Wednesday, August 16, 2017
As if surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, meds that make me ache, and three teeth pulled in one day weren't enough, I am now getting monthly injections in my eyeball. Yeah. In the eyeball. Told ya it was icky.
I've had this eyeglass prescription for like five years now, so back in maybe early May when I noticed I was having difficulty reading street signs, I wasn't surprised. It's about time. Went to my optometrist. Couldn't read anything on the screen with my right eye. The big "E", but nothing else. Left eye was fine.
She freaked and did a bunch of more tests, and informed me that she suspected macular degeneration, in both eyes, and recommended that I see an ophthalmologist ASAP.
Macular degeneration? For many years I've had one of those grids, you know,
all the little squares with the dot in the middle, on my refrigerator.
You're supposed to look at the dot with each eye, and check that the
grid looks regular. I really have been doing it occasionally. Always looked just fine to me.
I called the optometrist's first choice recommendation, and got an appointment several weeks out. I gave them my insurance info, she assured me the accepted it, and my optometrist sent copies of my scans etc.
The DAY BEFORE the appointment, the ophthalmologist's office called to inform me that they didn't actually take my insurance. Oops. Appointment cancelled. Three weeks plus down the drain.
I went online to my insurance company to find a doctor on their list of physicians, and there were no ophthalmologists listed. The next Monday I called the insurance company, and got two recommendations. I made an appointment with the first. Two weeks later, that office called to ask what specifically I was calling about, because they noticed I was an adult, and their office handles mostly pediatric strabismus. Another two weeks down.
So I called the second recommendation. I actually made it into the office that time, and got examined. When I told the ophthalmologist that the optometrist suspected macular degeneration, she shook her head.
"Um, no, I don't do that. You need a macular specialist." Like, I'm supposed to know about the specialties, and who does what? So I asked her to examine me anyway and see if she agrees with that preliminary diagnosis, and if so, can she recommend a macular specialist?
She said ok, and diagnosed wet macular degeneration in both eyes, the right more advanced, and gave me some names that she was sure took my insurance, one of whom she highly recommended.
Great. After two months, we're making some headway. In the meantime, the right eye has deteriorated. It had gone from sometimes no noticeable problem on some days to now constant grayed-out blurred central vision every day, and the past couple of weeks I'm getting some roundish areas of sparkle. Oh, and the grid on the refrigerator is now wavy - when the right eye is clear enough to see it.
Saw the finally right doctor on Friday, August 4th. Exam. I think it was last Thursday Daughter drove me in for the first treatment. You know, I knew I was going to get a shot in the right eyeball, but for some reason I wasn't nervous at all, which surprised me!
The technician put several kinds of drops in my eyes, then several rounds of numbing drops, then a shot of Novocaine (!) very shallowly under the outer layer (I forget whether that was the doctor or the technician) which worried me at first because that crap hurts when you get it anywhere else, but I didn't feel anything at all. At. All!
Then the doctor futzed around a bit, once for all of two seconds using a clampy thing to hold the eye open while telling me to look at the tip of my nose, then he announced all done. I don't even know when I got the injection.
I said, "That's it?" I asked him why we're treating only the right eye if both are degenerating, and he said that the right eye is wet, the left is dry. The left may at some time go to wet, but for now we don't have to mess with it. He also said that we can halt the progression, and with the least little luck we can probably even get regression and restore much of the right eye vision.
I'll get a shot in the eye of Avastin once a month now for I don't know how long.
When the numbing wore off, there was no pain. That evening I had a small blood spot on the top, under the upper eyelid, but the next morning it was gone.
-----------------------------
I hate New Jersey. I swear I didn't get old until I moved here.
Oh, and what bugs me the most is that no one will give me a new prescription for lenses, even just for the left eye, because "it will change as you go through treatment", so I STILL can't read street names until I'm almost on top of them. No fair!
Also, if you look up wet macular degeneration, you'll see examples of the vision loss. I'm not that bad. I can see big things with my right eye just fine. I can't see detail. I can see the microwave across the room, I can see the clock on it, I just can't read the time on it. On good days I can read the time.
