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
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