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Time to See a Retina Specialist

david — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:47:48 +0000

I received a call from Dr. Pro late this afternoon regarding my OCT scan from Monday. Before the call, Dr. Pro talked with Dr. Ayers to discuss the scan. They both agreed that there is swelling in the retina. Dr. Pro told me that sometimes this occurs when the IOP is low, which mine has been since my trab in 2003. He didn’t think it would come on all of a sudden from low IOP though. My IOP has been between five and seven at just about every eye appointment I’ve had since spring or summer 2003 (except for that dramatic increase after the partial cornea transplant when it rose so quickly it made me vomit multiple times on Friday, 5 Dec 2008 — the day after the surgery.)

Dr. Pro recommended a couple of retina specialists at Wills Eye, who also have an office at the Pagoda Building in Bala Cynwyd. It was too late in the day to get an appointment today, so I’ll call them tomorrow and set something up. I’d like to get something quickly to stop further decrease in my vision. I already have an appointment with my local ophthalmologist, John Ruffini, on Friday and will discuss the scan, my options, and the cataract (which was the original reason I made the appointment.)

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Post tags: appointment, bala cynwyd, call, cataract, congenital glaucoma, cornea, cornea transplant, Dr. Ayers, Dr. Pro, Dr. Ruffini, eye, iop, John Ruffini, late in the day, retina, ruffini, swelling, wills eye

Image of My OCT Scan

david — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:53:51 +0000

Just a quick update to add my OCT image. I’ve added here and to last night’s post (so you can compare mine with the normal one posted on the Vitreous Retina Macula Consultants of New York website.) I kind of think mine looks like two people laying on the beach on their bellies and seeing just their backs and butts. I’m hoping to hear from the doctor today or tomorrow.

My OCT scan from 11 Jan 2010.

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Post tags: bellies, butts, caption, cataract, cornea, Dr. Pro, glaucoma, image, mine, New York, OCT, pagoda building, retina, update, vitreous retina, wills eye

OCT Retina Test

david — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:36:14 +0000

What an adventure today at the Pagoda Building at 100 Presidential Ave. After a few minutes in the waiting area, we were called back. I followed Irene into a very dimly lit room, stumbling slightly on one of the stools. I sat on a stool that seemed to be a bit too high for the machine I was supposed to put my chin in while pressing my forehead against the bar. The device that was going to take the images and measurements of my retina looked similar to an older (circa 1998) surveillance camera. Inside the lens was this cool blue light, slightly lighter than the blue light on the machine that reads your IOP, that looked similar to something in a sci fi movie with a thin red line across the horizon that looked like a laser.

My good fortune was that the machine was brand spanking new and both Irene and Todd had not yet mastered it. Irene couldn’t get a good set of images and kept asking me if I was diabetic, which I am not. She then said that the cataract in that eye must be really dense, because they couldn’t get a clear image. She then decided to dilate my eye. (This test was only for the left eye. The right is waiting for the Six Million Dollar Man eye and I haven’t spotted those at Radio Shack yet.) Dr. Pro had asked that the eye be dilated, but Irene thought it wasn’t necessary at the beginning. While my pupil was dilating, Irene stepped out of the room. Todd, Eliz, and I talked about the machine. I asked Todd a question and didn’t get a response. Eliz then answered for him. Seems he didn’t realize I couldn’t see him and he nodded yes to answer my question. After about 10 minutes, Irene walked back in, but Todd wanted his turn on the machine, so Irene coached him. He couldn’t get a good image either. Irene’s turn again.

After about 10 to 15 minutes of trying, we were asked to go wait in another waiting area. We only waited there a couple of minutes and then it was back into the hot seat for me (and I didn’t stumble in the room this time since my eye was dilated…) Finally, Irene was able to get the correct images the doctor ordered. I asked if I could have one put on my flash drive. Irene said no, but said she’d print one out. As she looked through all the images, she realized that they weren’t that good. She asked if she could try again on getting a good image. At this point, either Eliz or I mentioned the Endothelial transplant from December 2008. She then said that might be why she couldn’t get a good image. Whatever. She got some images she was happy with and printed one out for me… In black and white! The doctor will have a look in a day or two. I’ll call on Wednesday to see what the story is.