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Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
5105 Medical Update - teeth
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
As reported earlier, I'm taking generic Femara. After the first few weeks, I no longer have the hot flashes. I do have bone, joint, and muscle pain, but I've always had that, so I don't know whether it's the Femara or not. No big deal.
I have slight osteopenia in my left hip, so the chemo doc wants to put me on Fosamax to protect my bones from the Femara. That has its own set of side effects. For some strange reason it especially likes to cause problems with the jaw bones, so I need to have all dental work taken care of now, because if there's anything wrong with the jaw bones, it won't heal. When I was entubated for the lumpectomy, apparently they smashed a molar on the upper right, and shortly after surgery it crumbled, so something had to be done about that. (By the way, every time I have been entubated, they've either broken a tooth or dislocated my jaw - which I don't understand, because when I was an EMT, we never broke anyone's mouth. We never had to push that hard. The opening you aim for is straight back there, and as long as you aim straight....)
So, dentist. I found one, got an appointment right off, explained the situation and what I wanted done, and the time constraints. He took xrays, and worked up a plan right then, said I had to pay for it ALL before he'd start, they have an arrangement with a loan shark if I don't have it up front, and said I had to follow his instructions and do everything he said or he'd refuse to treat me.
If I hadn't been under time pressure, I'd have thought about it more.
His bill was $12,000, but he was giving me a discount so all he wanted was $9,000 paid in full before he started. I don't have dental insurance.
I moved some money around online, called Schwab to sell some stock so I could replace that money to pay some insurance premiums and real estate taxes coming up soon, and wrote him a check that day, and the next business day he started. Pulled three teeth, and did something involving lasers and scraping.
THEN I looked at the plan, thought about it, and did some research. The broken tooth on the upper right did need pulling. I'd had a root canal on that tooth and it was capped or something, so I had no pain from it, but it still needed to be fixed somehow. He pulled two more teeth on the bottom right because in the xrays, it showed blank areas under the crowns, just above the roots. Neither of those teeth had been bothering me, and the xrays showed just blank spaces, there was NO INFECTION! Now I wonder why they needed pulling. It's possible that was just empty space, or packing.
The laser and scraping was root planing, on 1/4 of my mouth, three more quarters to go. But I remembered that when he was poking around in my mouth, he dictated to the technician on that first visit "periodontal disease, slight." So given what I wanted when I came in, did I need that?
Plus, they gave me a special rotating electric toothbrush and a special mouthwash, which showed up on the bill. No option. No refusal. My gums and palate are extremely ticklish and I told the technician there was NO WAY I'd be able to use the damn thing, my regular brush and routine seem to be doing fine, but, well, doctor says....
Now I got mad. I didn't want to go back, called and cancelled my next appointment ($250 charge for cancelling) and said I was willing to pay for work done, but wanted a refund of the remaining $9,000 deposit. The gal gave me an argument, said they couldn't refund anything because he "gave you a discount".
The earlier research I'd done before going showed glowing reviews of the practice. I dug deeper. Turns out this guy's license had been suspended for five years in 2010. I found the actual legal consent decree he'd had to sign to get his suspension reduced to six weeks with the remainder of the time on probation, with a healthy fine spread over those five years. He'd been suspended for doing unnecessary procedures (bingo), charging for materials not used, not offering patients the option of purchasing things outside (like the toothbrush and mouthwash, bingo) as the dental association requires, and not refunding payments when patients bail (bingo).
That was three weeks ago. No refund yet. I may have to sue the SOB. And I WILL notify the NJ dental board.
So, that's been going on.
I may have to see another dentist. I think he may have left some fragment of that upper tooth in there.
There's more. Eyes. Next post for the really icky stuff.
.
As reported earlier, I'm taking generic Femara. After the first few weeks, I no longer have the hot flashes. I do have bone, joint, and muscle pain, but I've always had that, so I don't know whether it's the Femara or not. No big deal.
