Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

I had an appointment with a new neurologist today, Dr. Morgan. The good news is that I like her, and she did what seemed like a thorough and competent exam. The bad news is that as of yesterday, Mt. Auburn is no longer giving the infusions of my MS drug, so I will need a different new neurologist, at Beth Israel Hospital somewhere downtown in Boston.

Also, my previous neurologist seems to have been out the door mentally before he left physically, so I had to have blood drawn to check vitamin D levels. ( Read more... )

Dr. Morgan also thought that the last brain and spine MRIs should have been with contrast--as in, she started saying something on the assumption that they had been. Separately from that, she was surprised and I think a little worried about how much gabapentin I'm currently taking. One weird thing, she said my pupils were different sizes and asked if anyone had ever told me that. I just sent a message to my eye doctor about this, in case it's both new and relevant.

I was at the hospital longer than I'd expected. I arrived early, and the medical assistant took vital signs, got me to confirm my list of medications, and did two of the low-tech neurology things, including the peg board (with Dr. AbdelRazek forgot last time). And then I sat in the waiting room reading a long time; at about 2:20 (for a 2:00 appointment) someone came in to apologize that Dr. Morgan was running late.

Dr. Morgan gave me a referral to a urologist, not because anything is specifically wrong, but because I have been needing to urinate more frequently, and it might help. That I think is in the queue behind the referral for occupational therapy, which I'm probably not going to do anything about until at least Friday.

This makes I think five neurologists since 2016: El-Khalifa, then a doctor I saw once whose name I don't remember offhand, then Dr. Katz, Dr. AbdelRazek, and (now, once) Dr. Morgan. I stuck with the same neurologist in New York for a dozen years, even after Dr. Apatoff left New York/Cornell hospital and they wanted to give me an appointment with someone who was still there.

I saw the eye doctor this morning.

tl;dr Nothing is seriously wrong, but I am likely to need a follow-up visit.

I made the appointment because I was noticing blurry vision intermittently in my left eye. I also noticed that I needed brighter light and/or larger print for reading than a year or two ago. I saw Dr. Umlas, because the first available appointment was with him--and that was three weeks after I called, at 9:15 a.m.

A technician asked me questions and took various measurements, then gave them to the doctor. He checked a few things for himself.

Most likely, this is cells growing on the artificial lens from my cataract surgery. Both the tech and Dr. Umlas said that Dr. Lazzara (my usual eye doctor) had observed a little of this when I saw him last October. It's also possible that this is from further thickening of my corneas (Fuchs dystrophy). If so, treating that is simpler than it used to be, with quicker recovery.

So, I can stop worrying that something is seriously wrong. Dr. Umlas is going to put the results of today's visit in front of Dr. Lazzara, and see whether he agrees that I should have a quick laser treatment to clear the artificial lens. If so, I'd have to go to their Lexington or Concord) office, because they don't have the equipment in Arlington.

From there, I went to Penzey's for herbs and spices; the clerk was very helpful, going around the store with me because I told him my eyes were still seriously dilated. I happily handed him my shopping list, and he asked a few questions like "do you remember which sweet paprika you usually get?" This time, I remembered to bring the Penzey's gift card with me, and used up the remaining $18 on the card. (They periodically offer gift cards at a significant discount, which are worth buying if you shop there regularly.)

When I was almost home, I tripped and fell while crossing the street. Fortunately, adrian_turtle and I had wound up on the same bus, so I assured the helpful stranger that I'd be fine, and Adrian \sat with me for a couple of minutes, then helped me up. I scraped my right knee in a couple of places, and it will probably bruise, but there's no serious damage: I landed about evenly on both hands, and Adrian says the brim of my hat absorbed a little of the impact and may have protected my head, including my nose and eyeglasses.

I saw Dr. Lazzara this afternoon, for the last post-surgery check-up. He is happy with how my eyes look generally, as well as specifically with the eye pressure and my corneas. I have an eyeglass prescription, and he suggested I could get either progressive lenses or bifocal computer glasses. I can in fact see without my glasses; what I can't do is read without them, and it's annoying to have to pull out reading glasses to do things on my cell phone. Meanwhile the non-prescription reading glasses don't work well for distance, and I can't use the same ones to read a book and look at the computer screen.

I will go to the optician in Arlington Center in a couple of days and talk about eyeglass options and prices. (I may also consider going online for reading glasses that correct for the astigmatism; I had poor results in the past trying to mail-order my complicated bifocal/progressive prescription.)

That was the second medical appointment of the day.

