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Doctor my eyes have seen the years....
Jun. 28th, 2005 03:42 pmI worked at VoiceTrax yesterday starting at noon and working until 7:30pm to update the student database, finish the filing task that needed to be done and to try to install a software update that was giving Shirley fits. She's not technical at all and is terrified of losing her financial records to a virus, so that PC isn't connected to the internet. To update her QuickBooks payroll, she had to send away for the "disk" update. LOL It's a CD. Why people don't say CD is beyond me, but companies like Intuit who persist in using old terminology are the source of it.
She couldn't deal with tech support, so I called them after trying to install it myself. It turned out she needed to patch her existing QuickBooks before the update would work. Tell my why they don't include the patch with the update? Duh. I had to download it on the one computer with internet access and burn the patch program on a CD to install it. It required QuickBooks be closed. Naturally by this time, Shirley was gone for the day. I would have installed the update after the patch was successful, but I don't know the password and she wasn't answering her phone. I left her a note telling her what I'd done. No phone call today, so I guess she was able to finish the update without a problem.
While I was checking all the student information against the new registration forms that came in, I was having trouble seeing the screen. My floaters seemed especially dense for some reason. I attributed it to the bright window behind the screen and closed the blinds. That helped a little, but I was still having trouble seeing. It was only while I was waiting for the QuickBooks update to happen that I thought about the problems I've had with my eyes lately. I realized that I've been having trouble seeing clearly with my left eye since the middle of my big project crunch. At that time, I'd clean my glasses to get rid of the smudge only to find they weren't smudged. I then dismissed it as exhaustion. Most things are clear, it's just one area right in the lower middle area of my vision with blurriness that moves. At VoiceTrax it appeared black. Actually, since yesterday it has changed from a blur to a blur with a dark spot. It's the biggest floater I've had yet, so I was worried that some blood vessel had ruptured or something. I pulled off the road into a mall parking lot in San Francisco and called the advice nurse for my health plan who asked me an incredible number of questions then told me to see a doctor in the next 2 to 8 hours. The medical group I see in Palo Alto has an urgent illness center that's open until 9pm and it was now 8:15pm.
I did the math. If I drove right there, I'd squeak in the door just before closing. The last eye problem I had with my right eye required dilation. That takes about half an hour excluding the exam. That would take them way past closing. I went to the Emergency at Stanford instead. It's not close to my house but it's the hospital my doctor uses. They require everyone to go through a metal detector and I had to let the security guard search my purse to get in. Damn. I should have bought a bottle of water in the cafeteria before checking in! I told the triage nurse I was there because I had a new big floater in my left eye with some blurry vision. The waiting room was full but they got me in pretty fast. A nurse had me read the chart on the wall. My left eye wasn't reading the smaller letters as well as my right. My right eye isn't a strong eye and doesn't usually do as well as my left. That was scary. The nurse said if they dialated my eye I'd have to get someone to drive me home. Greaaat. Eric will be overjoyed.. not. Then they sat me in an eye exam room and I waited. And waited. And waited. I thought about calling Eric to warn him, but my cell phone had no signal. I saw them shuffling charts in a bin on the wall across from my room. I didn't mind waiting at first. I know how emergency rooms work. They take people in order of urgency. What confused me was how fast they put me in a room only to be ignored. Finally after waiting two hours in that very uncomfortable chair and chatting with a woman who was waiting outside my door for her father to be admitted, I caught a nurse going by and gently asked her, "Excuse me, is someone going to see me?"
She looked shocked and went through the bin. My chart was at the back with three newer ones in front of it. She yelled out, "Who keeps putting Room 9 at the back? Somebody needs to see her NOW!"
I could tell the doctor was wondering what the hell I was doing there with a floater. He apologized for the long wait and said they were having a typical crazy Monday. I explained about the phone call to the advice nurse and how I would have waited until the next day if she hadn't insisted I be seen that night. It didn't help that I'm not on my hormones right now and my mind handed me the wrong word for the jelly-like substance that fills eyeballs. I told him the viscous (vis-kus) in my right eye had separated from the back of the eyeball a couple of years ago and I thought this was probably what was going on with my left. He then examined me and talked about the vitrious. OK. I know I'll be a funny "stupid patient" story for him now. *sigh* I want my brain back. Whoever has it, give it back.
