Purple, Hellas, whoever... I'm back to square one again!
After seeing better in my left eye for two days, and even the blepharitis being so much better, I got up this a.m. with the blurring returned, the eye feeling like a boiled egg, crusted over deluxe, and goop in it! I've decided that this must be chronic and for a lifetime. I'm tired of coming on here and griping about it. It does no good. Besides there aren't words adequate to describe the feelings of hopelessness and despair I'm feeling today. Kind of ironic it hit me on Sunday, the Lord's Day! I won't give up praying about it all, but it sure is uphill by now.

Oh, Elyse, please pass along my sincere thanks to your Dr. for taking time to evaluate and write that e-mail regarding my problem. Not many would do that. I'd give my EYE teeth if I could SEE him!!

I'm tired of coming on here and griping about it. It does no good. Besides there aren't words adequate to describe the feelings of hopelessness and despair I'm feeling today.

I am feeling the same despair and hopelessness today. But I guess we have to realize that with whatever disease we may have, there are going to be some days that are better than others. I learned a long time ago to be greatful for the good days, however few and far between they may be. Don't feel bad about comnig on here and griping. It's the one place that you can go where we know what you are going through. We all need to have that. I wish there was a live support group for dry eye sufferers, people with vision problems, etc....My live MS group helps me immensely. Although today I had a real breakdown and was sobbing like a baby! Once in a while we all just need to gripe and vent and have a good cry.

I will definitely pass along your thanks to my doctor. And believe me, he's gonig to ask me about you again. I have already thanked him a hundred times myself, but I will be sure to tell him again. I knew that once he actually had the time to sit down and read my email, he would right a response. That's just the kind of guy that he is. I wish everyone in the world could come and see him. But then, I'd never get in the door, now would I?

Hi there Tony,
Sorry you're having such a hard time of it. Having a couple of good days, and then back again. Wish I had some answers for you. And of course it does good to come on here and gripe about it! I used to keep a diary and would gripe about everything in there. Just writing it down helped me. Better than holding it all in! And sometimes by writing it down, I even came up with answers. And just bouncing your cares off of us (people on the boards) may result in answers. So, you just keep on griping!!! We'll listen and give you all the support we can, even if it's just a shoulder to cry on.
You hang in there Texas...and I wish you many, many, MANY goopless days
to come.

Howdy, Sis Purple & Sis Hellas! Ya'll done been ay-dopted!:D Me and Barb were both "only-kids", and I decided to adopt you guys!

Thinking of your Dr. Elyse, makes me think of the old saying, "Build a better mousetrap..." The world would beat a path to his door if they knew all he can do to help this stuff! As I said on the other thread, I'm so sorry you've had a bad day, Sis Elyse. You got hugs coming at ya', and I'm sure our Sis Hellas has some for ya' too!;)

Thanks to you guys for being here for me to complain to, about my "what used to be-eyes"! Well, really, my rt. eye is much better. The blurring is what puzzles me more-- dry eye, cataract, brain, or all of the above!?

That's good on keeping the diary, Hellas. I'd wear my eyes out staying in it all day!:D So much going haywire.

Well, I'll try to see ya'll later. I have hesitated on starting the dry eye drops (can't remember the name) I guess for fear it might clash with something like this dye they want to fill me with, on that MRI "if" I decide to re-slate it.

Well, enough hot wind from me--I'm full of it!:D
Love ya'll,
Bro. "Magoo" Tony

Well hi there extended family! I'm feeling a little better now, emotionally anyway! My eyes are VERY dry and goopy today. I just wish that ONE of my health problems would go away. Well, at least my tonsils will be coming out soon enough. Then I'm just back to battling the MS and the eye problems.

Hey Tony, Purple,
Just a quick one (gotta get ready for work)...Sure wish I could just give you both a great big hug. Sorry you two are going through so much. I wish you both a better day today, and an even better one tomorrow and the days to come. I'll check back later to see how you both are doing.
Have a peaceful, healthy day.
H.

Hello, Sis Elyse! Well, I'm back to normal now--blurred left eye vision, depressed, "Whoopiee!" NOT! I'm happy, though that you feel better. Hugs to ya'! God is with you on all of this, though I know many times, it feels like He's not.

I see the opthal shortly, and I'm loaded for bear! I'm fed up as many of my posts say. I had my usual two days of good vision for the month and a half period, now ready to be half blind until another month or so has passed, in the left eye. It some of this isn't neurological, I'll eat my straw hat! Astigmatism and focus don't just change overnight for no reason. Something is doing it.

Well, I got to go. I'm glad I cheer you up, as you said on the other thread. I'm doing my bestest!:D Oh yeah, I'll be glad when you're rid of them problematic tonsils too. Lots of stuff may get better then! It did for me when they had mine out at age 10.

Hugs,
Tony Rogers
Abilene

Well, here are the results of my visit with my main opthal this a.m. If you share this with your Dr., that would be fine.

