Friday, August 7, 2009

Eyeball Mining

All afternoon yesterday, my right eye was bothering me. Not sure what was caught in it but by midnight it was driving me crazy. Even when it was closed - it throbbed. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well last night.

When I got up this morning, it didn't feel quite as bad but my eyelid was swollen and the ol' ball was very sensitive to light. First order of business was to find an optometrist - I take my eyesight very seriously. Both offices in Alpine were closed today (of course). I struck gold with an office in Ft. Stockton that could take me at 3:30. Left the Field Lab at 12:30 and made the 2 1/2 hour trip north. Arrived at the office a little early so I had a chance to catch up on 2 issues of People Magazine - it made my eye throb more.

Got ushered into a room by an "eye tech" and she took down all my info, tested my vision, did a glaucoma test, and took photos inside my eyes through the pupils and shot microscopic cellular level photos of my eyes (I have good cells).

Shifted to another room and Dr.Urias came in to give me the once over. I showed him the photo I took of my eyeball with the little offending brown spot left of my pupil. Stuck my face into his eyeball microscope and he took a close look. Then he gave me some numbing eye drops. He then folded back my eyelid and swabbed the eye and the lid with an official Qtip. The real fun started when he actually dug out a hunk of something using the tip of a tini hypodermic needle. Photo shot from his computer screen of the magnified needle with the little blob of stuff he removed. Didn't even feel any pressure much less any pain. Next up was Dr. Pass to do the final pass. Another drop of numbing fluid and he actually took a little Dremmel tool like thing and extracted the final offending bits. Again - no pressure, no pain. The beauty is that my new health insurance just kicked in after the mandatory one year wait for a pre-existing condition so 2 hours of professional eyeball mining only cost me $30. Hopefully all is well now but have to wait a couple of days to be sure - with antibiotic eye drops to pop in there every 4 hours. Aches a little tonight but its a healing pain as opposed to a damaging pain......I think.

Stopped my the hardware store on the way home and bought a new pair of safety goggles.

21 comments:

ShiningDawn said...

Blessings of Clear Vision to you!

Be Well...

Hakima

Nicole "Nikki" Mason said...

Please take care of yourself!

Bob O said...

Glad you got this taken care of, and glad your new health care insurance kicked in. You always look the picture of health to me in your photos and videos, so I was a bit suprised to read about this--but I guess this goes down as an industrial injury, rather than an illness! Wear the googles!

BTW, excellent photo coverage.

RikDeere said...

Wow, not a fun day. It sort of reminds me of the time I left my hard contacts in too long. Those eyeball numbing drops took the fire out of my eyes immediately.

Hope you get better soon!

rj said...

Bob O... google the goggles...

MsBelinda said...

You are fortunate your health insurance had just kicked in. Many times people that wear glasses such as myself feel we are protected but we really need to wear safety glasses on top of our regular glasses.

Glad you are feeling better. Hope you take this weekend off and let your eye heal.

TexasMan said...

Just think how great your insurance coverage will be if/when Obamacare kicks in.

Keep your current insurance until they take it away from you screaming and kicking!

Glad you stopped at hardware store for safety goggles. Now just remember to wear them.

Love the pictures.

iDoc said...

It was surely a pleasure meeting you today. Thanks for the mention in your blog. To be honest, your pictures were more impressive than any of the pictures we took of your eye today. Take care and let me know if we can be of any help to you in the future.

Dr. Urias

Anonymous said...

Do you think it was cutting the rebar? I have had a metal shaving in the eye before, very painful!

Allen Hare said...

What a great story. I guess we all take our good eyesight for granted. I've had a couple of episodes similar to this, and I can tell you, it's no fun. Very glad you're on the mend. This also goes to show how far away from quick and easy medical care Terlingua residents are. If you were to get really hurt out there all alone, it could be ugly.
Wishing you good health, and good fortune in all your endeavors.

Rusty said...

John, had the same thing happen years ago....The Doc told me not to blink as he stuck me in the eye with a low speed drill! Rusty

. . . . . said...

Roger that on the goggles. A speck in the eye becomes a boulder real fast. Glad it worked out okay for you.

Maxcactus said...

Won't it be nice when we get the insurance companies out of the health care formula? When you are facing a major health problem getting approval from a corporate clerk will not be a consideration. Don't you hate seeing those collection cups at the convenience store counters asking for donations because some poor kid has leukemia or something?

linda said...

WEAR THOSE GOGGLES!

Billy Bob said...

Good think'n John. Most people would just let it hurt and hope it would "go away"....I know. Now ya gots another reason to do "nuttin" for a few days.
By the way, I installed my new reflectors on my solar oven and ordered two solar panels (Sun 130 watt).

lynette355 said...

thank goodness your not one of those stubborn people who feel it will work out on its own.
i am glad you got right on it and took care of your eye.

Ben in Texas said...

Good deal on finding a DOC that could take you AND getting you all straighten out on such short notice. WAY back when I got a piece of aluminum stuck in my eyeball and after they deaden it ( which hurt worst than the splinter) he used an eyedropper sort of thing so suck it out, sure felt better.. Now I don't cut anything without the glasses, but you know better don't you ?

Darin said...

Here's to a speedy recovery. Definitely want to keep on those safety glasses while working on your trusses!

Nice choice on the Canon G9. I also own one and it's already made trips to Big Bend and Grand Canyon. About as good as it gets with a point & shoot camera.

BigBuc said...

Just reading about it makes me cringe... I'd have been screaming like a girl when he was digging in my eye...
I used to be a IT geek, and where I worked there were welders in one of our shops nearby... they'd have to get shrapnel dug out of their eyes periodically too... hazards of the occupation kinda thing...
I'm going to try to teach myself to weld before long too.

denziel56 said...

jw

a picture is worth a 1000 words. and i see you got one too , or three for yourself .(lol)

glad they got the little piece of ~#*:`# !

hope all things are well .

we made it in @ 7:00 pm , time for some refrigerant !

cheers !

.bb

caroline said...

Get an eyecup and boric acid solution.

Save yourself 30 bucks.

nice eye.