Medical Muck and Color Wars

Work interrupted:

Blood and urine every two weeks for kidney doc,

three visits with same.

Blood for the oncologist - twice,

dental work,

prep for cataract surgery (three appointments),

dermatology (another spot),

vein specialist,

pick up prescriptions.

Work some.

More medical muck.

There.  I think I’ve caught you up on Jeff’s daily activities.  Dr. Pat doubled his dosage of the ACE inhibitor in the hopes of improving his kidney function.  This dosage makes him droop and drag a little, another impediment to a full work schedule.  His frequent sighs, “What are you going  to do with me?” have to do with the time involved in taking care of himself - and his anxieties over his light work schedule (reduced income) - and whatever the next challenge will be.  Right now, that is cataract surgeries, one eye at a time.

Between April and October Jeff’s vision deteriorated quickly.  His complaints about cloudy vision became more frequent.  Dr. Pendse suggests taking care of this soon because it will continue to progress quickly.  As he measured Jeff’s eyes he asked, “Did you take a lot of steroids?”  Of course.  He says Cellcept may also be a culprit.  (Jeff still takes Cellcept for GVHD.)

Jeff learned about a newer type of cataract surgery that falls outside of health insurance coverage and would cost an additional $5,500.  Yikes.  Jeff says he wouldn’t consider it but I wondered what the benefit would be.  The lens has three rings with different magnification.  If it doesn’t work, you have glare - three rings of it - particularly at night.  Dr. Pendse has performed this surgery on some patients for whom it did not work and then had to reverse it.  Dr. Pendse felt Jeff would likely have those issues and, therefore, was not a good candidate for spending the extra bucks.

The nurse told Jeff that, for the type of cataracts he has, surgery makes a huge impact on color perception.  “You will go home the day of your surgery and realize that you have not been seeing colors clearly.”

Well, that explains the arguments we’d had.  It happened a few times.  We disagreed about the color of something - I cannot recall what things – and Jeff got so upset that I just let it go.

For a week after each surgery Jeff will be on light duty – no bending over, no lifting more than 25 pounds.  More work interruptions but the result will be 20/20 vision.

In our circle of friends and family, we have had two losses – the husband of a co-worker – he’d survived 10 years after his triple organ transplant, and my sister’s father-in-law – an MDS patient.  We send prayers of love and comfort for their families. 

Joys:  Our granddaughters stayed with us for a week while their parents traveled to Germany.  We danced at Niece Becky’s wedding.  Out-of-town friends visited.  We took our first bus trip since chaperoning our kids’ field trips years ago - to Storm King Art Center in the Hudson Valley, NY.  A Facebook memory popped up this week reminding us that three years ago we met Nicole and her husband at a Gift of Life fundraising walk.  Thinking about these joys reminds me of what Jeff told Nicole at that first meeting, that in all those moments – big and small – we are thankful for her generosity.