Friday, August 10, 2007

Eye update/My life as a suspect begins

No surgery!

Which means the pressure is normal, for now, and the asymmetry in my optic nerves is not pronounced enough to cause the doctor concern. My little paranoia about how I was feeling more pressure in the right eye* is just sinus stuff.

I'm sorry I couldn't let everyone know yesterday, but my pupils looked like dinner plates for at least 4 hours after the doctor put the extra dose of dilating drops in so she could see what she needed to see even though I was jumping around like a certain two-year-old of my acquaintance bloodline. It made driving home a challenge and looking at the computer screen impossible.

But I am now an officially-diagnosed "glaucoma suspect," a phrase that makes me feel like my phone is going to be wiretapped. I'm going to need regular monitoring more or less indefinitely. I start by going back on Tuesday for baseline visual-field testing and a photograph of my ever-so-slightly, not-a-big-deal, we-won't-worry-(yet) lopsided nerves. After that, it will be every six months until she has a sense of how quickly it's progressing.

Just in case all this good news is misleading: it is progressing: there is pigment in the drain of the eye. If the drain clogs, the pressure in the eye will rise. But I'm not there yet. And all the monitoring is so I won't get there.

*There is slightly more pressure in the right eye--but apparently you just can't feel intra-ocular pressure.

10 comments:

Magpie said...

That sounds like basically good news - no surgery, and watch and wait. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

And dilation? Yuck. I remember having an eye exam in the middle of the work day. I figured going back to work to try and read stuff was a bad idea, but that maybe I could go shopping? Idiot. No way to buy jeans if you can't see what you're doing.

BTW and off topic - I love the Pink Martini record. And Miss M. keeps asking to play "Hey Eugene". Too soon to learn about boys who fail to call?

S. said...

Laughing and laughing and laughing!

I love that I have stumbled into this completely unexpected role of introducing the children of bloggers to Pink Martini!

niobe said...

Well, I'm ver, very glad to hear your guardedly good news.

S. said...

Thanks, Niobe--yes, it is good news.

None said...

Glad to hear there's no surgery on the horizon.

I think eventually we all end up getting monitored regularly for some scary thing we're at risk of getting. Scary, but far better not to have it yet. And definitely good to have caught it early.

Take care.

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear the news, S. Keep us posted (no pun intended).

Julia said...

I am very glad to hear that the news is as good as can be for now.

I, too, have been listening to Pink Martini in the car (older stuff, I don't have the new album), and Monkey has some favorites that we are required to go back to all the time. She also wants to know what language each song is in, and I can't always be sure...

Anonymous said...

It does sound good - they're monitoring, it feels like it's in the "mainstream" of treatment. So long as you're in tune with it...

What's the Pink Martini record?

S. said...

Co, when I walked into the doctor's waiting room, I brought down the average age of patients there by a good 15-20 years. As glaucoma suspects go, I'm a juvenile patient!

(un)relaxeddad, here's a link to a youtube video of Hey Eugene--it's the title track off the new album. I went to college with the piano player and singer.

Julia, half the time I need to check the liner notes! The new album has one in Arabic....

E., thanks.

Jody said...

I'm hugely late to this party, but I'm glad you don't have to have the surgery any time soon.

No blocked drains, no blocked drains, no blocked drains....