sick days - part 4 - re check in Tupelo

On sat. morning i trucked on over to dr. mothershed's office to see dr. meyer and his staff...they come to tupelo every so often on a saturday so i didn't have to travel to memphis for the re-check of my bad eye...got there about 11:00 and the place was packed...after i signed in and picked a seat i asked the nice folks beside me just what happens in tupelo...the man had some detached retina issues and was a fishing guide from pickwick/corinth...he says it is the same in memphis and tupelo...lots of drops, tests and waiting , waiting, and more waiting. he was exactly right...the first girl, michelle, called me back after about an hour and a half to check my pressure...eye pressure..not blood pressure because i can assure anyone that my blood pressure was high...i hate sitting and waiting...i read one magazine before i went in to see michelle, but after the numbing drops and dialation drops i could only imagine what was in the magazine. she numbed my eyes and put her magic wand straight onto my eyeball...the bad eye took the test the first time...my good eye took 5-6 tries before it would take...if you haven't had this particular test it doesn't hurt but you can see a tiny tip headed straight for your eyeball and then see some wavy lines through all the drops...she said the pressure was great so just sit outside and wait...i waited in the dark room until i almost fell asleep...i moved to the front, bright room and flipped through some magazines and looked at the pictures the best i could...2 or three people came in with eye injuries...both got patched up and were lucky not to have any laser surgery...some young man finally called my name and all he did was check my pupils...yes they were dialated...and i waited some more...finally around 1:45 or so you could see some people coming out and you knew the doctor was working...the fishing guide had a 10:30 appointment so when he was called in i hoped i would be next...that is exactly how it worked...there was another woman across the hall that got a shot in her eyeball...i don't know exactly what was wrong but she was in some kind of pain and kept being called back and forth. i heard the doctor say "be still and i will let you know when there will be a little pain...i am a good shot giver"...i couldn't watch any more of that so i just laid back and listened...she didn't moan or cry and the doctor said she didn't even blink. she left with a patch on her eye...i then heard him talking to the fishing guide....he got a good report and then some fishing stories were told...something about an 8 year old boy catching an 8 pound crappie...then the doctor came in looked at my eye with his magnifier and said the leak was sealed and the tear was repaired...great job...i was so glad to hear that...next appt. dec . 4 in tupelo...left the office a little before three...starving again and ready to get home...and another round of drops to use 2 times a day for another week.

went back to school today....the morning was fine but i got a little tired after lunch.

Cake

A lady from our church called me back several months ago and asked if i could make a 60th birthday cake for her sister...I agreed to do it and couldn't believe i hurt my eye one week before the date. I guess it worked out that i was home and able to cook a layer at a time and started icing it on saturday after my re-check visit. it turned out really nice.