I’ve got a scanner issue that is stopping me from uploading the image. Hopefully I’ll figure it out tomorrow and have the image up here then. I know it doesn’t look like this image:

OCT demonstrating normal retinal architecture.

My OCT scan from 11 Jan 2010.

So now I have to wait to hear from the doctor. My image is a bit more “hilly” than the image above. I’m hopeful this is the reason for my latest issue. I also hope this can be fixed.

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Post tags: adventure today, caption, cataract, cornea, Dr. Pro, Eliz, eye, glaucoma, good fortune, image, Irene, machine, OCT, retina, room, surveillance camera, thin red line, Todd, waiting area, wills eye

New Images of Water Damage and Mold

david — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:17:22 +0000

Area was used to show custom salon furniture and other salon equipment now only shows mold.

This container was empty on Friday when we left for the weekend. Now it has about 10 inches of water in it.

Wet display case, wet Coke box, wet rug, mold on the walls.

Right side of the counter, from the customer's perspective, where the customers stand at checkout.

As promised, here are a few images of the water damage and mold at 617A Grant Road in the Delcroft Shopping Center, inside Salon Supplies + Interiors. The carpet near the counter and display case seems wetter than in past storms. The carpet is soaked almost to the rear of the checkout counter. The display case countertop was wet this morning when we arrived. There were also a couple more ceiling tiles that were wet by the entry door. One was so wet it was sagging. The floor below those tiles was wet too.

I’ve emailed the property management company, Goel Enterprise, but haven’t heard a word yet. It appears they are just going to string me along until the end of the lease on 31 January 2009. Very frustrating…

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Post tags: alignleft, attachment, caption, caption area, ceiling tiles, Grant Road, Images, Mold, property management company, Water Damage

Thanks Ken!

david — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:58:54 +0000

I wanted to take a moment to thank Ken for all the great changes on the blog. I love all the extra goodies. Now, if I could only write…

Six Months Later

david — Thu, 07 May 2009 06:03:31 +0000

Okay, so I haven’t updated in five months. I’ve had a bunch of stuff going on. Here it is in a nutshell… We scrambled to find a new space for our business (Salon Supplies + Interiors – www.ForMySalon,) which we finally did about a week before our old lease expired (5 Feb 2009 – yeah, we didn’t even have until the end of the month.) We moved our business the week of 2 Feb. It took us the next two weeks to unpack and set up the soft goods (shampoos, perms, hair color, etc) and another couple of weeks to set up our showroom. Our days were long and free time non-existant. We only closed for four days during that stretch. Ken and I (mostly Ken) have been working hard to get ForYourSalon.com up and running. Eliz has tried to manage both the store and our homelife — delivering salon supplies, taking the kids to school, payroll, soft good orders, etc. No wonder we both (and the kids too) were wiped-out by some flu like thing in mid-March (and without the luxury or the ability to take a day or two off, it probably took a little longer to get rid of whatever it is we had.)

Okay, enough about other stuff. I started this blog to rant about my No. 1 frustration: my eye sight. Here’s where I’m at now… I am able to read on the computer with reading glasses (I never in my life thought I’d be able to walk into a drug store and purchase glasses for under $20…) I still have to enlarge the text two or three Apple +’s, but I’ve kind of accepted it. The readers also help me see larger printed materials (newspaper headlines, etc.) Officially, my vision still stands at 20/200 in my left eye and hand motion at a foot in the right. (My right eye has been a lost cause since the day I was born, so I’m STILL ready and willing to take part in some sort of crazy experiment to help me see with it.) It doesn’t seem likely that my vision will improve much more than where it is currently. I have been refracted twice with virtually no improvement. We will try again in a month or two. I am not happy.

