The results of my eye appointment are as follows!
My blind spots have shrunk down to the size of normal blind spots (everyone has them!).
My vision improved in the last month from 20/40 to 20/25. And the doctor is confident it will continue to improve.
My optic nerves look MUCH better, I think the swelling is all gone, but there's still some irritation that's healing, and the doctor thinks it will resolve itself in the next month.
SO I don't have to go back for 3 more months... YAY!!! And I'm off to google optic nerves so I can see what they were describing to me...
Monday, January 30, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
Can you read the bottom line?
I have an appointment with my eye specialist this morning. I'm a bit apprehensive about it (though no where near as nervous as I was at my first appointment with him a month ago). I'm just nervous because my eyes have felt so sensitive and they put drops in and make me look at so much stuff, and strain my eyes and it's just overall not pleasant. Let's put it this way: I'm looking forward to my annual visit with my lady doctor next week than I am to go back to the eye doctor.
On the other hand, I REALLY love the DOCTOR specifically. He is the nicest man, and asked to pray for me after our appointment and it was the first time in a couple of weeks I felt in the RIGHT hands with my treatment. So I'm looking forward to seeing him, just not what they're gonna do to me.
On a happy note, I'll bet my test results (field of vision test, color blind test, distance vision, etc.) will all show an improvement. I'll report back on the details later. I'm pretty sure after my brush with blindness I'll never again take for granted the ability to see again.
On the other hand, I REALLY love the DOCTOR specifically. He is the nicest man, and asked to pray for me after our appointment and it was the first time in a couple of weeks I felt in the RIGHT hands with my treatment. So I'm looking forward to seeing him, just not what they're gonna do to me.
On a happy note, I'll bet my test results (field of vision test, color blind test, distance vision, etc.) will all show an improvement. I'll report back on the details later. I'm pretty sure after my brush with blindness I'll never again take for granted the ability to see again.
Friday, January 20, 2012
On the road again...
No *I* am not going on the road again. I'm a wee bit too scared to get too far from my team of doctors :)
But my CAR is on the road again! We shipped that bad boy back to Centex after Ben flew back with the girls (and no luggage) and I flew back (with no luggage). So the car is FULL of our luggage, Christmas presents and all kind of things we miss having (like a second garage door opener, blue jeans, pajama pants, and face wash and moisturizer).
ETA for the Highlander is TODAY but it could be tomorrow, or at the latest Sunday. I would LOVE for it to come today so I can spend the weekend unpacking and organizing everything, not to mention return my mother-in-law's car she has so graciously loaned to me for the past three weeks. Seriously THREE WEEKS. That was such an amazing thing for her to do for us.
It's too bad there's no "track your truck" link I can stalk like I can my amazon.com packages, I'd be all over that!
But my CAR is on the road again! We shipped that bad boy back to Centex after Ben flew back with the girls (and no luggage) and I flew back (with no luggage). So the car is FULL of our luggage, Christmas presents and all kind of things we miss having (like a second garage door opener, blue jeans, pajama pants, and face wash and moisturizer).
ETA for the Highlander is TODAY but it could be tomorrow, or at the latest Sunday. I would LOVE for it to come today so I can spend the weekend unpacking and organizing everything, not to mention return my mother-in-law's car she has so graciously loaned to me for the past three weeks. Seriously THREE WEEKS. That was such an amazing thing for her to do for us.
It's too bad there's no "track your truck" link I can stalk like I can my amazon.com packages, I'd be all over that!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Daddy's girl, Mama's girl
Ben has been gone a whole lot this month with soccer tournaments. Poor Betsy, she is such a Daddy's Girl, I'm trying my best to fill the void when he's gone. At night, if Ben is traveling she cries "I want my DADDEEEEEEEE!!" and I usually end up keeping her in bed with me and snuggling her all night. She's become more of a Mama's girl with this change of routine.
Sweet Ella is a TOTAL Mama's girl. She walks around concentrating really hard saying "Mamamamamamama". She has a new tooth coming through and she's sleeping so poorly at night... guess who else usually ends up snuggling me for a while each night?
I love those girls, and the reaction I get when I pick them up from school or from my in-laws is priceless. Betsy says "My Mommy Mommy Mommy, I LOVE my Mommy!" and gives me huge hugs. Ella says "Mamamamamama" and toddles over and throws her hands up indicating it's time she gets picked up.
Even though it's chaotic parenting alone sometimes, I do really enjoy my "Girl's night in" with EJB and ECB.
Sweet Ella is a TOTAL Mama's girl. She walks around concentrating really hard saying "Mamamamamamama". She has a new tooth coming through and she's sleeping so poorly at night... guess who else usually ends up snuggling me for a while each night?