sick days - part 3- Dr. Meyers visit

On Tuesday morning we took off to memphis to visit the meyer (meyer) clinic... that is what their signs says...We arrived for the 11:00 appt. at about 10:30 or so...filled out the forms, gave them the insurance card and drivers license and only had to wait a few minutes until a nice guy, Eric, called me back...he was very funny and charasmatic...i later learned he was a minister...well, in this room he checked my vision on two different machines. the next machine checked my peripheral vision. it was a white concave machine that had some small dots in the center. he gave me a mouse-like clicker and said each time i saw a flash i needed to click. he said some flashes were bright and some were dim and some were farther out than others. it took 3-5 minutes until the timer went off and the tunnel went dark. on my left (bad ) eye it was just the same but by then my eyes were tired and my a.d.d. kicked in...i sort of drifted off during that test but he said I did fine. and by the way he added 3 different kinds of drops to my eyes. then i had to sit outside this room in the hall and waited until a woman called my name...i went into her room and all she wanted was more information about the accident and to check all of my information that was on her screen. Granted nothing had changed since i gave it to the first lady...then she said just wait in the hall...i was beginning to get hungry since i have lunch at 11:40 everyday...i was too scared from the warning about not eating after 7:00. Dennis was hungry too, so he bought some snack mix and i had one tiinnnny bite...a good while later another man (stanley) called me to yet another room. He did some tests that looked like nuclear symbols and signs twirling all around...i didn't do anything but just stare at them...then they took some more x-ray kind of pictures of my eye...they added two kinds of drops and made me look up, down, left, right, and every direction in between. They couldn't find the tear so I was hoping that my prayers had worked and it had healed itself over night...the girl told stanley that he was going to get called in if the doctor found a tear...so they did a sonogram of my eye...this time it was a closed eyelid sonogram. still not very pleasant since they covered my bad eyelid with slimy, cold goop and then decided their machine was not plugged in correctly...after a few adjustments she got a good view of the tear. she helped wipe off the goop and sent me back to the hallway....this wait was longer than the rest. I was getting more hungry, tired and scared...there were people everywhere...the lights were very dim and not one person was headed back to see the doctor....at a little after 1:00 a woman came out and called 5-6 of us back. We were placed in little cubicles side by side and were instructed to lay down when the doctor came in...I could finally hear his voice next door and he told that woman her ailment had improved so he didn't have to do surgery...i was still hopeful at this point. he came in and looked at stanley's x rays and called him back just like the girl said. He told him the photos were beautiful but not one picture of the tear. He got out his magnifying glass and turned on his miners hat light and found the tear in no time flat...he then proceeded to talk into his tape machine and was sending dr. mothershed a message about my eye...he thanked him for his wonderful diagnosis. he then said that the tear was somewhat larger than was reported and he hoped he could get the laser to fix the tear. if not, he said, we will put in an air bubble and have her back next week for surgery. I was just hearing this by eavesdropping and it made me nervous again. He said just go around the corner and they'll get you ready for the laser...so off to another room...they had an elderly lady that was being set up in the head gear for the laser...the nurse said that she felt like the dr. would put me before the 3 other lasers but that you never know...all of a sudden another nurse popped in and said...put the retinal tear in front. i was glad because i was hungry and ready to go...
the procedure involved a funnel like plastic thing placed under the eyelid to hold my bad eye open ...it had some salt stuff on it that kept the eye from moving around...my head was against a metal bar and my chin on a ledge and the nurse pushed the back of my head to keep me from pulling back. all the time he is aiming and shooting the laser all around my eye saying "this is great, this is perfect...great job"...i had to keep my good eye straight, my head still and my mouth shut...i let out a small moan when he put in the funnel (my eyeball is bruised) and another small moan when he lasered close to the places that were bruised....sort of like having a filling in a tooth and it not being deadened all the way. Not real pain but not real good either...i forgot to mention that she put in at least 3 sets of drops for numbing and dialation...

it probably took 15 minutes to get it set up until it was over....i had a grip on the handlebars that were manly...my shoulders were arched up and so tight...the nurse even said...just loosen up a bit..."easier said then done" ...when that ended and they pulled out the funnel, all i could see was purple goo. the nurse used some eye wash and got most of it out but had to lead me by the arm back to stanley for more pictures...and you know you can't take pictures without....DROPS...to get good pictures this time the girl pulled my eyelid from the corner and stanley pushed my nose and then placed the camera right where he needed it and he got some great shots...all the while i had my bad eye looking up as high as possible to the left...

we went to the last station, check out, and the girl made my re check appt. for 11:00 sat. in tupelo...she gave me a tiny bottle of DROPS to use twice a day for inflammation.
Couldn't wait to get some food... i really think i could have eaten a sandwich while he did the procedure...

