September 14, 2017
I had the second treatment with the macular specialist for my right eye yesterday.
Before I saw the doctor, the technician did the usual "read the chart" thing, and did a scan of the back of my eyeball. I did better with the chart than I did last month, and my scan results were spectacular! The doctor was impressed. He said they don't usually see results like this until nearly a year into treatment. His excitement was palpable.
It's nice to get some good news. And again, I felt nothing when he did the shot into the eye.
-------------------------------------------
I think I forgot to mention it, but I finally got another mammogram a week or so ago. I had a followup visit with the radiation oncologist and he asked when I'd had my last mammo, and I said it was over a year ago, before the diagnosis, and I'd been asking when I'd get the next, and everyone just shrugged, and I was getting concerned, so he wrote me the prescription for a diagnostic scan right then and there. (A diagnostic mammogram is different from a regular mammo - it's done with a radiologist looking at it in real time, as it's happening, so if there's anything questionable they can reshoot or zoom in right then, and you get the results immediately.) I am all clear. I was concerned about all the scar tissue in the right breast, and the underside of that breast where there's some hard scar tissue is very sensitive to pressure, but she said no problem, they could see clear through it.
Another way the diagnostic mammo is different from a regular is that the diagnostic mammogram is much more, uh, I don't know the word to use. It's much tighter, and they cram more of the material in, like you're being eaten by the machine. I still have the chemo port implant in my chest, about 1.5 inches below my collar bone. The technician crammed so much of my chest into the machine that the port was actually squished between the plates. Remember, I'm in my 70s, and that breast is a DD, so the breast is pretty far down these days. So to squish up to less than an inch from the collar bone is pretty durn impressive. In my entire life, that's the first time a mammo hurt - that port is hard!
My left breast is a DD. Now that the mutilated right has settled down, I estimate it to be about a C. I like the C much better! When I wear the right bra that raises up and cinches down the left, and clothing that skims rather than clings, you can barely see a difference. (Yes, there is a difference, but it's not immediately obvious.) However, because of the tenderness in the scar tissue, I prefer to do without a bra as much as possible, and then the difference is glaring. The unfettered left is MUCH lower, and it, uh, swings, whereas the right is high and tight. Sigh. By the time I'd be medically approved for surgery to reduce the left to match, I'll be too old to care anymore.
Anyway, clear, both breasts. Not much, but I'll take it.
---------------------------------------
Oh, something I don't understand. The chemo doctor said that if I get a tumor in the left breast, or another in the right, it is not considered a a recurrence of the original cancer (not metastatic), but brand new cancer with likely different characteristics. If bits of the original tumor has traveled at all, it would go to the lungs, brain, liver, kidneys, bone, etc. etc. etc. Not the other breast.
I don't understand why it doesn't ever metastasize to the other breast (his implication). Doesn't make sense to me. If I were a wandering breast tumor cell, that's where I'd go....
.
Showing posts with label macula. Show all posts
Showing posts with label macula. Show all posts
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
3691 Jasper is a good boy.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Jasper hadn't seen a vet since we moved him here, partly because he freaks out so badly in the car that he has seizures, so he's way behind on checkups and shots. Two of Daughter's three cats are similarly afflicted with car anxiety, and lucky for us, there's a vet who has outfitted a large RV as an office complete with x-ray and out-patient surgery. He parks in the driveway and you bring your beasty out.
One of Daughter's cats had injured a paw last Thursday night, so Daughter made a Friday appointment for her cat, and for Jasper.
HOW DO CATS KNOW!? The minute I got off the phone with Daughter, Jasper's ears went up, his eyes got big, and he ran and hid. It ended up two hours later, appointment time, with me chasing him in circles around the house. He started to run into the laundry room, realized that was a dead end, and just as I got to the doorway he changed direction and dodged out between my legs. I reached for him, tripped over him, and jabbed the door frame with an over-long fingernail, bending it back mid-bed. It HURT! And it bled. And the most amazing thing happened.
Jasper stopped, came back, sniffed my finger and my face as I sat there on the floor whimpering, and pretty clearly asked if I was ok. He was apologetic. He let me pick him up and bundle him into the carrier with a minimum of fuss.
He's such a good little boy. (Also 12 lb. and very healthy. And fascinated by the rabies tag on his collar.)
---------------------------------
Last January the eye doctor mentioned that I had a spot of dry macular degeneration in each eye. The first time a doctor had mentioned them was in the late '90s. Oddly, not every exam has produced mention. The spots must small enough to miss on older equipment. I'm older now, so I guess I should pay closer attention. I made an appointment for today to check if there had been any progression.