I love those girls, and the reaction I get when I pick them up from school or from my in-laws is priceless. Betsy says "My Mommy Mommy Mommy, I LOVE my Mommy!" and gives me huge hugs. Ella says "Mamamamamama" and toddles over and throws her hands up indicating it's time she gets picked up.
Even though it's chaotic parenting alone sometimes, I do really enjoy my "Girl's night in" with EJB and ECB.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Lifestyle change
My previous blog talked a bit about my health condition so I thought I would blog about how the past two weeks have been different from the past few years!
I've always considered myself organized, I plan ahead. The one area of my life that I just 'let go' and felt 'too tired' to control would be cooking, eating healthy, and exercising. I made a lot of excuses to myself about how hard it is to balance working full time, and raising two babies, and doing all the other stuff I do. But what I understand now is that all the other stuff is pretty much secondary to my health.
My days looks a lot different now, though I know I'm still pretty sick with my PTC. It just makes me tired. I don't stop for breakfast on the way to work. I don't run out for an unhealthy lunch. The night before I plan my breakfast, lunch, and snacks for the next day, weight and measure them out, pack them up so in the morning I just grab them to go. We have several health meal options in the fridge so at night I just heat up one of those, most often a grilled chicken salad.
There are no junk food options for Betsy and Ella. I'm not saying we don't still keep a box of goldfish and nilla wafers, but the majority of what we all eat is fresh fruits and veggies, grilled meats, cheese, nuts. There is no diet coke or coke in the house. I spend my lunch hour walking around campus to burn calories. It is AMAZING the amount of money I'm saving not eating out at all.
Ben is anxious for me to start lifting weights with him, but I told him I would let him know when I feel ready to add that in to my new routine. Slowly but steadily the pounds are coming off, and consequently I have noticed my vision improving in the last week. This is SO wonderful, I was having a hard time with my vision loss. I'm excited to go back to the optho in a couple weeks and have them do the field of vision tests to determine how much it's improved.
I titled this post lifestyle change because that's what this HAS to be for me. I cannot allow myself to become so overweight again. It's really freeing to have no option of giving this up. I haven't really had the urge to cheat or fall of the bandwagon yet, though I know there will come a day when I have an unhealthy meal...and I will get right back on track, because I have no other option.
So I'll keep you all updated with my weight loss. And I'll keep you updated with my PTC, and for now we just slowly get healthier. It's kinda fun knowing I'll end the year so much healthier and in-shape than i started it.
I've always considered myself organized, I plan ahead. The one area of my life that I just 'let go' and felt 'too tired' to control would be cooking, eating healthy, and exercising. I made a lot of excuses to myself about how hard it is to balance working full time, and raising two babies, and doing all the other stuff I do. But what I understand now is that all the other stuff is pretty much secondary to my health.
My days looks a lot different now, though I know I'm still pretty sick with my PTC. It just makes me tired. I don't stop for breakfast on the way to work. I don't run out for an unhealthy lunch. The night before I plan my breakfast, lunch, and snacks for the next day, weight and measure them out, pack them up so in the morning I just grab them to go. We have several health meal options in the fridge so at night I just heat up one of those, most often a grilled chicken salad.
There are no junk food options for Betsy and Ella. I'm not saying we don't still keep a box of goldfish and nilla wafers, but the majority of what we all eat is fresh fruits and veggies, grilled meats, cheese, nuts. There is no diet coke or coke in the house. I spend my lunch hour walking around campus to burn calories. It is AMAZING the amount of money I'm saving not eating out at all.
Ben is anxious for me to start lifting weights with him, but I told him I would let him know when I feel ready to add that in to my new routine. Slowly but steadily the pounds are coming off, and consequently I have noticed my vision improving in the last week. This is SO wonderful, I was having a hard time with my vision loss. I'm excited to go back to the optho in a couple weeks and have them do the field of vision tests to determine how much it's improved.
I titled this post lifestyle change because that's what this HAS to be for me. I cannot allow myself to become so overweight again. It's really freeing to have no option of giving this up. I haven't really had the urge to cheat or fall of the bandwagon yet, though I know there will come a day when I have an unhealthy meal...and I will get right back on track, because I have no other option.
So I'll keep you all updated with my weight loss. And I'll keep you updated with my PTC, and for now we just slowly get healthier. It's kinda fun knowing I'll end the year so much healthier and in-shape than i started it.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Pseduotumor Cerebri
To say we had an eventful Christmas would be an understatement. We had SO much planned for the latter half of December but sometimes big scary things happen and change everything. And this happened to us.
