I went to a retina specialist in Topeka today. I really like him. They took lots of pictures of my eyes, dilated them and gave me some IV contrast stuff and than took more pictures. When the doctor finally saw me he knew immediately what was wrong. I have Macular Telangiectasia. The blood vessels in my eyeball are twisted and impair the reflection of light properly. I have a blind spot in my left eye as a result. The good news is my condition has been stable for a long time and he doesn’t see that changing. It is actually present in both eyes but only the left one is impaired.
There is nothing that can be done to fix it. I am to mention it to my doctors if I ever have a head trauma as that can cause the blood vessels to swell and bleed. They can treat it with steroids to reduce the swelling and hopefully reduce the potential of vision loss.
This first started happening in 1989 and I had been to several eye specialists over the years and no one had ever found a cause for it. Glad to know what it is and that it is nothing to worry about now (not that I was worrying).
The Doctor had walked the Camino so we had a good conversation about that. He had walked from Leon to Santiago and than went back and did the Portugal route. He like the St. James Way better and wished he had repeated that walk from a farther distance out.
My eyes are finally closing back up a bit after being dilated. I kept them closed most of the way home as they were extremely light sensitive. I was grateful Jim took me to Topeka so I didn’t have to drive home. The contrast medication made m
e a bit sick to my stomach but luckily that passed quickly.
We didn’t do anything in Topeka other than go to the doctor. There are some nice museums I would like to take Jim to but today wasn’t the day to do so.
Tomorrow we are going to OK until next Wednesday. I have a list of things I need to do before we leave. Not sure when we will get gone but it will probably be mid to late afternoon. I have several loads of laundry to do tomorrow and need to change the linens on my bed. I haven’t started packing yet. Good thing I don’t need lots of clothes – it won’t take me long to pack once I get started.
It was another beautiful day on the prairie. Wish we had been home to paint this afternoon as it warmed up enough we could have done so. Hopefully when we come back next week we will have a few nice days to get some painting done.
Did a bit of gift wrapping today but still have a bunch more presents to wrap. I had forgotten how much I dislike wrapping gifts.
My foot was a bit cranky last night and this morning but has finally quieted down and behaved itself this afternoon. I am so looking forward to next Wednesday when I can get this dressing off and start putting a bit of weight on my foot.
Need to knock off a few things on my to do list so we can get out of here at a decent hour tomorrow. The change of scenery will be good for both of us. With my limited mobility we both have a case of cabin fever.
Grateful for a diagnosis today, grateful to meet a fellow Camino Pilgrim, and grateful my gift wrapping has been started.