There's been no change. The doctor recommended a special vitamin/mineral plus lutein supplement.
---------------------------------
I mentioned a problem at the hospital. Someone else's intake form was in my folder in the ER.
In my post of 1/02, I find in retrospect I had made excuses for some of the doctor's and the hospital's actions. It was not true that I had any kidney failure going on. That whole thing was because I had mentioned that my last hospital stay was because of the kidney thing, and my kidney doctor was on staff, and he sort of moved in on me and took over and tried to force me into some tests I had previously refused . Note - he pissed me off so much in the hospital that I have fired him. It was not tachycardia that got me the heart monitor. I had no chemical imbalances. My sodium was fine. I think it was the other woman's intake form that made things look worse than they were.
It IS true that the lung guy said that it was the worst case of pneumonia he'd ever seen. It's also true that the nurses used a phrase in front of me (they thought I was asleep) that's code for "may not last the night, check often". However, again, that prognosis may have been in error.
For the first three days, they had me listed as diabetic. They were poking me several times a day to check my blood sugar, and the kitchen had me on a diabetic diet - wouldn't give me Jello or ice cream when I asked for it. I'm not diabetic! My blood sugar stayed rock solid, until once when I had two glasses of fruit juice just to see what would happen, and it went up one point. Then right back down again. I DO NOT HAVE DIABETES! Yes, I do mostly follow a diabetic diet, because my father's family is riddled with it so I'm at risk, but hey, you don't wait until you have a heart attack to follow a heart-healthy diet! I finally convinced them it was not necessary to keep testing, and to take me off the diet restrictions.
Also for the first three days, they had me on the cardiac floor, wearing a 24-hour heart monitor, and I had many visits from a cardiologist, and several ECGs, some kind of heart sonogram, and a heart CT scan. Duh? When I first arrived, my pulse rate was 100, but a) I tend to historically have a rapid heart beat anyway, usually in the low 80s, b) I had just arrived at the hospital and was upset, and c) it went down to normal (for me) rapidly and stayed low.
Finally, about the third day, I asked the cardiologist (who kept urging me to make an appointment with him as soon as I got out of the hospital) why people seemed so concerned about my heart, and he said, "We have to address your chest pain." I said, "What chest pain? I have no chest pain. I haven't had any chest pain." He said, "The chest pain you reported when you arrived at the ER." I reiterated that I'd had no chest pain, and had NOT reported chest pain.
Within hours, the monitors were removed, and I was moved from the cardiac floor to a medical floor. The cardiologist stopped visiting, too.
So, I'm wondering if some poor woman had arrived about the same time I did, with diabetes and reporting chest pain, and because the intake forms were screwed up I was treated for her problems (you know the intake info went directly from the form into the computer), and God only knows what treatment she was getting, possibly based on my intake info.
Also, I wonder what UNNECESSARY tests, monitoring, and doctor visits MY insurance is going to be billed for (and I will be co-paying on). I can get copies of the reports and stuff, and an itemized bill, but I wonder if there's any way to determine what was necessary, and what was the hospital's error. You KNOW they're not going to simply admit an error.
.
There is a direct correlation between the size of the hoop earring
and the sluttiness of the wearer.
--------------------------------------------------------
Jasper hadn't seen a vet since we moved him here, partly because he freaks out so badly in the car that he has seizures, so he's way behind on checkups and shots. Two of Daughter's three cats are similarly afflicted with car anxiety, and lucky for us, there's a vet who has outfitted a large RV as an office complete with x-ray and out-patient surgery. He parks in the driveway and you bring your beasty out.
One of Daughter's cats had injured a paw last Thursday night, so Daughter made a Friday appointment for her cat, and for Jasper.
HOW DO CATS KNOW!? The minute I got off the phone with Daughter, Jasper's ears went up, his eyes got big, and he ran and hid. It ended up two hours later, appointment time, with me chasing him in circles around the house. He started to run into the laundry room, realized that was a dead end, and just as I got to the doorway he changed direction and dodged out between my legs. I reached for him, tripped over him, and jabbed the door frame with an over-long fingernail, bending it back mid-bed. It HURT! And it bled. And the most amazing thing happened.
Jasper stopped, came back, sniffed my finger and my face as I sat there on the floor whimpering, and pretty clearly asked if I was ok. He was apologetic. He let me pick him up and bundle him into the carrier with a minimum of fuss.
He's such a good little boy. (Also 12 lb. and very healthy. And fascinated by the rabies tag on his collar.)
