Friday, April 6, 2007

Can you see?

So I knew the PTC gave me daily headaches and sometimes put me into seizures that made me lose my faculties but losing my vision too? This was getting to be a real pain in the ass.
My doctor warned me that my eye sight had the potential to deteriorate and surgery would be a necessary answer for any extensive amount of damage. Gee thanks doc!
It was called papilledema. Papilledema is a condition in which increased pressure in or around the brain causes the optic nerve to swell where it enters the eye. I didn't want to go blind ... I had to be repaired.
I was sent to Wills Eye Center, a part of Jefferson Hospital, located in Philadelphia. I was to meet Dr. Sergott, who specializes in patients with papilledema caused by PTC. I arrived and rode the elevator to the 12th floor for my visit. Once it was my turn I was taken to the back for a number of tests. My eyes were invaded by every intern, young doctor and nurse on staff. Finally the doctor came in. He was to do the tell tale test that would pull all the results together. He squirted a piss yellow substance into my eyes and left me alone for a few minutes. He came back and stretched my eyes wide open and began observing closely to what was going on. I could not see a damn thing ... something in the mysterious liquid that was sprayed into my eyes. After some looking he told me to wash my face and he would be back with some results for me.
I washed up and sat there frantic state. What was wrong and what would happen?
Dr.Sergott re-entered the room and began talking as his cronies stood back and took notes.
"You have the beginning stages of papilledema," he said in a stern voice.
He went on to explain what this meant for me. Basically in a few months I had lost my peripheral vision in my left eye and was showing classic signs of blind spots in both eyes. He assured me that I did not need a sheathing surgery yet and that my eye condition could improve over time, but that would be up to me. I would have to take my medicine daily and keep all of my doctor's appointments and come every 3 months for check-ups. I could do that if it meant no knife on my eyes. While I was there he did up the dosage of my Diamox to 1000 mg a day in order to try and better control the obvious over flow of fluid.
Fear set in. This was serious. It only took a few months to take perfect vision and screw it up. It only took a few seconds to make me loose my thoughts and fall to the floor anymore. I had to do whatever the doctor's said.























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