here is what happens: they call your name vaguely on time, so you're thinking "alright, only 10 minutes late, this isn't bad." and you follow them down a long corridor into a closed room where the nurse chats you up...so how much snow do you think we'll get, yes my left eye feels like someone is stabbing me with a steak knife, no i'm not from this area. a good 5 mins or so of conversation and she pretends to be writing detailed notes in your chart. again, progress. then, she then takes you out of the room and down another long corridor into a second waiting room. but you feel like you're making progress because everyone else is still in the first waiting room- you have a leg up on the competition. so you sit there for awhile, and more and more people join you in what is starting to resemble a holding pen of cattle. finally, a different nurse calls you and leads you back to yet another closed room where she deposits you to wait for the doctor.
well, i have news for you, you devious, calculating doctor's office staff- i can't be fooled! i'm on to your tricks! (good thing there are lots of old people around here b/c they are gullible enough to fall for it- hook line & sinker!) but, in this case, i really don't have any room to complain considering he is seeing me at his own expense. (PAC- which is PA's form of medicaid- doesn't reimburse the practice the whole amount it actually costs for the services. so, the practice doesn't participate at all in the PAC program since it is literally costing them money to see their own patients. it's really political and i honestly don't get all the details. what it boils down to is that he is a really nice doctor who seems genuinely concerned about my eyes and the effect MS has had/will have on them.) but i'm still on to their waiting rooms/exam rooms scam...
the best quote of today's experience was when mom called at 2pm, "how late is the doctor running today? we have a 3:30 appointment." the receptionist answers with "as far as i know he's on time, he's not usually late!" (somewhat indignantly.) i almost fell off the chair laughing when i heard that one. she must be new.
but let's get down to business. there's some good news! my appt today was to review my visual field test that i did in january (aren't those the worst? talk about annoying and monotonous.... sometimes i just want to randomly click the damn thing and take a nap.) see little diagram on the left. the doc compared it to my last visual field at my VA opthal from the spring, and guess what???? my right eye's field of vision shows remarkable improvement! i gained back some of the peripheral vision i had lost (due to MS related flares.) there are still blind spots, but the difference in test results (they graph it in a circle type fashion with dark areas being bad, ie blind spots) was striking. i almost didn't believe what he was saying- we never get good news on test results! (well, it seems that way.) my left eye remains unchanged, the same blind spots i have had ever since the case of optic neuritis years ago. i don't think that one's comin' back. but at least it hasn't worsened, and i'm THRILLED with the improvement of my right eye. so....... you know what this means? that as soon as i can get these tremors and spasms under control, i might be driving Carlisle (my car, for those of you that don't know) around town in the near future! i might even put on a little n'sync, which is his favorite cruisin' music!
remember, you can view these postings directly on kit katchat's bloghttp://meggerv2.blogspot.com/
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