---------------------------------
Last January the eye doctor mentioned that I had a spot of dry macular degeneration in each eye. The first time a doctor had mentioned them was in the late '90s. Oddly, not every exam has produced mention. The spots must small enough to miss on older equipment. I'm older now, so I guess I should pay closer attention. I made an appointment for today to check if there had been any progression.
There's been no change. The doctor recommended a special vitamin/mineral plus lutein supplement.
---------------------------------
I mentioned a problem at the hospital. Someone else's intake form was in my folder in the ER.
In my post of 1/02, I find in retrospect I had made excuses for some of the doctor's and the hospital's actions. It was not true that I had any kidney failure going on. That whole thing was because I had mentioned that my last hospital stay was because of the kidney thing, and my kidney doctor was on staff, and he sort of moved in on me and took over and tried to force me into some tests I had previously refused . Note - he pissed me off so much in the hospital that I have fired him. It was not tachycardia that got me the heart monitor. I had no chemical imbalances. My sodium was fine. I think it was the other woman's intake form that made things look worse than they were.
It IS true that the lung guy said that it was the worst case of pneumonia he'd ever seen. It's also true that the nurses used a phrase in front of me (they thought I was asleep) that's code for "may not last the night, check often". However, again, that prognosis may have been in error.
For the first three days, they had me listed as diabetic. They were poking me several times a day to check my blood sugar, and the kitchen had me on a diabetic diet - wouldn't give me Jello or ice cream when I asked for it. I'm not diabetic! My blood sugar stayed rock solid, until once when I had two glasses of fruit juice just to see what would happen, and it went up one point. Then right back down again. I DO NOT HAVE DIABETES! Yes, I do mostly follow a diabetic diet, because my father's family is riddled with it so I'm at risk, but hey, you don't wait until you have a heart attack to follow a heart-healthy diet! I finally convinced them it was not necessary to keep testing, and to take me off the diet restrictions.
Also for the first three days, they had me on the cardiac floor, wearing a 24-hour heart monitor, and I had many visits from a cardiologist, and several ECGs, some kind of heart sonogram, and a heart CT scan. Duh? When I first arrived, my pulse rate was 100, but a) I tend to historically have a rapid heart beat anyway, usually in the low 80s, b) I had just arrived at the hospital and was upset, and c) it went down to normal (for me) rapidly and stayed low.
Finally, about the third day, I asked the cardiologist (who kept urging me to make an appointment with him as soon as I got out of the hospital) why people seemed so concerned about my heart, and he said, "We have to address your chest pain." I said, "What chest pain? I have no chest pain. I haven't had any chest pain." He said, "The chest pain you reported when you arrived at the ER." I reiterated that I'd had no chest pain, and had NOT reported chest pain.
Within hours, the monitors were removed, and I was moved from the cardiac floor to a medical floor. The cardiologist stopped visiting, too.
So, I'm wondering if some poor woman had arrived about the same time I did, with diabetes and reporting chest pain, and because the intake forms were screwed up I was treated for her problems (you know the intake info went directly from the form into the computer), and God only knows what treatment she was getting, possibly based on my intake info.
Also, I wonder what UNNECESSARY tests, monitoring, and doctor visits MY insurance is going to be billed for (and I will be co-paying on). I can get copies of the reports and stuff, and an itemized bill, but I wonder if there's any way to determine what was necessary, and what was the hospital's error. You KNOW they're not going to simply admit an error.
.
Saturday, February 04, 2012
3456 Jasper says, "Eat more cat food!"
Saturday, February 4, 2012
I'm having fits about food.
I have osteopenia - mainly as a result of suppression of calcium absorption caused by years on Nexium and Prilosec for severe acid reflux when I was heavy. So my GP said to increase my calcium intake, both dietary and supplements.
The nutritionist whose recommendations helped me to lose the weight wanted me to get most of my proteins from from beans, nuts, and dairy products like eggs, yogurt, and cheese. When I eat a carb, it should be combined with a protein, like peanut butter with an apple. I usually eat only one palm-sized serving of meat a day, maybe four or five of the seven days a week.
To slow down any tendency of the macular degeneration to grow, the ophthalmologist says I should eat more dark green vegetables, like kale, collards, spinach, and chard.
So far, it all goes together.
BUT
Because my kidney stones are calcium oxalate, the urologist says to curb my calcium and oxalate intake.
The dairy products are full of calcium. The dark greens and peanuts are full of oxalate.
I'm going nuts trying to figure out what I CAN eat. It's like I have both Jack Spratt and his wife inside.