I've had an annoying cough for more than a week; over the weekend I decided that since it wasn't getting any better, I should talk to a doctor, make sure it's not pneumonia, and find out if I need an antibiotic. I called Davis Square Family Practice first thing this morning, and they gave me a 1:30 appointment. After asking me some questions, and listening to my lungs very carefully, the doctor said that this is in fact just a lingering cough left from an otherwise-gone respiratory infection. I have a prescription cough suppressant, and an okay to go back to my regular exercises, including walking—"just don't run a marathon." This is disappointing in the sense that she couldn't say "take these, you'll feel a lot better in 48 hours," but it also means that no, calling the doctor Friday would not have been better: I had to remind myself a few time yesterday and Sunday that any plan involving a time machine can be safely disregarded.

I saw a lot of forsythias in bloom today, as well as a few cherry trees, the first maple flowers, and many daffodils; I'd stayed close to home the last few days, and saw a nice variety of bulbs and one dandelion, but no flowering trees.

I seem to like, or want, my apartment to be brighter now than before the cataract surgery, which is counter-intuitive. A month ago I had (mild) cataracts in both eyes, and was wearing photo-sensitive glasses that were old enough that they were always very slightly dark. Now, I'm using over-the-counter reading glasses, with clear lenses, and am comfortable with a level of light that seemed like too much pre-surgery.

My guess here would be that, pre-surgery, my pupils were dilating a bit more, to make up for the cataract blocking some of the light. But that's a guess. What I know is that I'm now comfortable with the overhead light on when I'm exercising on the bedroom floor, rather than needing to turn off everything except the lamp on my bedside table.

I'm also adjusting more easily than I'd expected to walking around without glasses, either in the apartment (when not reading) or outdoors at night and on cloudy days.

(I had been wearing glasses essentially all the time--taking them off only to shower and sleep--for many years, so I literally don't remember what it was like to go outside without glasses.)

I can't tell if the skin on my hand is drier than it was, or if I'm just seeing it more closely than I'm used it.

The drugstore reading glasses are good for closeup work, which apparently includes looking down at my own right hand; usable for my computer (and I am going try moving the monitor close to my chair to see if that helps; and actively counter-productive for medium-distance things like, say, walking into the bedroom. This means I keep noticing that I forgot to remove my glasses. (The cheap non-prescription sunglasses are fine for walking around outside, riding the bus, etc., but I need the reading glasses to use the Transit app on my phone.)

After a night's sleep, I can see better with the left (operated-on) eye without glasses than with the right eye with them on. I spent a bit of time last night with the glasses on over the eye shield, so I could read a little, but took it off after the morning dose of eye drops (except that I wore it in the shower, to help remind me to keep water well away from my eye).

The interesting colored halos I was seeing yesterday seem to have gone away. I had trouble falling asleep last night because my eye hurt, but then actually slept through the night, and it didn't hurt when I woke up. When I see the doctor this afternoon, in addition to whatever he wants to cover, I'm going to ask what "heavy lifting" means in this context, and whether it makes sense to try on drugstore reading glasses now, or whether I should wait a couple of days, or even until I've had the second eye operated on.

My eye isn't really happy looking at the bright screen right now, so I am going to go sit down with a paper book.

combined because I've already made three posts today

I sewed two buttons back onto my clothes yesterday, one on my all-purpose cardigan and one on the black silk shirt, and I think that's the last sewing until I get my new, improved eyes.

I finished editing a machine learning paper this afternoon, and sent it to the client, with an invoice. She has already paid it; the time stamp on the Paypal notification was *three minutes* after I sent her the email. I think that's the fastest a client has paid me, and will be a hard record to beat.

Having spent a couple of evenings unable to find anything on my kindle that I wanted to read, when the King County Library told me yesterday that the ebook of *Artificial Condition* (the second Murderbot story) was ready, I grabbed a half dozen other things, semi-randomly, to allow for a variety of moods. I have no idea if this will work, but couldn't think of a reason not to try it. So far, I am happily reading Murderbot, and just picked up two hardcover books I'd had on reserve at the Somerville library.

The neurologist's office called to say the insurance company has approved the Ocrevus. Next, the specialty pharmacy will call me, I will say that yes I want this medication, and they'll send it to the neurologist and we can schedule the infusion. (I think my OK is necessary because I do have a small copay for the drug.) a small fee for the drug.) I want the first half-dose is February 5 (which gives a few days slack between the second half-dose and the cataract surgery), and based on what they said today, I'll have more than enough time.