Pay No Attention to the Person Behind the Curtain
Had an appointment with Dr. Mudumbai a week ago. He said it looked better, but the deposits on my retina which is messing with my vision are clearing away slower than he would have liked. Regardless, it’s a slow process, he said, and if it didn’t look better in two months I’d get some drops to help hasten the process.
My back incision is also healing up nicely after twice a week visits to Group Health.
Spring quarter starts later today. Still taking antibiotics. Nothing else really worth talking about.
Remember that ubiquitous lanyard that I always have on me which is attached to the ID holder and keys? That lanyard that is never washed or cleaned and I always twirl through my fingers, chew on, and play with? That lanyard which I dangled for Reno to play with and gnaw on?
Yeah, I suspect the lanyard.
Hello Everyone-
(Note: This is longer than I initially intended. If you don’t want to
read the whole thing, it basically says that the eye issue was caused
by an infection, and it isn’t sarcoid. And also that I’m still alive.)
In case you didn’t already know, the surgery went well
and I’m healing up nicely after a two-day stay at the hospital. I
finished finals on Wednesday, and it looks like I’ll survive this
quarter despite basically missing 20% of it at the end. Right now I’m
at about 70% or so of “normal,” as far as I can guess.
Dr. Mudumbai just called. Seems I tested positive for Bartonella henselae, also known as “Cat Scratch Disease,” and that this is most likely the cause of my eye inflammation, which is not an infiltrative cause, but infectious. I’m off the steroids, and I’m going to an already scheduled appointment this Thursday with him to see what to do next.
I guess this shows us for picking up a stray kitten.
(10:33:09 PM) nikky.southerland@gmail.com/Home7EF30603: Eddy.
(10:33:26 PM) nikky.southerland@gmail.com/Home7EF30603: The new arrangement is just what I’ve been picturing forever.
(10:33:31 PM) Eddy Adams: Hey
(10:33:39 PM) nikky.southerland@gmail.com/Home7EF30603: And I’m also going insane with these steroids.
(10:33:57 PM) nikky.southerland@gmail.com/Home7EF30603: So if something is abnormal when you return, don’t panic.
(10:34:10 PM) nikky.southerland@gmail.com/Home7EF30603: I probably had what I felt was a very good idea at the time.
These steroids? They don’t mess around. I’m eating aroud 4000 calories a day, having cravings like I’m pregnant, and totally mentally twitchy and loopy. It’s like I’m back in 8th grade and on twinkies, and my mind is mentally melting into some weird state of total craziness.
And tomorrow I have an x-ray, a final, a makeup oral exam, another final, and then an appointment. Exciting.
Eyesight is still about the same, maybe slightly better… still don’t know what the cause is.
Finally after some more tests to make sure I don’t have any hidden infections in my lung that would complicate steroid treatments, I began a three day 1000mg/day infusion of anti-inflammatory steroids on Thursday. Those will finish Saturday morning, and after that I’ll be taking some oral steroids for the next 6 days in order to gradually wean myself off of them. Hopefully we’ll see some progress on the eye inflammation, Dr. Mudumbai said it was getting better after the first treatment yesterday, but it was too early to tell if that was natural processes or because of the steroids just a few hours earlier. My eyesight is getting slightly better too.
They still aren’t sure if it’s sarcoid, and one possible suspect the doctors are checking into is “cat scratch disease,” if you can believe that.
If you haven’t seen it yet, I have a different page set up with all of the doctors, tests, and procedures that I’ve had so far, check it out, if you want.
I was discharged from UWMC at around 2:00pm Sunday. And now I’m at my apartment in Seattle with my family, who are staying until Monday or maybe Tuesday.
I’m still pretty sore, but I feel much better than I have the past few days.
Later today we’ll be scheduling follow up appointments with the doctors who ordered the biospy and then we should hopefully have some results and a course of action to take.