I have slight osteopenia in my left hip, so the chemo doc wants to put me on Fosamax to protect my bones from the Femara. That has its own set of side effects. For some strange reason it especially likes to cause problems with the jaw bones, so I need to have all dental work taken care of now, because if there's anything wrong with the jaw bones, it won't heal. When I was entubated for the lumpectomy, apparently they smashed a molar on the upper right, and shortly after surgery it crumbled, so something had to be done about that. (By the way, every time I have been entubated, they've either broken a tooth or dislocated my jaw - which I don't understand, because when I was an EMT, we never broke anyone's mouth. We never had to push that hard. The opening you aim for is straight back there, and as long as you aim straight....)
So, dentist. I found one, got an appointment right off, explained the situation and what I wanted done, and the time constraints. He took xrays, and worked up a plan right then, said I had to pay for it ALL before he'd start, they have an arrangement with a loan shark if I don't have it up front, and said I had to follow his instructions and do everything he said or he'd refuse to treat me.
If I hadn't been under time pressure, I'd have thought about it more.
His bill was $12,000, but he was giving me a discount so all he wanted was $9,000 paid in full before he started. I don't have dental insurance.
I moved some money around online, called Schwab to sell some stock so I could replace that money to pay some insurance premiums and real estate taxes coming up soon, and wrote him a check that day, and the next business day he started. Pulled three teeth, and did something involving lasers and scraping.
THEN I looked at the plan, thought about it, and did some research. The broken tooth on the upper right did need pulling. I'd had a root canal on that tooth and it was capped or something, so I had no pain from it, but it still needed to be fixed somehow. He pulled two more teeth on the bottom right because in the xrays, it showed blank areas under the crowns, just above the roots. Neither of those teeth had been bothering me, and the xrays showed just blank spaces, there was NO INFECTION! Now I wonder why they needed pulling. It's possible that was just empty space, or packing.
The laser and scraping was root planing, on 1/4 of my mouth, three more quarters to go. But I remembered that when he was poking around in my mouth, he dictated to the technician on that first visit "periodontal disease, slight." So given what I wanted when I came in, did I need that?
Plus, they gave me a special rotating electric toothbrush and a special mouthwash, which showed up on the bill. No option. No refusal. My gums and palate are extremely ticklish and I told the technician there was NO WAY I'd be able to use the damn thing, my regular brush and routine seem to be doing fine, but, well, doctor says....
Now I got mad. I didn't want to go back, called and cancelled my next appointment ($250 charge for cancelling) and said I was willing to pay for work done, but wanted a refund of the remaining $9,000 deposit. The gal gave me an argument, said they couldn't refund anything because he "gave you a discount".
The earlier research I'd done before going showed glowing reviews of the practice. I dug deeper. Turns out this guy's license had been suspended for five years in 2010. I found the actual legal consent decree he'd had to sign to get his suspension reduced to six weeks with the remainder of the time on probation, with a healthy fine spread over those five years. He'd been suspended for doing unnecessary procedures (bingo), charging for materials not used, not offering patients the option of purchasing things outside (like the toothbrush and mouthwash, bingo) as the dental association requires, and not refunding payments when patients bail (bingo).
That was three weeks ago. No refund yet. I may have to sue the SOB. And I WILL notify the NJ dental board.
So, that's been going on.
I may have to see another dentist. I think he may have left some fragment of that upper tooth in there.
There's more. Eyes. Next post for the really icky stuff.
.
Sunday, August 13, 2017
5104 All the news that's fit to .... whatever.
Sunday, August 13, 2017
On Korea. I almost died of eyeroll when Trump did his tough-guy act. Having no concept of history or motivations, he's played right into Kim's hands. The Kim dynasty is terribly afraid of revolution and of being deposed, so they've been ruling through fear, convincing the populace that the Americans want to invade and conquer them, and "only we can save you". The people have no access to outside news/views, and they still remember the war in the 50's, so that used to work. But that was a long time ago, and people are forgetting, so Kim needs to refresh that fear.
Please watch the following video. This is an Australian guy who has lived in Japan for many years (Japanese wife and children and the whole bit), and he expresses exactly what the rest of the world sees. I don't claim to know much of anything about international stuff, but I agree with his observations 100%. And he's living in Japan, where if anyone should be freaking out like the US is, it should be them! Unlike the US, however, they know what's going on. (He's just driving and talking, so it's not necessary to actually watch the video. You can just listen.)
