that once led to my right foot was lopped off and ground down and wrapped in tissue and that's it. You'd think it would hurt like hell, but it hasn't really.
The eye this time was a different matter. The best way I can describe the pain is to call it more of a nagging discomfort that is much like the sensation one might get if one has allergies that affects the eyes. Pet hair, hay fever, etc. I have been sensitive to both so that's what it feels like to me. The thing is, it's exclusive to just the one eye as opposed to both, which is what i normally feel in the case of my allergies. Pain was a new experience this time because It felt as if there was faint pressure with a little burning, and though temporary it got my attention. Enough to get my teeth to chatter and place me in danger of throwing off the surgeon's aim.
His aim was true however and I can see. I'm a little more sensitive to light and it was hard to read my computer at work this morning, but he didn't blind me.
Today I ventured back to the hospital that I entered two years ago sporting two feet and leaving with just one. My primary care doctor had an "issue" with the doppler test that was conducted on my left leg and he referred me to a "vascular surgeon" for an evaluation. That caused me and my mom a moments pause because an issue involving my vascular system led to my dad's untimely demise in 2002, so it was not without trepidation that my mother and I went to this hospital to see the doctor.
Now a lot of factors led to me losing my right foot. I've detailed them here but the doctor I saw today laid it out on the line as to what had happened and the series of events that led to the removal of...err..."rightie". When you are a diabetic, your blood vessels tend to become hard and narrow, which leads to restricted blood flow. Now your blood carries your main defense against infection, your white blood cells, and if they can't get to the site of an infection it can quickly get out of control, which is what happened to me.
The examination I went through today revealed that despite my diabetes the vessels in my left leg are quite sound. Indeed, he told me he felt "good pulses" in both of my legs. This is good news, no doubt about it. I read somewhere that left unchecked it is the average of many diabetic amputees who lose but one foot lose the other within a year and a half or so and thus if you've been keeping track I am most certainly in that window at this point. Thankfully, of all I've been going through over this year since the injury to my stump that has by far been the best news of all. I still have labs to do, and that will be done tomorrow, I hope.
In the end, like I've said since this big adventure began all of this is the ounce of prevention that i have denied myself for several years. I admit it right here and now. I'm a guy, and guys don't go to doctors. Well, this guy does, and if you can sit there and tell a doctor your intimate details of what you feel and things of that nature you cross over from being just a "guy" to being a MAN. It's taught me a lot about how these people in the medical profession are actually there to help you, as opposed to carry out painful procedures on you for their own sick amusement.
Anyway, two more rounds to go of eye surgery, plus blood work and leg adjustment, then hopefully things will calm down and I can earn a regular paycheck again. Oh, and I am resigned to the fact that while the laser surgery will indeed prevent blindness it is screwing with my vision...I'm destined to get glasses, folks. Ah well.
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