5/31/23

A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks.  I haven't heard squat on my sleep study - I mean my 'lay in bed awake all night study'. I had my YAG laser procedure done on both eyes.  I was sitting upright in a chair that wouldn't move, put my chin on a tiny platform, and my forehead against a bar.  No straps, no nothing.  He told me to stare straight ahead and not to blink.  Every so often he'd let me blink and boy, oh, boy, was that a relief!  He blasted my left eye first and I wasn't sure I could hold out long enough without blinking, but I made it.  My right eye took a good deal longer than my left eye and I never, in a million years, thought I could stare straight ahead without blinking that long.  He had numbed my eyes and dilated them, big time.  I made it through and wished they'd given me a Pina Colada or something beforehand.  Gosh, I was nervous this time.  I wore sunglasses the rest of the day and was as blind as a bat.  The next day, the dilation had worn off, but my vision had not come back yet.  It is slowly getting better each day, but I have floaters galore.  He said I would, and that they would last a few weeks.  I go back to him on 6/12.  I hate to say it, but I think my vision is a tad bit worse today.  I hope it's just my imagination.  I haven't told anyone - didn't want to jinx it.  The floaters are driving me bat shit crazy.  I have SO many of them.  

We had company this weekend and Courtney and Warren were the last to leave this afternoon.  It was his 7th birthday this weekend and we had a blast.  David took me to the hospital this morning for some injections in my back.  Apparently, I have to go through 2 of these for insurance to cover the next procedure.  I had them 10 years ago and they didn't work, but they don't care.  We showed up at 7 a.m., I was done by 8:45 and back in recovery.  Only.... recovery didn't go so well today.  They don't use IV's any longer.  Numbing shots, then Lidocaine injections, then the Medial Branch Block.  Both sides, two of each.  That's a lot of injections.  Not gonna lie... they hurt.  I wished they still did the IVs.....  My BP is usually around 90/50.  Today, it got as high as 168/99.  Like I said... not a good day.

After I was in recovery about 15 minutes, they came in to have me stand up.  Yeah, that ain't happenen'.  My legs were like spaghetti and my feet were totally numb.  Couldn't feel anything.  I was supposed to go home at that point and ended up staying there for 3 or 4 more hours till I could finally stand up.  Still could hardly walk, and that was with a walker, but they let me come home as long as I'd use my walker here at home until my feeling came back.  Around 2 p.m. this afternoon, I was walking again, but slowly.  I had a new pain in my back and hip, also.  This day did not go as I expected, to say the least.  As you can probably tell, I'm not anxious to do this a second time.  Doc and I are gonna have a discussion....  I'm having all this done because my spinal stimulator isn't doing it's job.  It's worthless these days.  I have been asked to explain what's wrong with my back, so here goes:

My L3-4 show spinal stenosis

L3-4 and L4-5 have severe arthritis with moderate arthritis at L5-S1.

I have degenerative disc disease, degeneration of facet joints.

Partial dislocation of joint.

I think that's all.  That's enough, anyway.

I see my oncologist on Monday and have several questions for her this time.  I was hoping the end was in sight for all these doctor visits, but I reckon that's not gonna be the case for awhile.