[https://youtu.be/dlO3pVOPjqA]
--------------------------------
On Charlottesville. This blog post from Greg expresses my thoughts perfectly. Enjoy.
https://gregfallis.com/2017/08/13/many-sides/
---------------------------------
On Medicare and health care insurance. I just realized something horrifying! Republicans would love to gut Medicare, but are afraid to. Medicare doesn't (normally) kick in until you are into your mid-60s. So all they have to do is make sure that people who would cost Medicare the most (the least healthy seniors) simply don't make it into or much past their mid-60s! Voila! Medicare costs cut.
-----------------------------------
On American Exceptionalism. I believe the following came from The Newsroom (2012–2014), an American drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin, airing on HBO, that chronicles the behind-the-scenes events at the fictional Atlantis Cable News (ACN) channel.
----------------------------------------
On art. I discovered the Museum of Bad Art, and therein discovered the painting "Lucy in the Field with Flowers". I am madly in love with it, and have scoured the internet trying to find a print. Doesn't exist, except as a small part of a poster for the museum. I don't know why I like it so much. I just do.
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2017/01/the-museum-of-bad-art.html Scroll down a bit, it's the second painting on the page.
-----------------------------------------
On my health. Stuff going on. NEXT POST, I promise.
.
"Trump: a poor person's idea of what a rich person is,
a stupid person's idea of what smart person is,
a weak person's idea of what strong person is."
Fran Leibowitz, Chris Falcinelli, and others
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Please watch the following video. This is an Australian guy who has lived in Japan for many years (Japanese wife and children and the whole bit), and he expresses exactly what the rest of the world sees. I don't claim to know much of anything about international stuff, but I agree with his observations 100%. And he's living in Japan, where if anyone should be freaking out like the US is, it should be them! Unlike the US, however, they know what's going on. (He's just driving and talking, so it's not necessary to actually watch the video. You can just listen.)
[https://youtu.be/dlO3pVOPjqA]
--------------------------------
On Charlottesville. This blog post from Greg expresses my thoughts perfectly. Enjoy.
https://gregfallis.com/2017/08/13/many-sides/
---------------------------------
On Medicare and health care insurance. I just realized something horrifying! Republicans would love to gut Medicare, but are afraid to. Medicare doesn't (normally) kick in until you are into your mid-60s. So all they have to do is make sure that people who would cost Medicare the most (the least healthy seniors) simply don't make it into or much past their mid-60s! Voila! Medicare costs cut.
-----------------------------------
On American Exceptionalism. I believe the following came from The Newsroom (2012–2014), an American drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin, airing on HBO, that chronicles the behind-the-scenes events at the fictional Atlantis Cable News (ACN) channel.
There's absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world. We're seventh in literacy. Twenty-seventh in math. Twenty-second in science. Forty-ninth in life expectancy. A hundred and seventy-eighth in infant mortality. Third in median household income. Number four in labor force and number four in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: Number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending,
And with a straight face, you're gonna sit there and tell students that America is so star-spangled awesome that we're the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom. Japan has freedom. The U.K. France. Italy. Germany. Spain. Australia. BELGIUM has freedom. Two hundred and seven sovereign states in the world, like, a hundred and eighty of them have freedom.
Now none of this is the fault of a twenty-year-old college student, but you nonetheless are without a doubt a member of the worst, period, generation, period, ever, period. So when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I dunno what the f**k you're talkin' about.
----------------------------------------
On art. I discovered the Museum of Bad Art, and therein discovered the painting "Lucy in the Field with Flowers". I am madly in love with it, and have scoured the internet trying to find a print. Doesn't exist, except as a small part of a poster for the museum. I don't know why I like it so much. I just do.
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2017/01/the-museum-of-bad-art.html Scroll down a bit, it's the second painting on the page.
-----------------------------------------
On my health. Stuff going on. NEXT POST, I promise.
.
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