Here comes the rant…
Three of my thirteen eye surgeries have occurred since I was 15 (1980, 2003, 2008.) Before each one, I was very excited to have the procedures (two trabs, one partial cornea transplant) done because I thought my vision would be improved greatly. The 1980 trab was successful and it didn’t reduce my vision (though it didn’t improve it either.) The 2003 trab was successful in reducing my IOP, but I went from reading the 20/100 line to the 20/200 line. The 2008 partial cornea transplant was successful in removing the bad endothelia and replacing it with a good (but 25 years older than me) endothelia. My vision is no longer cloudy, but I still can only read the 20/200 line. It looks clearer than it did a year ago, but I still have trouble seeing TV, movies, sporting events, peoples faces, and just about anything else. I was hoping to get to 20/100 and from what both my cornea specialist and my local ophth said, it seemed possible. I had great fantasies of having a catch with my daughter as she worked on her softball pitching mechanics, throwing a football around with whoever, going to a Phillies game, Flyers game, Eagles game, or soccer friendly between two of Europe’s best teams and actually see what is going on. I’d take tons of pictures with my camera and mess around with them in Photoshop. All of those will have to wait, if I can ever do it at all. My biggest problem is trying to get past the frustration and find something else that I do like to do. I just can’t seem to move forward. Got any ideas?

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Post tags: cornea, Europe, eye, game, hand motion, ken, line, reading glasses, salon supplies, school payroll, three apple, vision

We Have Tile on Our Bathroom Floor…

david — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 06:21:35 +0000

Okay, I hear you grumbling, “We have tile on our bathroom floor too, so…” We’ve lived in our house since the summer of 1993. Eliz and I picked out the tile for the master bathroom when the house was being built. I just haven’t seen it for most of 2008. Now I do! After getting over the excitement of seeing the tile, I realized it doesn’t look as good as it did those 15+ years ago.

As I continue to recover, and I start to see things again more clearly than I did before the surgery, I’m reminded of that Bill Murray/Richard Dreyfuss movie What About Bob? Richard Dreyfuss’ character writes a book called “Baby Steps.” I’m not a big fan of the movie, but baby steps are what I’m taking. I’m hopeful that I continue to improve. We’ll see in about 10 days when I return to Dr. Ayres for another post-op visit (this will be my third, but my first in about a month.)

I’ll have to ask Dr. Ayres about some double vision that I have been noticing recently. I only notice it while out at night, usually while riding in the car. From a distance, most cars seem to have four headlights and traffic lights are doubled. In some cases, the oncoming cars have fog lights, but not all of them. Nothing else I look at seems to be doubled (I’ve tried holding a $20 in my hand, but I only see one… It wouldn’t help much if I saw two, but it would make me feel like I have a little extra cash )

Scare…

david — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 07:07:38 +0000

Today I had a huge scare. Ken and I were going to run to Wachovia, Staples, and Home Depot. Eliz gave me our mortgage payment to take to the bank and some envelopes to drop in the mail. I put them in my shirt pocket while I took a couple of eye drops.

After I finished pinching my tear duct closed to keep the drop in my eye, I stood up and attempted to remove the check/mortgage stub and the envelopes out of my pocket. They weren’t coming out easy, so I looked down while I pulled up. I ended up poking myself in my eye with the corner of the envelopes and check. It hurt quite a bit. My eye teared badly and my vision was very fuzzy. I felt like I was going to be sick. I thought I had done some damage to the eye that was operated on only 11 days ago.

I wanted to go have it checked out. Eliz called our local ophthemologist, John Ruffini, and was told I could come right over. Eliz couldn’t take me, because we had someone out sick and there was nobody to man the supply portion of the business (don’t get me started on all sacrifices that we make to own our own business…) Ken offered to take me over to Taylor for my appointment.

