the treatment

THE TREATMENT
did you ever see the movie
road trip
then if you did you understand why i didnt complain
about the phone system and not being able to talk
to a human being very long

now i usually see dr w at this place
she has been my ophthalmologist for 15 years
in fact ive seen her several times this year for my
iritis thats inflammation of the iris
the eye turns red it hurts a lot you get headaches
its relieved with tapering doses of steroid eye drops

i went years without a flareup and now have had several
since the first of the year

luckily for this injury i had just finished tapering off
my steroid drops two days earlier
which helped some fighting the inflammation from this
eye injury

now i saw a new person
she seemed to take her job seriously
it was hard to get her to smile

she described the injury
the thorn went into the limbus
now i knew what that meant
the area where the cornea meets the white part of the eye
it went into that front chamber
nicked the iris as it went in
causing some bleeding at the puncture site
then dripping some blood like off a knife
that is used to stab someone
down into the bottom front of that anterior chamber

your biggest problem will be
she said
inflammation getting worse in that eye
infection from germs carried on that thorn that just got
injected into the eye
well she didnt mention the other thing
pain

so she gave me
atropine to dilate the eye
makes you look like a hoot owl in one eye
for a long time
thats just one drop
she said use a drop each night
i thought man im gonna look like a hoot owl
hope i dont hoot in my sleep
or start hunting for rodents

then she said restart those steroid drops every hour
i thought when am i going to sleep
i see 6-8 hours of not using them each day
i think she read my mind
ok just use them while awake

then heres some antibiotic drops
to fight the infection
when i went to the pharmacy they said
you know your insurance doesnt cover this
i dont care i thought this eye hurts i just want to go home
so i paid the man
dang thats a small bottle
i calculated that each drop cost about $5
i burned 5 bucks when my first drop hit the floor
so i just used that drop to rub in to our floor
to at least use it for something

come back tomorrow she said
i thought dr w i want to see her then

when i went to the pharmacy
sorry we dont have those atropine drops
you need to call other pharmacies to find some
we will transfer your prescription

i thought
mam thats your job to do that
my eye hurts i want to go home

so i said
what about your stores pharmacy just down the road
oh yea she said
she called they had it
just do your job mam is all i could think

i got the hoot owl drops and instantly put them in
they helped ease the discomfort some on the way home
by now a heart beat had started up in that right eye
by midnight i reached for my left over pain meds from
my oral surgery to get some pain relief

i was also told to not read
to sleep in a chair
to not bend over
to sit up right
to basically do bed rest

that worked ok on day one
but it was a real struggle the rest of the week

so the next day
my wife she went with me
i didnt feel like driving
i got to see dr w
she said
i need to talk to a corneal specialist and a retina specialist
she was gone a long time
made me worry a little

she returned
infection and inflammation are your two biggest worries
i thought and being a hoot owl and pain should be added

so she wrote me prescriptions for all these medications
two antibiotics that had to be compounded by a compound pharmacy
there arent many of those left
walgreens cvs heb etc dont do that no more
what that meant was
it was going to be a while before those got ready
so
just a block away from the pharmacy was one of central texas
well known taco places
ive never been so we went there and waited
ok i ate two tacos and was full and was happy
then
your prescriptions are ready she said when i answered

so the two compounded meds
vancomycin
we called it vanco terrible when i was a resident since it always
seem to wipe out the patients kidneys when it was used
the other was
tobramycin
when given iv can damage the kidneys make your ears ring
and damage you hearing permanently
of course
all of that was going through my head when the pharmacist
was doing her thing telling me how to use it

but
she forgot to tell me
that
when you put those drops in your eye
especially the vanco terrible ones
that it would feel like 3 fingers were poked into your eye
or like someone poured rubbing alcohol in there
you would drop to your knees crying

use each drop every hour
she didnt say while awake but i did

wait a minute that means i use a drop every 30 minutes
plus the steroid drop every two house plus the atropine twice a day
plus natural tears before using the drops to lubricate the eye
thanks goodness i was told to stop the antibiotic drops that
were made of gold
wonder if i could sell those on craigs list

plus now i had to use an antibiotic cream at night
what a messy one that was

you do the math
i was doing drops every 30 minutes at least sometimes every 15 minutes
how in the heck was i going to keep up with all that
but
i did

i went to see dr w every day for a week
my eye got better each day
once my eye pressure went too high
but once the steroids kicked in that went back to normal
after the first day i didnt really have any pain

there was one day i just felt bad
slept all day
felt like i had the flu
but felt better the next day

there was only one scary moment
i bent over in the sink to wash my face
when i stood straight looking in the mirror
all that blood covered my pupil and i couldnt see
however
it gradually settled back down to the bottom of the chamber

now 1 week later
the blood has all resolved
i am still a hoot owl in that eye and will be that way for a week or two
until those atropine drops wear off
this makes my vision in that eye blurry
i have no pain
i have been released to full activities
i did get her to write a note saying i should do no housework

i even finished the job i started when i injured the eye
carefully very carefully lifting up that pot of agave
throwing it on my brush pile
along with all those cactus pads

so in summary

my eye should make a full recovery

medical offices should have a real person answer the phone
i wonder how much business they lose from folks just hanging up
in my case most would have just gone to the er
of course they wouldnt have done anything but sent you to
an ophthalmologist
costing you or your insurance an extra thousand bucks

meds cost too much

its too hard to get care sometimes
luckily having worked in the system for years i know how to maneuver
myself through the system
i have insurance thank goodness
even with this i still paid close to $500 for my meds
wonder what a poor uninsured or underinsured person would do

compliance in this case was important
i understood that
permanent blindness or worse loss of the eye was a possibility

folks just do your job

and lastly
always always use safety glasses and safety equipment

the organicgreen doctor