He has put me on a month's course of Doxycycline to try to clear up the stubborn stye and blepharitis. He insists that these are what is causing the blurring. I just hope I can take the stuff that long! The last time I took it for a sinus infection, I had to bail out on it. It began to affect my anxiety, which in turn, hit my stomach. I've taken it for years for different infections, and did well with it. I'll be taking it twice a day, the 100mg. size.

I did mention about some have agreed with me that this could be neurological, causing the changes etc., and that my main Dr. wanted an MRI to rule out anything bad. Would you believe he had NO COMMENT!? He is a very nice Dr., but not commenting on what I told him plus being headstrong in his beliefs that this is all from the bleph. and stye, makes me wonder about him and leave with feelings of...(??)

He said, however, that the course of Doxy is a way of avoiding a more invasive method of surgically draining the stye or injecting medication into the lid which would be quite painful. He is trying to save me some suffering and pain there.

That is what happened, Sis Elyse. I wish I knew better news. He really feels my vision will clear up once the Doxy kicks in. Well, the reason I have doubts there is, I was full of antibiotics during my winter illnesses, flu and whatever else, and could tell little difference, other than I guess my eye was some better then. So, we will see. I also reminded him of the time he met me down at the office on July 4, two years ago when the left eye made that first sudden change. He just stared!! I mean, I don't think I even had blepharitis then!

What do I do, Sis? I'm at a bit of a loss as I've been the whole lousy time. Again, what I wouldn't give to see your doctor! He told me, in encouraging tones as he left the room to hang in there, not give up.

Oh, also, even being off Xalatan for two weeks, my pressures are still good at 20 each. He didn't want me on a glaucoma med due to those being irritating to the eye.

He's not a bad doc at all, just wish he would make comments on what I said.

My doctor is great. He's always very encouraging, and he really, really listens to what I have to say. I mean, come on, how many doctors would give out their email address (and cell phone number!) to me, to use whenever I have a problem?

My eyes are feeling pretty crappy today. I think it's from all the crying I have been doing about this MS attack. I've washed out all of my "good" tears!

I'm going through hell right now. Not so much with my eyes, but with my MS. I am being very careful to watch for signs of optic neuritis, because I am having an MS attack. I saw the neuro doc yesterday and he wants to put me on a 3 day course of IV solu-medrol (steroids). Fine. Lets do it. So, the nurse in his office tried to access my port (that they put in surgically because my veins are so terrible that nobody can get to them to start an IV!0 and for the first time ever, she couldn't access the port. So, now I am waiting for a homecare nurse to arrive. Sometimes they have more experience with ports and they always get mine. If this nurse can't do it, I'll have to go see the surgeon and see what is wrong with the port. I am hoping and praying that this nurse is better than the others! I am walking around with one side of my body going numb until they can get these steroids into me!

Hello all.
I don't know what is going on, but I think some of the posts are getting mixed up. I just know I said hello to you, Hellas, but I can't find it!

Reading your post, Purple, I know you have far more problems than I could ever have. It is for this reason, I will back off and not post anymore for a while. There are more people in the world with more problems than I could ever imagine. I don't want to depress anyone any more than they are with my trivial "problems".

I will be praying for you, Elyse.

I just wanted to check back in briefly to say you are in our thoughts and prayers, Sis Elyse.

Hugs,

Tony & Barb

Tony, Elyse, if you should check back in...
Just want you to know I worry 'bout you two, and hoping you're
doing OK. Checked in tonight and found your note about wanted to back off for awhile.
I keep you both in my prayers, and just want to say that no problem is too small or too big for the Man upstairs. Everyone & everything is equal.
God Bless, guys...
Hellas (aka Faith)

Hello, Hellas (Faith)! I was about to sign off and glad I checked the board once more.
I'm still here, just tired of the eye problem. Thanks for those prayers, Faith--great name for you! That's something I need more of...faith.

Have a great and blessed evening.
God Bless,
Hugs,
Tony & Barb

awww, thanks so much.

I haven't been around much ebcause I am getting the solu-medrol treatment for my MS (yes, they were finally able to get here and hook me up!) and it can have some pretty nasty side-effects. It makes me extremely hungry (not always a bad thing though!) and I have been getting really, really, really, really, really hyper! I told my mom that if it happens to me again after tonight's treatment, she has my permission to slap me and then hold my nose and shove a xanax down my throat! Also, my body has been deciding that it wants to wake up at 4:00am every morning, so I have been taking Ambien to sleep.

Now the latest (and I bet you can identify with em here Tony) is that this morning IO was driving to work and started to notice that every car had two undecipherable license plates, and then every car had one exactly like it right next to it!) I was having double vision and it was blurry too! I immediately pulled off the road and called work and told them I would not be in, and then called home and told my parents they better come and get me. I am leaving for the ophthalmologist in 10 minutes. It could just be a side effect from ther solu-medrol, or it could be a case of optic neuritis, in which case I would need to be on the steroids for much longer than 3 days. Some things that I look at have shadows and halos around them. I am very nervous about what he's gonig to tell me. If I didn't have such wonderful doctors (both neurologosist and ophthalmologist) I would be pulling my hair out of my head!