He couldn't see anything. He called my medical group to talk to the opthamologist on call. She said to send me home and have me call them first thing in the morning to get an urgent appointment. He came it to tell me what she'd said. I asked him, "So it's safe for me to go home?"
He said, "Yes."
I told him, "Great! That's all I wanted to hear. Thank you." He relaxed with relief at my reaction. A different nurse checked me out. He chuckled when he handed me the printout with my diagnosis - Floater - and said, "I guess you already knew that." Yeah, I did. He told me sternly to call the clinic at 8am. I said "Yes, sir," even though I've got a good 25 years on him. lol
So today I called the clinic a little after 8am and got an appointment to be seen. Getting there was awful on several levels. My cushion of time was small to begin with and it was eaten up with the first obstacle. Luckily for me, the worst obstacle was some sort of event happening at the clinic that had people lined up down the block to get in. The clinic assumed their own problem was the reason I was late so they simply checked me in and saw me as they could. I had to wait a while and enjoyed talking to a three year old boy who was waiting for his eyes to dialate and then to a woman who was doing needle point. She's changing careers at 62. She switching from being an RN to a Medical diagnosis coder. It's a career I'd never heard of before. They go over all the tests and doctors notes and glean clues to find a diagnosis. She could have diagnosed my dad in time to save his life if Kaiser had people like that on staff. We discussed the difficulties of attending school with older brains. I was really enjoying the conversation when they called me.
They dialated both of my eyes and did a bunch of different tests with different dyes and stuff. My hunch was right. My left eye's vitrious is now detaching from the sides of my eyeball. The floater may or may not eventually sink down to the bottom of my eyeball. I sure hope it does. It's right in the middle of my main focus on my dominant eye! I have orders to call them and get in within 24 hours if I see huge flashing lights, lots and lots of little floaters or a curtain starts to drop inside my eye. Little flashing lights are expected when the vitrious pulls away from my retina.
With the dialated eyes, I just came home wearing their ever-so-chic drop-in plastic shades behind my glasses. I wanted an excuse to laze around all afternoon anyway. Since I can mostly see again, I guess it's time to go do the essential shopping for the household. Ugh. I don't want to. I'm tired. We can get by one more day without shopping. I need to rest my eye. Yeah! I need to rest my eye.
I'll do clothes shopping for my new job tomorrow, too.
She couldn't deal with tech support, so I called them after trying to install it myself. It turned out she needed to patch her existing QuickBooks before the update would work. Tell my why they don't include the patch with the update? Duh. I had to download it on the one computer with internet access and burn the patch program on a CD to install it. It required QuickBooks be closed. Naturally by this time, Shirley was gone for the day. I would have installed the update after the patch was successful, but I don't know the password and she wasn't answering her phone. I left her a note telling her what I'd done. No phone call today, so I guess she was able to finish the update without a problem.
While I was checking all the student information against the new registration forms that came in, I was having trouble seeing the screen. My floaters seemed especially dense for some reason. I attributed it to the bright window behind the screen and closed the blinds. That helped a little, but I was still having trouble seeing. It was only while I was waiting for the QuickBooks update to happen that I thought about the problems I've had with my eyes lately. I realized that I've been having trouble seeing clearly with my left eye since the middle of my big project crunch. At that time, I'd clean my glasses to get rid of the smudge only to find they weren't smudged. I then dismissed it as exhaustion. Most things are clear, it's just one area right in the lower middle area of my vision with blurriness that moves. At VoiceTrax it appeared black. Actually, since yesterday it has changed from a blur to a blur with a dark spot. It's the biggest floater I've had yet, so I was worried that some blood vessel had ruptured or something. I pulled off the road into a mall parking lot in San Francisco and called the advice nurse for my health plan who asked me an incredible number of questions then told me to see a doctor in the next 2 to 8 hours. The medical group I see in Palo Alto has an urgent illness center that's open until 9pm and it was now 8:15pm.