I seems that the envelopes had caused an abrassion to my cornea, but the not too close to where the suitor is located. Dr. Ruffini told me that it wasn’t deep and didn’t affect my new 69 year old endothelia since that is the inner most part of the cornea. He took my pressure, which was under 10. The drop he gave me to numb my eye (before taking my pressure) made it feel 100% better. Between the numbing drop and the reassurance that I didn’t do serious harm to my eye, the $20 copay was well worth it. I have never been more scared about my eye than I was today.

Day 3

david — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:10:25 +0000

Today I begin my third day of recovery from an endothelial transplant in my left (good eye – actually my only eye.) Please forgive any typos as I really can’t see what I’m typing. Once my wife returns home, she’ll clean it up (believe me, she’s used to cleaning up my messes…)

The surgery went very well and I felt great even after the surgery. This was my 13th, but my first non-glaucoma surgery. My last surgery in 2003 (a trab) left me nauceous within an hour after leaving the hospital. This was only my second eye surgery in the modern, you can’t stay a minute longer than necessary era. For example, I had a trab in May, 1980. I checked into the hospital on a Monday afternoon, surgery was Tuesday morning, and I went home on Friday at lunchtime. Modern era trab in 2003: check-in at 7:00, surgery around 8:00, leave by lunchtime – all in the same day! Thursday’s procedure was similar. We checked in between 9:30 and 10:00, went into the OR about 11:15, and checked out about 2:15.

The biggest difference today over the “dark ages” of medicine is that I remained mostly awake. So I was able to talk to the doctor and he gave me regular updates. He also apologized in advance for the black eye he knew I’d have the next day. Seems he hit a blood vessel while numbing my eye (I was asleep for that.) We have a picture which we’ll post soon…

My first day was awful. As I was getting dressed, I began to feel sick. We drove back into Wills for the day after check-up. That was the second longest 30 minute ride of my life (the ride home was the longest.) The check-up itself went well. The doctor said things were looking good. He again apologized for the shiner he gave me. The only problem was my IOP had jumped to 24. He put me on a glaucoma med and told me to return on Tuesday unless I had any problems. We left his office and began to head for the car. I felt really sick, so we stopped at the bathroom. I got sick for the first time in about 23 years (and that was self-inflicted.) I got sick again on the ride home and then about two hours after getting home. We called the doctor to see if this could be from the anesthesia or just a virus. He was concerned that it could be from the high IOP (interocular pressure.) He wanted us to come back to Wills to have my IOP checked again. I begged to let me sleep for a couple of hours and have a drop of the glaucoma med to see if that would help. He agreed. He called back later in the evening when I was feeling better. We all agreed that we could wait until the morning to do anything more.

The second day started with a call from the doctor. Since I was feeling much better, we told him we thought we could wait until Tuesday to see him again. After showering very carefully so that I didn’t get water in my eye, I got dressed. Unlike the day before, I got dressed without incident. We had some delicious english muffins from Wolferman’s (thanks Stephanie & Alex!) and headed over to our business, Salon Supplies + Interiors. We only stayed about 30 minutes to see how things were going in my absence and then headed home for some rest. My vision was better than the day before, but not well enough to walk around the business by myself.

Today, my vision is a bit better than yesterday, but still not great. I cannot read what I am typing, though I could see well enough to click the mouse in the address bar to navigate to here and login. I watched (okay, listened) to the Eagles win over the Giants. Why is it when I watch them I wonder how they are going to blow a game? I guess that is what you get growing up in the Philly area. I was born just a couple of months after the infamous 1964 Phillies collapse. Fortunately, the ’07 & ’08 Mets have been more dramatic failures…

It’s back to work tomorrow. I’m not sure how useful I’ll be, but I’ve got to get back. Hopefully I’ll be exhausted tomrrow night from all the business we’re going to do. If were not too busy, I could always take a nap on a very nice Oakworks sallon bed. How comfy is it? Stop in and try it out!