I am praying for all of you too. Faith, we worry about you too. We've got a really good support system here.

Will let you know what the results are when I return. (gonna see if I can get mom to take me to Dunkin Donuts for an iced latte before the eye doctor! It sucks, having to give up my independence, even for a little while. Thank God I can sill see to type on this board.)

Well, mornin', sweet sis! Sure good to see ya' on. I'm glad they got the helper wired up to you now. Sounds like it really wires you for 220!

That was horrible about the double vision! Was it in both eyes or just one? My double, and it is bad again this a.m., as usual, is in the left eye-only. I don't know if mine is actually double or just so distorted it only appears that way. I may look optic neuritis up on "Gargle".;) I can't take steroids--tear my gut up. In fact, I had to bail out on the Doxycyclene! It keyed up my anxiety, and my stomach. I took four, but that was all I could go, and years ago, I could take them for anything!

We are anxious to see what the opthal says, Sis. Thanks for those prayers. You & Sis Faith are my inspiration to keep on keepin' on! Barb read your post too, Sis, and she said "Bless her heart!" So you know you got two in this household praying for ya'.
((((Elyse)))) to ya', and we'll see you (me with one good eye) later.

Elyse, I found a web site of a Dr. Mo Fouladvand, M.D. He's a neuro opthalmologist in NY. Ever hear of him?

My eye feels so much better today due to a cool snap and rain moving in to replace the very irritating hot and dry weather we've been having, but is my vision better in the left eye? NO!! Not one iota! If that is the eyelid, it stands to reason it should be better. I still say it ain't just the eyelid, but either the small cataract or something neurological.

Later~

I have never heard of him. The one that my doctor sends all of his patients to is Dr. Kupersmith.

Well, the saga continues here! I told you that on the way to work this morning I was driving on the expressway and started to see double out of my left eye. I pulled off the road and parked, and called work and told them I wouldn't be in. Then I called my parents and told them they better come get me. My mom drove me home in my car and my dad took their car. I called the ophthalmologist who told me to come in immediately. He did every test in the book on me. My vision in my left eye is much worse than my right. The double vision is gone, but it is still very blurry. Very unusual for me. So he did vision exams and visual field tests and made me look at the color book, and did tests up the wazoo! The visual field test showed no optic neuritis, but he said that there really would be nothing else that would cause the severe blurring that I am having. It might be the very beginnings of optic neuritis. He told me to call my neurologist, since I am already on IV steroids (solu-medrol) and that maybe they would want to give me more than just 3 days. I left a message, but haven't spoken to them yet. However, the visiting nurse service called to say that they received orders from my neurologist to come for two more days and administer two extra doses of steroids, so I will have to call them tomorrow and find out what's up with that. It would have been nice of them to call me and tell me this! And they're finally gfoing to send me an IV pole! I've been hanging the bag from a plant hook on my ceiling!

In addition, the nurse came today to administer the steroids, and before she went to put the steroids into me, she wanted to flush out the port-a-cath with normal saline. But it would not go in. It kept leaking out all over the place, which is NOT normal. So we called the surgeon who put it in, and he said to get over to the hospital and let an interventional radiologist scan it and look at it under fluroscopy (a guided x-ray) to see what is wrong. My mom is very friendly with the people in radiology there, having worked there for 12 years! So they got me an immediate appointment. It turns out I had a blood clot in the catheter inside of my port! AAAAARRRGGGHHHH!!! They had to inject a medication called TPA to bust up the clot. I had to wait an hour and they flushed the catheter and it is OK now. So the nurse is coming back tonight to give me the steroids!!!

I have taken off the rest of the week from work because it is too dangerous for me to drive! Plus, I need to rest from the steroids! I am taking Xanax, because they are making me hyper as can be! I am literally bouncing off the walls! I typed this entire message in less than 5 minutes, and I haven't shut up! My mom wants to slap me! LOL!

Thanks for being my support system you guys! Brother Tony, please say hello to sister Barb and thank her for me too. :)

Well, I finally got my rt. eye put out. It was smoking from the flames!:D Somebody, ah say somebody call th' 'fahr' house, son! Thought I'd do my Loony Tunes rooster voice for ya'!:D

I do hope that eye can be corrected for you, and not like mine! Watching TV for me anymore, is just almost a chore. It's not enjoyable.

Your Sis Barb came in here, and read your note of myriad problems. She sends her love. I wish you two could meet. You'd never meet a more compassionate and loving gal as my Barb! Well, you are too, but Barb is that way herself. How she's put up with me and my complaining and whining is beyond me! Well, God brought us together, so He again, knew what He was doing!;) She's got me spoiled rotten!

Well, I'll scat again--wasn't done when my rt. eye ignited!:D

See ya' later, Sis Elyse--
Hugs, Love,
Bro. Tony & Sis Barb