Getting Old, What an Adventure

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Well, today is my annual physical, or annual wellness visit as some call it (*cough* Medicare). An insurance thing I think. (I know.)

"Oh, we don't cover that."

"You don't cover annual physicals?"

"No, we cover annual wellness visits. It's not the same."

"Really?"

"Yes, one is an actual stem to stern physical exam, the other is where you sit down and talk about your health."

"Uh, okay."

Later on the phone with my doctor's office ...

"Medicare wants you to call it a wellness visit, or they won't pay for it."

... silence, clicking of computer keys ... "Oh yes, you're on Medicare now, someone didn't update your record. I'll take care of that for you."

And so it goes ...

Anyhoo, I intend to discuss my recent knee issues. No doubt I'll be referred to a specialist. And that's just peachy keen, no, really, it is. I mean I'm retired now, what else do I have to do but go to various doctor offices? I mean, I've got the time, right?

Sigh ...

After action report to follow.

Getting old is interesting to say the least.

"How did you hurt yourself?"

"I got out of bed awkwardly."

"Ah, yes, happens all the time."

"Should I start wearing padding or leg braces or something?"

"Nah, just take it slow first thing in the morning."

I think I'm going to move my coffee maker upstairs. Brew it and drink it in bed, so I can, ya know, take it slow first thing.

I suppose getting decrepit beats the alternative.

That's all for now, I have to stretch before I get up from my computer ...

Improving, Slowly, But Perceptibly ...

OAFS Photo

Being on one crutch to no crutches is a huge difference.

-- Lindsey Vonn Source

She has a point you know. When I first had the knee go out, my right leg was pretty much useless. I had to hang on to something in order to get from Point A to Point B. The Missus Herself dug out the old crutches from a couple of years back and the movement problem was eased, not great but workable.

After a couple of days of Prednisone and staying off of the bad leg I was moving around a lot better.

Prednisone is all gone now, I just take ibuprofen as needed for both the remaining pain, which there is some, and for the inflammation in the knee. (I'm assuming that's there as after 600 mg of ibuprofen the knee feels much better.)

Down to one crutch now, and if I move very slowly and deliberately I can move around with no crutches at all. While it does cause some stress to the right leg, it's gotten better over the last cuppla days. The feeling of not absolutely needing the crutches though is, as Lindsey noted, a very big difference. One might go so far as to say "liberating."

I hate being laid up for any reason, as things improve my morale gets better and better. Now I just need someone to cut my lawn until I'm 100%.

I contacted a local service and we'll see how that goes. The price was right, i.e. cheap, but I'll have to see what kind of job they do. As long as the lawn looks okay I'm happy with that.

No doubt it won't be to The Missus Herself's standard but until the knee is back up and fully mission capable, we'll just have to make do.

We'll see ...

TSCPC - Uh, What?

(Source)

Sorry, I'm not ready to continue with my tale of the opening stages of World War II in Europe. The surgery I had Friday afternoon has left me weary and somewhat fuzzy-visioned. But not to worry, it gets better every day, well, except Sunday, Sunday was a really blurry day. With my "macular issues," as my eye doc is wont to call it, hey, it happens.

For years my left eye was the "go to" eye. When I needed glasses (around the age of twelve, thus dashing my dreams of being a fighter pilot), it was only the right eye which had issues, near-sighted it was. First pair of glasses was real lens in the right, plain glass in the left.

Now as the years went by, the left eye grew tired of doing all the heavy lifting (so I like to tell it) and gradually lost distance clarity to match the right. Which would then decide, "uh-uh, I ain't helping," and backslide just a bit more.

Well, this continued for some time, until one day the vitreous humor (that gelatinous-like substance which fills one's eyeball) began to shrink, it happens as we age. In the left eye, as this occurred, it pulled away from the retina but didn't "let go," much as a boat pulling away from the dock with a line still attached will either damage the boat or the dock.  Well, with the eye it seems the dock (the retina) always takes the fall.

It was bad enough in my left eye to require surgery which knocked that eye out of the lead as "best eye in my head." Now the right eye holds that distinction, even though that one had a vitreous humor "pull away" (as I call it) which left the right eye with what's called a "Weiss ring." (I'll let you look that up but it's something which can happen with a Posterior Vitreous Detachment, or PVD. Which is also the airport code for T.F. Green in Warwick, but everyone says Providence. Which ties in with the opening graphic, that eye on top of the pyramid on the dollar bill is "The Eye of Providence." As in God, not the city in Little Rhody, but the way my mind works, a connection, however tenuous, was made.)

Anyhoo, the right eye soldiers on rather well, but there are days when it gets really fatigued, and it's difficult to completely focus. That was Sunday, one of those days where I get to live the Patton line of "through a glass, but darkly." Or something to that effect, not really debilitating, just really, really annoying.

So yeah, that's the background on the Mark I, Mod 0 eyeballs in the Sarge's head. (Though in reality, the left eye is probably a Mark I, Mod 3 eyeball, three surgeries on that one, oh yeah, did I mention the cataract surgery on that side as well?)

So, what's with the long string of letters in the title, Sarge?

Okay, "TSCPC" stands for Transscleral cyclophotocoagulation, in my case this was performed with a diode laser using the G-Probe¹ glaucoma device. You saw the eyepatch the other day, right? Well, after it came off, I freaked out.

My left eye was no longer boresighted, off at an angle it was, strange and unfocused vision was the order of the day Friday night. But a good night's sleep fixed that right up. Both eyes are back in battery now, though the left is quite sore from the procedure.

Why the procedure, Sarge?

Well, long story short, glaucoma, both eyes. Left is the worst, so much so that the eye drops I've been using for months to control the intraocular pressure or IOP, were no longer as effective. So my eye doc sent me to an eye surgeon for a consult, he recommended this procedure (which does something to the ciliary glands to reduce the amount of liquid they produce, same volume to fill but with less liquid equals lower pressure) which was weird but short.

Long story short (again) I go back to the eye surgeon on Friday to check the pressure. If all goes well, the pressure will be well within optimal margins.

We shall see.

¹ This is really just a fiber-optic handpiece used to direct the energy of the laser, as I understand it. G-Probe is an IRIDEX brand name

Yeah, It's Complicated

1:posterior segment of eyeball 2:ora serrata 3:ciliary muscle 4:ciliary zonules 5:canal of Schlemm 6:pupil 7:anterior chamber 8:cornea 9:iris 10:lens cortex 11:lens nucleus 12:ciliary process 13:conjunctiva 14:inferior oblique muscle 15:inferior rectus muscle 16:medial rectus muscle 17:retinal arteries and veins 18:optic disc 19:dura mater 20:central retinal artery 21:central retinal vein 22:optic nerve 23:vorticose vein 24:bulbar sheath 25:macula 26:fovea 27:sclera 28:choroid 29:superior rectus muscle 30:retina
(Source)

And that's just a small part of the human body! Hats off to the healers of the world ...

Love these guys ...

Laser day!

After Action Report to follow ...

Stay tuned.

Be seeing you.¹

¹ One hopes ...