A few days after my eye appointment, I got a text from the optometrist asking if I had gotten scheduled. I told her my appointment was in May but she pulled some strings and got me in much sooner (within a week) with the doctor she wanted me to see. The ophthalmologist confirmed the cataracts, I had a bunch of tests and measurements run, and got the surgery scheduled… for the end of May. That was disappointing but that’s just how it is.
In the meantime, at my last appointment at the infusion lab, my hemoglobin had dropped to 9.4 so I got an Aranesp shot. I will be curious to see how long that holds me for. I don’t really understand exactly how that works, so it’s possible it could take some time to get into my system and do its job. I will try not to be too disappointed if I have to have another shot this Wednesday.
My creatinine was 1.5 (better), and my eGFR was 42. Not great but I’ll take it. My glucose has improved quite a bit too since cutting back on the chemo (which is administered with dextrose) and the accompanying dexamethasone. I see my endocrinologist at the end of the month. I’ll have more lab work completed for her before then, to include my A1C. Last time she mentioned upping my Trulicity even though she was pleased with my A1C. I’m on the fence about that because when I first started it, it caused some “gastrointestinal distress” (to put it nicely), and with that comes dehydration, and it threw my labs off for a while until my body adjusted to it. I’d prefer to avoid that if I can. But the flip side is that keeping my blood sugar under control is obviously important with these crap kidneys.
Wednesday I was at a clinic about 2.5 hours southwest of here. When I got there, it was just very slightly snowing, but as the morning progressed, the snow fell more and more, and the wind was howling. It was pretty awful. Our phones were all chiming with weather alerts about blowing snow, whiteout road conditions, warnings to not travel, and the complete closure of the freeway about an hour west of where I was. They actually ended up closing the clinic early at 1:00 so people could get home safely.
The first 90 minutes of that drive was pretty treacherous. I have so much more difficulty seeing when it’s really bright so the snow was not my friend that day. I don’t know if the poor visibility was just because of the weather or if my eyes were playing a part as well. But man it was rough. Heavy snow, heavy winds, whiteouts…it was no good. I was going about 20 – 25 mph until I finally reached the interstate. At that point, things calmed down considerably, and the rest of the drive was uneventful. But that scared me a bit, having to drive in that crap with my bad eyes. Even with my giant sunglasses on, it was a challenge.
This past Friday I had to return to the ophthalmology clinic for a tech visit for a few more final measurements of my eyes. As I was sitting there waiting, I started thinking about how amazing it is that they can actually REPLACE the freaking lens in your eye. And I wondered how long they had been able to do that. And who was the first brave soul who said, “Me! Me! Cut into MY eye!”? I mentioned that to the tech, and he said they’ve actually been doing cataract surgeries since the 1700s but at that time, they’d just go in and clean off the cornea. Probably used the world’s tiniest squeegee. That would be an interesting thing to read up on, the history of cataract surgery. (But again, I won’t have time. Too many dog videos to watch.)
After my appointment, I went upstairs to the surgery scheduling center, as I wanted to get their number to call in periodically to see if they had any cancellations so I could get in sooner. She said, “Well, let me just check for you right now.” And holy crap, they had a cancellation for THIS THURSDAY!!!! To say I was overjoyed is putting it mildly. So I’ll have the left eye done Thursday and the right eye will be bumped up to May when my left eye was originally scheduled, but you can bet I’ll be calling to see if they have a cancellation for that eye too. I am so so happy this is happening sooner than later. My left eye has gotten progressively worse even since my appointment with the ophthalmologist a couple weeks ago. Not my imagination, either—I’ve been “testing” it, and it’s definitely much harder to see.
The surgeon I’ll be seeing (ha, no pun intended) is not the original one I saw for the initial appointment, but honestly, I don’t care. I have no doubt that all the surgeons there know what they’re doing. And cataract surgery is pretty routine and probably not terribly difficult. I’m definitely not worried, just SO excited.
I had a clinic scheduled for Thursday but I bumped it out about 10 days. Yep, some people will be disappointed, but they’ll just have to deal with it. It’s the first time I’ll be returning to this clinic in a few years. It’s unfortunate I have to start back there with changing things around at the last minute, but it’s just a hearing test. It can wait. This is important; I gotta get it done.
I cannot wait…
Low, Low, Low 