A DAY straight out of HELL

Ha !!! Robert and I just lived through a day from hell. It could take us a week to recuperate. 

I have to go for eye tests every fall because of one of the bad drugs I am on. it can build up in the layers of your retina a cause blindness...so every day I have to stare at this grid they have provided me for use at home and chart any changes in my vision...ie: blurriness, warping, blind spots etc... and I actually rarely remember to do this...and the test I am made to do yearly are a pain in the ass but so is  going blind so I keep going... even if I were to stop taking this medication today I would have to go for these tests for the next five years, that is how long the drug stays in your body.  Yikes !!!!!

So they, the masters of the retinal universe, have changed my appointment date three times throughout the year, so often in fact, that I nearly forgot to go...originally I had the appointment to take into consideration that we live two hours out of the city and have to travel and eat...so it was made for the afternoon...the five tests they do have taken up to four hours...the tests themselves don't take that long but the waits in between are mind boggling. But I digress....  with the changing appointment dates the time issue was lost along the wayside and when I finally got an official letter about the final appointment date...it was for Sept 1 at 10 am... which means for us to drive two hours and have possible traffic delays (ask Sue about the Edmonton traffic delays hahahaha) and to be able to have breakfast, shower, do my hair etc....we had to be up on or before 6 am.... Now for most people this wouldn't be a problem but I have trouble sleeping, aches and pains and Robert's snoring are bad enough but add to that a hundred calves bellowing outside for their mommies all night and needless to say I was a sorry sight come 6 am....I had about 5 hours of decent sleep...by 10 am I needed a Nap... big time....

We hit grid lock on the out skirts of the city, thank you Anthony Henday Drive....it will be great when it is finished but in the meantime...what a shamozzle.

then when we arrived at the building the small inadequate parking lot is completely fenced off for resurfacing and we had to park three blocks away and walk back...Robert practically ran and dragged me along with him...I was having bad allergy issues after working the cattle over three days in a row and my eyes were all swollen and itchy and watery and my sinuses were blocked...I had a gravelly, growly voice and felt like crap...(Allergic to my way of making a living...hahahaha how ironic)  When we got to the building on foot this time we had to go three quarters of the way around to find an alternative door way, we entered through some mini-pharmacy and wove our way back to the corner where the stairs were...up the stairs and we were there...all that hurrying only to wait for an hour before being taken in....grrrrrrrr by this time my ankle issues were showing themselves and it was throbbing like crazy... and I was limping quite markedly.. the first test was the field test...put a pirates eye patch on stair into this white cone with your chin and forehead touching the machine, don't move and try to keep blinking to a minimum...hah... that just makes me blink more.... they give you a clicker and you are to stare straight ahead and click the clicker when ever you see a blinking light appear...but don't look around, just stare at the light in the centre of the cone... it takes about 15 minutes per eye...then they get you to read an eye chart , then put the drops in your eyes  to dilate your pupils and another drop to numb the eye ball so that they can push at it with a pressure gauge to check for glaucoma..they take you to a different waiting room and tell you to sit...you can't read cause your eyes are all blurry now...so you sit there blinking and staring at the other people like an owl....after about 30 minutes my name was called and I was taken down another hall way to a small room where they took pictures of my eye ball...another machine in which you stare into the lens, with your chin and forehead on the machine, don't blink and stare at a green light then she flashes a bright light and blinds you...when your eye finally focuses again everything is awash in a deep purple light. then they do the same to the other eye...back in the waiting room... and its about 11:30 by now...there are 33 other people in the chairs around me. I waited there for 10 minutes and she called me again and took me to another room with a colour photo machine which takes pictures of the retina...and then puts them into 3D on the computer screen...that test took about 20 minutes she then took me back to the waiting room again and said to wait for them to call my name... I waited and waited...noon hour came and went...Poor Robert is waiting in the original waiting room with nothing to eat...I had my bag and at least had a granola bar...by this time I was fingering the glucose tablets Sue gave me for low blood sugar and was on the verge of using them...I didn't have my monitor but hadn't eaten since 6:30 am and my hands and knees were getting shaky...never a good sign for me... I took Robert his granola bar, I had eaten mine at 11:30. when they finally called my name I was taken to a different room and told to wait for Dr. Greve...surprisingly I waited only about 10 minutes and in he came...he examined my eyes through the big optometrists machine wrote a few things in my file and that was it, he walked out...I saw him for less than 5 minutes...I rushed out of there and grabbed Robert, I practically ran the three blocks to the truck because I was worried I would pass out...I took a couple of tablets...and Robert took us to Timmies... for chili and a bun.

This is the first time I have had these tests done at the doctors office...usually I had to go to the Royal Alex eye clinic in the hospital and there is a cafeteria and gift shop to buy snacks in...so now I know that next year I am packing a bloody lunch...sandwich and fruit...and that Robert is coming with me to the other waiting room...so he can eat too.  All in all we got there at 9:45 am and were back at the truck at 2:30 pm....this doctor's appointments are always like that though...we always figure three to four hours... but this is the first time I have had one since I became diabetic and was taking meds for it.  It certainly makes the long waits more interesting.... and this is year four...

We were both so tired after that that we really didn't want to do any shopping.  We had to go to costco to fill Roberts prescription, Walmart so Robert could get filters and oil and then we had Chinese food  and went home earlier than normal for us.  We fell into bed and I didn't wake up until 8 am...this morning, Robert was up and outside a bit earlier than me.

Oh ya...Thursday (yesterday) we woke up to frost...0* it was here...some of the garden stuff got touched...but not badly...  it is cool and windy here today with  the odd cloud burst of rain... a good for staying inside and catching up on some inside stuff.