my other eye
So today I trundled over to Kaiser for an appointment with my doctor. After checking in and a short wait, I was ushered in for a mini-physical (weight, temperature, blood pressure), then in to an exam room. My doctor is great. He came in and quickly asked some questions and examined my eye, then very quickly said, "It could be glaucoma. I'll make an appointment for you at the eye clinic right away." Eek!
Right away was the next available appointment, which was two hours away. Sigh. So I ran some errands and came back. Another pre-exam including a quick vision test, then the ophthalmologist came in. He asked some questions, then examined my eyes. Then some eye drops, and a glaucoma test. No glaucoma, but I do have iritis -- inflammation of the iris.
After a visit to the pharmacy and some more waiting, I have some eye drops to treat it, and a follow-up visit scheduled for next week. None of these things took that long (except, oddly, the check-in at the eye clinic), but it all added up to pretty much the whole day shot.
I also got a heads up that my other eye (shown pictured above) was showing signs of pigment dispersion syndrome. That's where the pigment of the iris flakes off (I guess they didn't prime it before applying the paint?), and can clog the drainage of the eye, leading to glaucoma. So when in the next couple of years when I have to get reading glasses (what?!), he suggested I get a glaucoma test, too, and every couple years going forward. Hmmph.
Two conditions I'd never heard of before, and I've got 'em. It could have been worse, so no complaints here. But the upshot is that instead of finishing the touch-up painting in the kitchen today, all I got done was moving stuff back in and putting the outlet and switch covers back on for the part that is done.
5 comments:
Sorry about the lost day. (I know your pain on that.) But, the upshot is that you got an advance warning that can help you to avoid something infinitely more serious down the line.
Hope it doesn't hurt too badly!
Thanks. The pain isn't too bad except in bright light, just annoying.
I had something similar when I lived in Miami...mostly just the light sensitivity though. I never went to had it checked but I think it had something to do with my contact lenses being to old. When I finally changed them, it stopped. That was about 10 years ago - has happened since. Maybe I should have had that checked out... Silly college student I was ;)
If it stopped and you didn't go blind, I guess you're over it :-)
The drops seem to be helping, though it's still pretty sensitive to bright light.
I finally had to buy a pair of reading glasses. K and I were in a darkened restaurant the other week, and I couldn't read the menu except with her reading glasses.
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