December 16th we hit the road to drive to Florida. We stopped to spend the first night in Dallas and during this short drive I noticed I was having a headache and my vision was a little blurry. My ears were stuffy too, so I attributed this to maybe a sinus infection. The next morning we drove another long day and again I had a bad headache and my vision was off. So Ben did most of the driving. We stayed that night in a hotel, and the morning of the 18th we finished driving in to Merritt Island to my parent's house.
The day after we arrived in Florida I went to an urgent care clinic and was given a prescription for antibiotics. The doctor suggested I may need to go to the hospital if I was having blurry vision. I tried the antibiotics for a day hoping I would feel better. The next morning Ben, my sister and myself woke up and headed to Orlando to go to Universal Studios for the day. Three hours into this trip I told them I needed to go to the hospital, so we did.
I went to Orlando East hospital where I was given an MRI and a CT scan which showed nothing wrong with my brain. I spent the night in the hospital, and was discharged with instructions to see an Opthomolgist. The next day Ben, Betsy, my Dad and sister went to Disney world and my mom and I hung out at the hotel. Then the next day I saw an Opthamologist (my cousin works for one in the area, what a God send!). He looked in my eyes, discovered my optic nerves were terribly swollen and directed me to go straight to an emergency room and let them know I probably needed a spinal tap.
SO, we headed to the closest hospital, in Melbourne, Florida. The doctors looked at the report from the opthomologist, heard my symptoms and that I had already had an MRI and CT scan (which they later repeated) and they gave me a Spinal Tap. This immediately relieved my headache and vision problems. I was admitted to the hospital December 23 and would stay there until December 27th.
What the doctors discovered is I had elevated pressure on my brain. I had too much spinal fluid and it was causing all these problems. I have a condition called Pseudo tumor Cerebri. We talked about putting a shunt in my brain (scary!). The CT scan showed I have exceptionally tiny ventricles in my brain and the neurosurgeon would not do this surgery on me. We started me on a prescription called Diamox, which is a diuretic that slows the production of spinal fluid. I had a second Spinal Tap, was deemed stable enough to travel and was discharged.
The next morning I boarded a plane and flew back to Texas. Ben had flew back with the two girls the day before. I had completely missed Christmas. I missed Disney world. I STILL haven't opened my Christmas presents, they are all in the back of my car that we left in Florida. I missed my best friend's wedding on New Years Eve.
Flying back was very rough. I was utterly weak and exhausted. The light hurt my eyes so I wore sunglasses the whole trip. I had to have someone push me in a wheelchair through three airports. But I was SO glad to be home.
As soon as I landed Ben told me that with the help of a very dear family friend who pulled some strings with our local hospital, I got in to see a neurologist the day I arrived back to Texas. The next morning I had an appointment scheduled with an opthomologist to see how my vision was progressing. This was REALLY wonderful to come home and immediately be in the care of a team of doctors who wanted to make a PLAN to treat my condition. In the hospital in Florida it was made very clear they just wanted to get me stable, and get me home.
The day after my appointments we went to buy me some new running shoes. And I cut and donated 10 inches of my hair! I was just SO exhausted I couldn't even brush my hair. I'm enjoying that my new short hair is so low maintenance.
It's been two weeks since I've been out of the hospital and it's like a night and day difference. Our plan of treatment for my condition is to keep me on the maximum dose of this medication until my optic nerve swelling is gone. It's already improved significantly. Losing weight may very well CURE my condition so I've obviously thrown myself whole heartily into eating healthy. I've lost 20 pounds since this ordeal has started, and losing just 20 more may resolve my symptoms.
I've been back to work since January 2nd, we're in registration at work. I'm pretty exhausted by the end of the day, but I'm able to do pretty much everything I could before all this happened. My vision isn't quite 20/20 but I'm very hopeful that I'll gain back the vision I've lost. And I have larger blind spots than people typically do.
I had my first follow up with my neurologist yesterday and he's happy with my progress, and so am I. My medication has side effects. My hands and feet tingle. I have a bad taste in my mouth. I get really tired. But it's working! I haven't had headaches. My vision is improving. I follow up with my optho in a couple weeks, and the neuro in another month, and I'm hopeful for some more success with my weight loss. I'm hopeful this will cure the condition I have!
SO, it was a crazy, crazy, Christmas break. But I'm lucky to be where I am. And my girls still got to spend Christmas with my family, which I appreciated. And I really look forward to what this year will bring. We've completely changed our eating habits. There is no junk food, no soda in our house. I feel like we will look like a completely different family at the end of the year. I'm sad that I missed seeing the girls open their Christmas gifts, and I missed Disney World with Betsy, and I missed Megan's wedding which looked amazing. But I now know that what happened to me was life threatening. So I feel pretty lucky to be where I am today.