Maybe I should just throw it all away and go on my grandmother's diet. She lived into her middle nineties on pot roast, cabbage, and root vegetables like parsnips, turnips, radishes, carrots, onions, potatoes, and rutabagas. And the occasional macaroni salad. And lots of Welsh cookies. Which are full of lard. Which makes them good.
Or I could take Jasper's advice.
.
When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.
--Sinclair Lewis --
(Yep. I hear ya, man.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
--Sinclair Lewis --
(Yep. I hear ya, man.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm having fits about food.
I have osteopenia - mainly as a result of suppression of calcium absorption caused by years on Nexium and Prilosec for severe acid reflux when I was heavy. So my GP said to increase my calcium intake, both dietary and supplements.
The nutritionist whose recommendations helped me to lose the weight wanted me to get most of my proteins from from beans, nuts, and dairy products like eggs, yogurt, and cheese. When I eat a carb, it should be combined with a protein, like peanut butter with an apple. I usually eat only one palm-sized serving of meat a day, maybe four or five of the seven days a week.
To slow down any tendency of the macular degeneration to grow, the ophthalmologist says I should eat more dark green vegetables, like kale, collards, spinach, and chard.
So far, it all goes together.
BUT
Because my kidney stones are calcium oxalate, the urologist says to curb my calcium and oxalate intake.
The dairy products are full of calcium. The dark greens and peanuts are full of oxalate.
I'm going nuts trying to figure out what I CAN eat. It's like I have both Jack Spratt and his wife inside.
Maybe I should just throw it all away and go on my grandmother's diet. She lived into her middle nineties on pot roast, cabbage, and root vegetables like parsnips, turnips, radishes, carrots, onions, potatoes, and rutabagas. And the occasional macaroni salad. And lots of Welsh cookies. Which are full of lard. Which makes them good.
Or I could take Jasper's advice.
.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
3449 Jasper says, "Catnip?"
Sunday, January 29, 2012
I don't seem to be updating much lately. Don't know why. Oh, well....
-------------------------------
Back when I was choosing my new glasses and lenses, the rep talked me out of progressives. After I had researched progressives and realized she had given me very good advice probably at the cost of a larger sale, I wrote a letter to LensCrafters' corporate complimenting her.
Early last week I went in to pick up the gold glasses, that they had told me would take about two weeks. They took a lot less. I was fitted by the store manager. He was really nice. The glasses were perfect, and then they replaced the badly-cut lenses in the silver frames, and they were perfect, too. Then as I stood up to leave, he said, "I want to thank you for the letter you wrote to corporate. That was really nice of you."
Wow. I thought it would be anonymous. Well, I've accidentally discovered the way to get great and fast service, I guess.
-------------------------------
I still don't understand men's ties. They've got to be more idiotic than women's high heels (although not as idiotic as those stupid platform shoes). And if you absolutely have to wear the tie because it's "traditional" and says "serious business attire", then what the heck is wrong with clip-on ties? Does it HAVE to be difficult and uncomfortable to count?
--------------------------------
I watched "Driving Miss Daisy" on cable a few days ago, and was shocked by something I missed the first umpteen times I'd watched it. I think it was probably the late '60s when the son gave the chauffeur a $75/week raise. It knocked me over. In the late '60s a teacher's starting salary was $4,500 per YEAR! The usual decent raise was $300 per YEAR! When I started with IBM, a programmer made about $9,000 per year.
I think I went into the wrong profession.
I mentioned it to Daughter, and she said quite seriously that when she graduated from college with the engineering degree in three areas, chauffeurs were earning more than she, and she had seriously considered switching careers.
Now, I think the chauffeur's raise in the movie had more to do with appreciation for his care for Miss Daisy than with the job, but although he showed appreciation for the amount, his reaction was not like he'd just won a million-dollar lottery, which is more like it. It was his "Wow. OK. Thanks." reaction that floored me.
--------------------------------
I had a brief discussion re macular degeneration with Zarina in the comments on a previous post. I agree with her that sometimes it can move quickly, and I'll need to have it checked often. Later I remembered something.
I'm trying to remember when it was. Jay was alive and healthy, so it must have been before 1998. My vision plan didn't cover optometrists but did cover ophthalmologists, so when it was time for a new prescription, I went to an ophthalmologist. I don't remember exactly what he said, but he did mention macular degeneration, both eyes, very small, nothing to worry about, but --- he gave me a square grid with a dot in the middle. I was to put it on the wall somewhere that I'd see it every day (I put it on the refrigerator), and I was to call him immediately if the lines ever got wavy.
