ismenin | (no subject)

Grandson 2 and me Christmas. I look a fright, but he looks gorgeous!

I don't usually talk here about health issue, mainly because I have so many, and they aren't of interest, except to close friends, but I thought I'd share this. You might be interested. If not, well, there's plenty to look at on lj. :D

'In my thirty (twenty, forty etc) years as a specialist in this field, I have never...' (seen anything like it, come across this, not been able to, etc, etc).

If I had a pound for all the times this had been said to me over the last forty-odd years, I'd have enough to...buy this week's lottery tickets.
It was said to me by three doctors and two technicians only yesterday.

It's always happening to me. Thirty two years ago I spent four months in hospital whilst they tried to find out what was causing all the weakness and pain I was getting. They could see the things that were wrong with my blood, etc - but a diagnosis? 'We don't know'.

This happened so regularly during the following years, I got used to it. 'Yes, we can see you have X, Y or Z, but why? We don't know.'

Fast forward to September 08, when I was in hospital for a month with a very painful condition - water around my lung. A pleural effusion, it's called. The consultant came to tell me it might be caused by cancer, TB or nothing at all - just arising from nowhere, with no indication why.

'It'll be nothing at all, trust me,' I said, as I looked at him wryly. He stared back, confused. He is a nice man. 'Trust me!' I said.

It turned out to be nothing at all they could see.

Yesterday I went to hospital for something called a 'fundal fluorescein angiogram' for which they inject yucky brown dye into a vein, and take pictures of the eyes to see why one has fluid on the macula. (The macula is the part of the retina responsible for sharp vision due to its high density of cone photoreceptors). The sight in my left eye had deteriorated. I thought it was the cataract. It wasn't.

Could they find a vein? Like heck they could! A vein was eventually found,(after six goes and a lot of plasters) and the dye injected, I sat with my chin on a shelf whilst some preliminary pictures were taken whilst the doctor waited for the dye to course through my system into the eyes. (Usually 30 seconds).

We waited, and waited. He took pictures. No fluorescence could be seen. Not a drop. My arm was extremely painful where the dye went in, and they thought it had gone into the tissues, not the vein.

They sent for the specialist who heads the department to see if they should inject some more.

I went to the loo and reported that my urine had - as was expected if the dye had gone where it should - turned bright fluorescent yellow. Everyone look flabbergasted.

Under the fluorescrope the skin on my face could be seen to be slightly yellow. The dye had got through.

The doctors went into a huddle across the room. Like a lot of partially deaf folk I can often hear more than is good for me.

Specialist #1: 'How can she see at all if the blood isn't getting through to the eyes?'
Specialist #2: 'I don't know.'

Story of my life.

Have to go back to see third specialist on 25 Jan. My arm is still aching like mad, bits of me went yellow, as expected, and faded. the pee is still yellow.

And I can still see.

Current Mood: weary but content

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anjelmati.livejournal.com

This sounds something like Age-Related Macular Degeneration,where blood vessels in the macula leak,and cause loss of vision and/or odd optical effects.My husband has just started treatment for this:it can't be cured,but the medical people are hoping to stop its progress.
I do hope this does turn out to be the "nothing at all" you usually have.

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