I’ve been getting some actual good health news as of late. After I saw the optometrist and cardiologist on Friday it was brought to my attention that my body is, in fact, not completely falling apart.
My first appointment was with the optometrist. It was not fun. They dilated me to begin with. I’ve been dilated before and was told the drops might burn but they never did. This time they did. Boy did they. After that they did a quick check on my vision. I’m 25/30 apparently but it was hard to read the chart because my vision was kind of cloudy. I’ve never experienced that before when being dilated but whatever. Then they injected me with dye. I literally didn’t feel the needle. First time ever. Following that, they took a few sets of pictures of my eyes. Then I talked with the optometrist.
First things first, the damage in my left eye? It’s a sort of birth defect. It’s called Torpedo Maculopathy and it’s not dangerous. It just sort of is. But it is rather rare. He said he sees about one patient a year with it. I guess he got his 2019 case out of the way early. Second thing was my Diabetic Retinopathy. He reiterated what my other optometrist stated, called it moderate or something like that. Basically I have damage but it’s not that bad… yet. He told me that if I keep my A1C at or bellow 6.5 it shouldn’t get any worse. My last A1C was 6.4 so I’m already doing good in that regard.
Next appointment was with the cardiologist. Whew! This one was effort, especially considering that I had already been to the optometrist earlier that morning and hadn’t slept well the night before. They did all kinds of stuff to me. First up was an ultrasound of my heart. I got to listen to and watch my heart beat. It was surreal watching the actual valves opening and closing. The technician was a bit dumbfounded at first as she couldn’t find my heart because it was several inches above where it should have been. I told her that my liver was way up high inside my torso as well and that when I had had an ultrasound years before it had taken them a while to find it too. She told me that my organ arrangement was like someone much younger. Apparently as you age your organs slowly drop inside your body but that had not happened with me. I’m not surprised. My body does very strange things. I didn’t ask how much younger though. Things were weird enough as it was.
Then it was on to another dye test. It was some kind of nuclear material, and when they say nuclear they mean nuclear. The vial they brought over to me was in a very large, it looked like iron, tube. So they injected me with whatever it was and then we waited a bit before I went on the most boring amusement ride of my life. It was this large machine that I was sat in that slowly turned over several minutes. It was interesting that it actually had me suspended while it was working but that was it. I joked to the nurse about it not being worth three tickets. I don’t think she got it.
Next was the actual stress test. It was another injection that they gave me all sorts of warnings about. That my chest might hurt and I might feel out of breath or dizzy or other things. The woman before me seemed to have a lot of trouble with it. I mostly just got a headache from it. I mean, I felt it working for damn sure but my worst reaction to it was a headache. It also tasted absolutely terrible. And that was really strange. They injected it into me but I could taste it nearly instantly. A few minutes into the test they gave me a diet coke and then it was back onto the ride again for another set of pictures or whatever the damn thing was doing.
After all that I finally saw the cardiologist. My heart was absolutely fine. No sign of any issues or blockage or anything. He said my squeeze was great but my release was a little weak. It’s easy to fix though. How? Exercise! Of course that would require me to get out of this damn boot.
As a strange aside the people at the optometrist told me that the dye they used in order to take pictures of my eyes might cause some temporary issues. My skin might turn yellow and my urine might be dark or discolored for a few days. Well, I don’t think I turned yellow, though Robert said I did after I told him that it might be a side effect, but my urine did change color. It became a very bright, basically day glow, yellow. It was strange. Had a bit of a bluish-green background, like a highlighter, to it as well. It didn’t last for long and was much weaker the second time I urinated but wow was it strange.
So that’s where I seem to be today, after a weekend of doing absolutely nothing. Other than my moderate Diabetic Retinopathy and my broken foot I’m not in bad shape at all. I mean, I’m still type 2 diabetic and need to lose a good bit of weight but I’m doing better than I would have thought. It’s good to know that some things can actually go right once in a while.
quixoticsomnia 