Back to work for me today, but not until I had my appointment with the ophthalmologist that my optometrist referred me to. (Side note: HOLY COW are doctors young these days!) He was good, though. After getting over my shock that Doogie Howser was going to be peering at my eye and making a knowledgeable diagnosis, I felt pretty confident with his capabilities. He even did a minor in-office procedure that he conducted very professionally, and of course he would, since he’s a certified Doctor of Ophthalmology, right? Even if he is a child.
I’ve had this incessant weepy eye (just one) for well over two years now. I have endured it over this time, asked my optometrist about it before (“Could be ‘dry eye,’ which is a misnomer,” he told me), and I’ve taken drops for dry eye to no avail. A couple of weeks ago when I saw the optometrist again, I was emphatic that something had to be done about it. It affects my quality of life—that eye is constantly a puddle of tears, to the point that I can’t see out of it a good portion of the time. And it continuously spills over.
If you’re of a certain age, you might remember a bizarre Saturday Night Live sketch with John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd — it really wasn’t a very good one (in fact, it was rather disturbing) but he and a bunch of others were dressed in Victorian smoking jackets mingling in some Victorian/medieval room, and doddery Dan Ackroyd had this silver cup around his chin to catch his drool. This is how I’ve thought of myself over these past two years as it seems I always have a tissue up to my eye, catching drippings.
It turns out I have an obstructed tear duct. He did this procedure (totally non-painful) of irrigating the duct to see if the fluid routed and drained through my nose/throat as it is supposed to. Eventually it did a little bit, but it took a while and he could see that the fluid mostly backed up the opposite way through the duct, clearly signifying a blockage. What’s weird is that he doesn’t treat such a thing (apparently ophthalmologists typically don’t!) and he has referred me to a plastic surgeon who routinely does this kind of surgery to unblock the tear duct (it’s called Dacrocystorhinostomy, or DCR). Hmm. I’m not sure what it all entails, but what I’ve read online (one must be careful about that, I know), it removes a small bone in the nose and opens up the route for tear drainage.
Hmm.
(Maybe I could have him chip off a bit of the length of the ol’ schnoz while he’s at it?)
~~~~~
John and I are both AMAZED at how well Wylie did throughout our Harstine stay (Christmas afternoon through yesterday). Much like Mojo always has, Wylie exhibited sheer joy being there. No, there were no beach walks (not sure how she’ll go for that…), nor would she (or Mojo) venture inside the house.
They came close, though. They were curious but still scaredy-cats.
But Wylie just about wore out that little open window in the camping trailer (“the cat door”), coming and going. She got to the point where the trailer would rattle when she’d leap through that thing so fast and land/skid so hard, much like Kramer on Seinfeld! She also spent a good amount of time on our laps, laying beside us on the couches, and experimenting with various nap spots. She and Mojo get along OK, and curled up to sleep in the backseat of the truck both to and from Harstine, mostly because they didn’t have much choice. But they do “box” on a regular basis. You see all these white paws grabbing at the air, and it’s pretty funny. No hissing or spitting or yowling, though.
