Being the grandson of a doctor I try and be the best patient I can be for the medical aid I receive. I didn't used to be like that. In fact, I avoided doctors and all things medical like they were a messenger of death or that they were always the bearers of bad news. Well, plat of their job is to be like that, but by and large they are there to help you and of course, heal you.
This week brought another round of eye surgery. It was as perfunctory as you can get. In, dialate, look at the funny eye chart on the wall (which is now projected there as opposed to a poster), and wait for your turn at the magic eye surgery machine. Eye surgery with a laser is a definite trip...my head was positioned in a frame before what resembled a microscope turned on it's side. They strap your head into this device with two velcro straps, the doctor holds your eyelid open and tells you to hold still and stare at a penlight with the OTHER eye. Then he started clicking away, presumably firing the laser at the hemorraging occuring in my eye.
Now the device that he uses in the eye he's working on is a VERY BRIGHT LIGHT. It's not as bright as staring up at the sun, or as harmful, but it's close. Thanks to numbing drops, I felt no pain. Maybe a little pressure, but that's it. The thing is that the contraption they put you in to accomplish this surgery take a bit of getting used to. Definitely NOT for the claustrophobic. I lost count of home many times he clicked his laser after about 10, so it was safe to assume then that my eye was leaking like a sieve.
For all this trouble, I am saving myself from going blind as a result of the diabetes. That's the saving grace of this at the end of the day. I can give up a limb to this dread disease but I will not lose my sight over it if I can avoid it and thaks to the doc's laser gun, I don't have to. Or at least I hope I don't. It's an inexact thing.
Yesterday I talked to my primary care doctor and it would appear that he is going to send me to a vascular specialist to consult about a "circulation issue" in my left foot. When I heard that I have to admit I was a bit troubled because when you talk vasucular you are talking about your network of arteries and veins and that connects to the ticker. So that's lurking in the shadows somewhat. Ultimately, one of the reasons I lost my right foot was that the wound I sustained on it didn't have enough blood flowing to it and that allowed the infection to set in unchecked by white blood cells and it got into my blood from there.
It another one of those "if only" situations that flashed me back to when I first felt the numbing of my feet years ago and of course, had I taken care of it then I wouldn't have had to give up a foot two years ago. But that boat has left the dock, so to speak.
So, if you are keeping score at home I now have a primary care, and opthamologist, a retina surgeon and soon I will be seeing a vascular specialist. I have truly become a medical mystery once I hit the big 4-0.
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