It was there for years, got aged, stained, and tattered, and then one day somebody "helped" me by cleaning all the junk off the refrigerator (yeah, Daughter, I'm looking at you), and the grid disappeared. (The opthalmologist had died suddenly a few years before, and the scandal in the village was that his landlord had thrown out all his records.) I didn't bother replacing the grid.
Between then and now, probably 15 years or more, I've had four or five exams, all with dilation, some with ophthalmologists and some with optometrists, and no one has mentioned macular degeneration until this recent one.
So, it doesn't seem to be progressing. And the spots are in exactly the same place in both eyes, so it might even be congenital. Evidence arguing for a congenital spot of insufficient blood supply is that every ophthalmologist and optometrist I've ever seen since the age of 12 has remarked that they can't get me to 20-20.
So I doubt that it's a big deal. On the other hand, I have to watch for the effects of age, so it's a good idea to get an eye exam every year and mention that they should look for it.
.
A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
-- Steven Wright --
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Steven Wright --
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't seem to be updating much lately. Don't know why. Oh, well....
-------------------------------
Back when I was choosing my new glasses and lenses, the rep talked me out of progressives. After I had researched progressives and realized she had given me very good advice probably at the cost of a larger sale, I wrote a letter to LensCrafters' corporate complimenting her.
Early last week I went in to pick up the gold glasses, that they had told me would take about two weeks. They took a lot less. I was fitted by the store manager. He was really nice. The glasses were perfect, and then they replaced the badly-cut lenses in the silver frames, and they were perfect, too. Then as I stood up to leave, he said, "I want to thank you for the letter you wrote to corporate. That was really nice of you."
Wow. I thought it would be anonymous. Well, I've accidentally discovered the way to get great and fast service, I guess.
-------------------------------
I still don't understand men's ties. They've got to be more idiotic than women's high heels (although not as idiotic as those stupid platform shoes). And if you absolutely have to wear the tie because it's "traditional" and says "serious business attire", then what the heck is wrong with clip-on ties? Does it HAVE to be difficult and uncomfortable to count?
--------------------------------
I watched "Driving Miss Daisy" on cable a few days ago, and was shocked by something I missed the first umpteen times I'd watched it. I think it was probably the late '60s when the son gave the chauffeur a $75/week raise. It knocked me over. In the late '60s a teacher's starting salary was $4,500 per YEAR! The usual decent raise was $300 per YEAR! When I started with IBM, a programmer made about $9,000 per year.
I think I went into the wrong profession.
I mentioned it to Daughter, and she said quite seriously that when she graduated from college with the engineering degree in three areas, chauffeurs were earning more than she, and she had seriously considered switching careers.
Now, I think the chauffeur's raise in the movie had more to do with appreciation for his care for Miss Daisy than with the job, but although he showed appreciation for the amount, his reaction was not like he'd just won a million-dollar lottery, which is more like it. It was his "Wow. OK. Thanks." reaction that floored me.
--------------------------------
I had a brief discussion re macular degeneration with Zarina in the comments on a previous post. I agree with her that sometimes it can move quickly, and I'll need to have it checked often. Later I remembered something.
I'm trying to remember when it was. Jay was alive and healthy, so it must have been before 1998. My vision plan didn't cover optometrists but did cover ophthalmologists, so when it was time for a new prescription, I went to an ophthalmologist. I don't remember exactly what he said, but he did mention macular degeneration, both eyes, very small, nothing to worry about, but --- he gave me a square grid with a dot in the middle. I was to put it on the wall somewhere that I'd see it every day (I put it on the refrigerator), and I was to call him immediately if the lines ever got wavy.
It was there for years, got aged, stained, and tattered, and then one day somebody "helped" me by cleaning all the junk off the refrigerator (yeah, Daughter, I'm looking at you), and the grid disappeared. (The opthalmologist had died suddenly a few years before, and the scandal in the village was that his landlord had thrown out all his records.) I didn't bother replacing the grid.
Between then and now, probably 15 years or more, I've had four or five exams, all with dilation, some with ophthalmologists and some with optometrists, and no one has mentioned macular degeneration until this recent one.
So, it doesn't seem to be progressing. And the spots are in exactly the same place in both eyes, so it might even be congenital. Evidence arguing for a congenital spot of insufficient blood supply is that every ophthalmologist and optometrist I've ever seen since the age of 12 has remarked that they can't get me to 20-20.
So I doubt that it's a big deal. On the other hand, I have to watch for the effects of age, so it's a good idea to get an eye exam every year and mention that they should look for it.
.
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