December 16th we hit the road to drive to Florida. We stopped to spend the first night in Dallas and during this short drive I noticed I was having a headache and my vision was a little blurry. My ears were stuffy too, so I attributed this to maybe a sinus infection. The next morning we drove another long day and again I had a bad headache and my vision was off. So Ben did most of the driving. We stayed that night in a hotel, and the morning of the 18th we finished driving in to Merritt Island to my parent's house.
The day after we arrived in Florida I went to an urgent care clinic and was given a prescription for antibiotics. The doctor suggested I may need to go to the hospital if I was having blurry vision. I tried the antibiotics for a day hoping I would feel better. The next morning Ben, my sister and myself woke up and headed to Orlando to go to Universal Studios for the day. Three hours into this trip I told them I needed to go to the hospital, so we did.
I went to Orlando East hospital where I was given an MRI and a CT scan which showed nothing wrong with my brain. I spent the night in the hospital, and was discharged with instructions to see an Opthomolgist. The next day Ben, Betsy, my Dad and sister went to Disney world and my mom and I hung out at the hotel. Then the next day I saw an Opthamologist (my cousin works for one in the area, what a God send!). He looked in my eyes, discovered my optic nerves were terribly swollen and directed me to go straight to an emergency room and let them know I probably needed a spinal tap.
SO, we headed to the closest hospital, in Melbourne, Florida. The doctors looked at the report from the opthomologist, heard my symptoms and that I had already had an MRI and CT scan (which they later repeated) and they gave me a Spinal Tap. This immediately relieved my headache and vision problems. I was admitted to the hospital December 23 and would stay there until December 27th.
What the doctors discovered is I had elevated pressure on my brain. I had too much spinal fluid and it was causing all these problems. I have a condition called Pseudo tumor Cerebri. We talked about putting a shunt in my brain (scary!). The CT scan showed I have exceptionally tiny ventricles in my brain and the neurosurgeon would not do this surgery on me. We started me on a prescription called Diamox, which is a diuretic that slows the production of spinal fluid. I had a second Spinal Tap, was deemed stable enough to travel and was discharged.
The next morning I boarded a plane and flew back to Texas. Ben had flew back with the two girls the day before. I had completely missed Christmas. I missed Disney world. I STILL haven't opened my Christmas presents, they are all in the back of my car that we left in Florida. I missed my best friend's wedding on New Years Eve.
Flying back was very rough. I was utterly weak and exhausted. The light hurt my eyes so I wore sunglasses the whole trip. I had to have someone push me in a wheelchair through three airports. But I was SO glad to be home.
As soon as I landed Ben told me that with the help of a very dear family friend who pulled some strings with our local hospital, I got in to see a neurologist the day I arrived back to Texas. The next morning I had an appointment scheduled with an opthomologist to see how my vision was progressing. This was REALLY wonderful to come home and immediately be in the care of a team of doctors who wanted to make a PLAN to treat my condition. In the hospital in Florida it was made very clear they just wanted to get me stable, and get me home.
The day after my appointments we went to buy me some new running shoes. And I cut and donated 10 inches of my hair! I was just SO exhausted I couldn't even brush my hair. I'm enjoying that my new short hair is so low maintenance.
It's been two weeks since I've been out of the hospital and it's like a night and day difference. Our plan of treatment for my condition is to keep me on the maximum dose of this medication until my optic nerve swelling is gone. It's already improved significantly. Losing weight may very well CURE my condition so I've obviously thrown myself whole heartily into eating healthy. I've lost 20 pounds since this ordeal has started, and losing just 20 more may resolve my symptoms.
I've been back to work since January 2nd, we're in registration at work. I'm pretty exhausted by the end of the day, but I'm able to do pretty much everything I could before all this happened. My vision isn't quite 20/20 but I'm very hopeful that I'll gain back the vision I've lost. And I have larger blind spots than people typically do.
I had my first follow up with my neurologist yesterday and he's happy with my progress, and so am I. My medication has side effects. My hands and feet tingle. I have a bad taste in my mouth. I get really tired. But it's working! I haven't had headaches. My vision is improving. I follow up with my optho in a couple weeks, and the neuro in another month, and I'm hopeful for some more success with my weight loss. I'm hopeful this will cure the condition I have!
SO, it was a crazy, crazy, Christmas break. But I'm lucky to be where I am. And my girls still got to spend Christmas with my family, which I appreciated. And I really look forward to what this year will bring. We've completely changed our eating habits. There is no junk food, no soda in our house. I feel like we will look like a completely different family at the end of the year. I'm sad that I missed seeing the girls open their Christmas gifts, and I missed Disney World with Betsy, and I missed Megan's wedding which looked amazing. But I now know that what happened to me was life threatening. So I feel pretty lucky to be where I am today.
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