I did the math. If I drove right there, I'd squeak in the door just before closing. The last eye problem I had with my right eye required dilation. That takes about half an hour excluding the exam. That would take them way past closing. I went to the Emergency at Stanford instead. It's not close to my house but it's the hospital my doctor uses. They require everyone to go through a metal detector and I had to let the security guard search my purse to get in. Damn. I should have bought a bottle of water in the cafeteria before checking in! I told the triage nurse I was there because I had a new big floater in my left eye with some blurry vision. The waiting room was full but they got me in pretty fast. A nurse had me read the chart on the wall. My left eye wasn't reading the smaller letters as well as my right. My right eye isn't a strong eye and doesn't usually do as well as my left. That was scary. The nurse said if they dialated my eye I'd have to get someone to drive me home. Greaaat. Eric will be overjoyed.. not. Then they sat me in an eye exam room and I waited. And waited. And waited. I thought about calling Eric to warn him, but my cell phone had no signal. I saw them shuffling charts in a bin on the wall across from my room. I didn't mind waiting at first. I know how emergency rooms work. They take people in order of urgency. What confused me was how fast they put me in a room only to be ignored. Finally after waiting two hours in that very uncomfortable chair and chatting with a woman who was waiting outside my door for her father to be admitted, I caught a nurse going by and gently asked her, "Excuse me, is someone going to see me?"
She looked shocked and went through the bin. My chart was at the back with three newer ones in front of it. She yelled out, "Who keeps putting Room 9 at the back? Somebody needs to see her NOW!"
I could tell the doctor was wondering what the hell I was doing there with a floater. He apologized for the long wait and said they were having a typical crazy Monday. I explained about the phone call to the advice nurse and how I would have waited until the next day if she hadn't insisted I be seen that night. It didn't help that I'm not on my hormones right now and my mind handed me the wrong word for the jelly-like substance that fills eyeballs. I told him the viscous (vis-kus) in my right eye had separated from the back of the eyeball a couple of years ago and I thought this was probably what was going on with my left. He then examined me and talked about the vitrious. OK. I know I'll be a funny "stupid patient" story for him now. *sigh* I want my brain back. Whoever has it, give it back.
He couldn't see anything. He called my medical group to talk to the opthamologist on call. She said to send me home and have me call them first thing in the morning to get an urgent appointment. He came it to tell me what she'd said. I asked him, "So it's safe for me to go home?"
He said, "Yes."
I told him, "Great! That's all I wanted to hear. Thank you." He relaxed with relief at my reaction. A different nurse checked me out. He chuckled when he handed me the printout with my diagnosis - Floater - and said, "I guess you already knew that." Yeah, I did. He told me sternly to call the clinic at 8am. I said "Yes, sir," even though I've got a good 25 years on him. lol
So today I called the clinic a little after 8am and got an appointment to be seen. Getting there was awful on several levels. My cushion of time was small to begin with and it was eaten up with the first obstacle. Luckily for me, the worst obstacle was some sort of event happening at the clinic that had people lined up down the block to get in. The clinic assumed their own problem was the reason I was late so they simply checked me in and saw me as they could. I had to wait a while and enjoyed talking to a three year old boy who was waiting for his eyes to dialate and then to a woman who was doing needle point. She's changing careers at 62. She switching from being an RN to a Medical diagnosis coder. It's a career I'd never heard of before. They go over all the tests and doctors notes and glean clues to find a diagnosis. She could have diagnosed my dad in time to save his life if Kaiser had people like that on staff. We discussed the difficulties of attending school with older brains. I was really enjoying the conversation when they called me.
They dialated both of my eyes and did a bunch of different tests with different dyes and stuff. My hunch was right. My left eye's vitrious is now detaching from the sides of my eyeball. The floater may or may not eventually sink down to the bottom of my eyeball. I sure hope it does. It's right in the middle of my main focus on my dominant eye! I have orders to call them and get in within 24 hours if I see huge flashing lights, lots and lots of little floaters or a curtain starts to drop inside my eye. Little flashing lights are expected when the vitrious pulls away from my retina.
With the dialated eyes, I just came home wearing their ever-so-chic drop-in plastic shades behind my glasses. I wanted an excuse to laze around all afternoon anyway. Since I can mostly see again, I guess it's time to go do the essential shopping for the household. Ugh. I don't want to. I'm tired. We can get by one more day without shopping. I need to rest my eye. Yeah! I need to rest my eye.
I'll do clothes shopping for my new job tomorrow, too.