i didn't check my spelling or grammar...just trying to get it typed

part two - sick days-dr. mothershed

I went straight to dr. mothershed's office, filled out the paperwork, and waited for just a little while. I had asked my friends at school "how will they be able to see the floaters inside my eye". I haven't been to an eye doctor in a very, very, very long time. (each very stands for 10 years)...So needless to say they have all types of machines for your eyes...they tested my vision in the first room, put in some drops,took some x-ray type pictures of the inside of the eye, (they looked just like a mammogram),put in more drops to dialate my eyes, took some more pictures, looked at the eye with bright lights and then moved me to another room and took a sonogram of my eyeballs... they put in numbing drops, used a little wand and stuck it straight to the eyeball and rubbed it around...all the while i had to be still and move my eye to certain directions...up down and all around...each person said that "that was great" and moved me to another room. Finally dr mothershed came in and looked at all the information on a screen and made me do some more letter tests on a screen across the room. they tested my pressure, it was fine...no cataracts...20/20 vision and i thought all was going just fine. He returned to the room after they added more drops and put a magnifying glass and the brightest light known to man straight on my eyeball. I could feel the heat building up. I once again had to look up, to the left, to the right, and straight down with my bad eye. we did this more than once when he finally said "yep, i see a horseshoe retinal tear. Still thinking that some cream and a patch on the eye would take care of this ....i was very taken aback when he said call the retinal clinic...dr. meyer in memphis...get her in as quickly as possible...she has to have surgery on this now....they made the call, sent some paperwork, and instructed me to go home and not look down, don't pick up anything heavy and sleep with your head propped up...this is serious....they gave me two kinds of drops (by now you know i don't like drops) one for infection and the other for who knows what...drops 4 times a day....i have had more drops in the last few days than i have had in my entire life. So I paid my bill and got in the car and headed home. Things were a little blurry but I made it home fine...Called the school secretary, got a sub and laid down (after I put in my drops) Got to dr mothershed's office at 2:30 and left there a little after 5:00...the people there are super nice but hope i don't have to visit again soon.


part - 3...dr meyer

Sick days

I have accumulated almost 90 sick days since i began teaching. Today I actually had to use a sick day for sickness...boy does that stink. I took a lick to my left eye on saturday while picking up limbs. It must have been folded back like a whip because it slapped my eyeball so hard and so fast that I never saw it coming. I cried worse than a baby...more like a baby calf that has lost its mother. I could hear myself crying and I couldn't stop it...sobbing, sobbing, sobbing...sitting in the dark garage in a rocking chair crying.....I think 30 minutes or so went by and I finally stopped the sobbing and then just softly moaned and cried...still thinking i was blind ...i felt the moisture and looked to see and it wasn't blood. I finally got up the courage to barely, and I mean barely, lift my eyelid...i could see some light so i assumed i wasn't completely blind...but the pain was still there. I said at last 100 (1000) times that "my eye is killing me". No matter what I did the eye hurt...if i kept it shut...it hurt. if i opened it...it hurt....and whatever my right eye did the left eye did too...it just hurt. we had lunch, cut down more bushes, moved in a kitchen table and headed home from fulton. I looked like Mike Tyson when I woke up on sunday morning...my eye was puffed and glued shut. after i loosened it and looked at the redness i was a little scared again. only when i kept brushing away a gnat in my sewing room did I realize that there were some black floaters in my eye...I knew a gnat should not be in the sewing room....my eyeball felt much better on sunday afternoon...very little pain but still floaters everywhere...I still didn't realize the seriousness of this injury and went back to Fulton to make sure we locked up and cleaned up everything on saturday. one thing led to another and I sprayed the dock, pier ,gazebo with some weather proofer and did the upper decks with some stain and a roller. Slept good Sunday night, eye not as glued together on monday but still red as blood and still having floaters... After a hectic day at school with a conference on an unruly child, TST on a child that is repeating and just the stuff that goes on at school on a monday, i finally got to call the doctor...they worked me in at 2:40...The other part of that story is...the lady that helps with my class had a death in her family and was off so there was no one to watch the kiddos. worked out that another lady could come in and keep the kids for my conference, tst meeting and stayed through dismissal.


and just so you know...dennis said he has never seen or heard me cry like that in 33 years. I am thinking 52 years...

part two - visit to mothershed