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 macular degeneration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label macular degeneration. Show all posts
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
5106 Medical update - eyes
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.
.
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.
.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)