Monday’s Shingle-y update…

October 13, 2009 at 1:18 am (Brain Shingles, Doctors, F&#*%@ing, Health, Hypertension, Medicine, Ontario, Scary, Shingles)

I went to the hospital today because my vision in my right eye is blurry and I have what appear to be new spots and some swelling around my eye…

The doctor, the same one as last week,  (who, by the way, was the doctor who say me, here in Ontario, after last year’s Elk attack) said that it appears I have an abrasion on my retina cornea, either from rubbing or from the eyelid sores rubbing but I have to go to the Eye Clinic tomorrow* to make sure.

Apparently, when the eye is involved, to the extent that mine was, the “remote” likelihood of the Herpes virus infecting the eye is less “remote” and when it infects the eye, it can get into the brain…. Brain Shingles, as goofy as it sounds is pretty serious. AND, as you may know, reading up on these things often gives you more information than you want to know… Like, people who get Shingles which invade the eye are at a higher percentage than normal (as much as 30%!) in having a stroke within a short time of their attack.

Having said all that, the doctor is pretty confident that it hasn’t gotten in there but with the corneal abrasion, he wants to make extra sure, especially as my vision in the right eye has become “significantly” blurred since just last week. Then, I was able to read clearly all but the bottom line of the chart, and even some of that. This week, I could read down to line four and that would go in and out…. He thinks it is just from the abrasion.

He drew me a diagram of what the Herpes virus on your eye looks like (see below – with dye and refraction). He says mine just looks like an abrasion but that it it’s best to get it checked out.

Occular Herpes (ARGOS Consultorios de Salud)

On the whole, he says that I am “clearing up nicely”, in fact and that the spots are “post-Herpetic”. After yesterday when I was having a lot of pain and took a number of the pain meds, (rendering me “pretty loopy” today, the headaches seem much reduced, though painful. And I can’t tell if the hot-flashes are to do with Shingles or being 53…. I have taken “dr. az’s” advice and decided to give myself a break from Scramble on Facebook because I was worried about my “brain fog”.

And my blood pressure was great, or at least the bottom number, which is the one that matters (160/94).

The really GOOD thing out of this is that, last week, when I was at the pharmacy, I overheard the clerks talking about “doctors taking patients!!!!!”!!!!). There is a new clinic around the corner from the pharmacy and I toddled right in an made an appointment for a “meet and greet” with the doctor.

Hopefully, this will be the start of a beautiful friendship and I can stop waiting 3 hours for an “appointment” which isn’t an “appointment” but the Appletree Clinic version of a cattle-call. MY last doctor left the previous clinic without warning to join the Ottawa U Medical faculty and the clinic in question didn’t seem interested in finding me someone else to see. My theory about doctors is that you know what kind of service you are going to get from the receptionists and the previous clinic was, for the most part, cold and disinterested.

The welcome at the new place was friendly, considering they were confronted with a person with swollen eyes and a horrific rash. We’ll see how things progress. It has been almost 10 years since my lovely family doctor, Dr. Power, retired, leaving me high and dry (they were unable to find new doctors for a good number of the patients, including me).

I will miss Dr. M from Appletree because he is matter-of-fact and we got along but I need to feel confident in the over-all care and I just don’t feel that with Appletree.

*Tomorrow, I also have to take Mom in to The Heart Institute to get fitted with a blood-pressure monitor that she will have to wear – and have $100 to pay for it. Wednesday, she has to see her cardiologist, hopefully about the results of the “event monitor” she had on for two weeks AND I have to arrange to have the second part of her root canal done. Life is full….