Curious Carly's Foot Goes To The Eye Doctor

"You can't depend on your eyes, when your imagination is out of focus."

-Mark Twain

Ok, so I had to go to the optometrist's office the other day, because I have been having a lot of headaches and some blurred vision. Going to the eye doctor is no big deal for most folks, for me...blech! I am not crazy about strangers playing with my feet or my eyes. I always wonder if I will be the lucky one who gets an appointment, the day my eye doctor goes nuts and decided to put acid in my eyes instead of those funky drops that makes the world look like wide egg noodles for a couple hours after they are administered. Hey don't laugh...I have that kind of luck. Which is why I have avoided going to the eye doctor for as long as possible, until yesterday, when Alan nagged me into going in for a drop-in appointment. I was having one too many headaches. People with Fibromyalgia do experience a lot of headaches, but Alan reminded me that I had taken a lot for granted this whole past year when I thought my symptoms were either all in my head, or Epstein-Barr related. So, off we went on yet another adventure in medicine.

I was seeing a new eye doctor, because my former optician had recently retired. New office, in a new town. I had NO idea what to expect. That's always fun. The fear of the unknown trips me up every time. I can handle knowing the awful truth, I can handle knowing that everything will be fabulously wonderful, but NOT knowing what to expect always gives me the wiggins. And what about these headaches I have been having...I wonder if it is a brain tumor, or maybe worse yet, maybe it is a "brain cloud" like Joe had in the, 1990 Tom Hanks movie, "Joe Verses The Volcano." Now there was a thought! Would I be told I only had 6 months to live? Would I soon be sailing for a south seas island to join the Waponi Woo and then save the island by throwing myself into an active volcano? My goodness, now THAT would make for good blogging now wouldn't it! :)

As it turned out, my appointment turned out to be a whole lot less exotic and exciting then that. I did have some nifty things happen however, like I found out that there is a pretty cool new gadget that digitally scans the retina now, so one doesn't have to tolerate those uncomfortable eye drops. I will be receiving the picture of my eyeball by email in a few days. I was kind of impressed with it, the inside of my eyeball looks like a brilliant green nebula. According to my doctor, I am pretty healthy over all. He was able to tell just by looking into my eyes that my blood pressure was fine and that my cholesterol was at normal levels. I thought that was pretty cool. I had already known those things, but to know that the eye doctor could tell just by looking, was nice to find out. It's good to know that there are more ways to catch potential problems then ever before. So what was causing my eye troubles?

Simple, since the Fibromyalgia has become a problem, my eyes have changed a bit. I was advised to get two pairs of glasses. One pair for working on the computer and one pair to help with my long distance sight, for driving at night. Sometimes I have trouble, especially with the lighting around dusk. The doctor says that maybe in a few years I might consider getting bi-focals, but that is a few years off. So, as appointments go I guess that trip to the doctor's office wasn't so bad, and I got a nifty new picture to share with you in a few days. All in all, not a bad day at all. Thankfully, there seems to be no south seas island in my near future :)

-OndineMonet
"Carly's Foot Goes To The Eye Doctor"
Walnut Creek, California
February 9th, 2006
Afternoon