Visit to the Ophthalmologist

Day Three, Monday morning I called my Ophthalmologist, the head of the department, first thing to see if I could get in to see him,  he set me up with a 2PM appointment with the Fellow working with him this semester who met me and took me right in to have a look.  He was very thorough, did the vision and pressure test’s himself and then dilated my right eye even further and then walked with me next door to the Lions of Illinois Eye Research Institute, to see the head of the Retina department. She met me in the hallway and as we were talking my doctor came over and checked on me and they discussed what was suspected.

She requested another vision test, different type than before; photos of the eyes, then a dye inserted into the arm and more photos, and then she met with me, her Fellow and three students of the university, in the Westchester Lions room.  First she determined that I had “Eyelash Dandruff” which broke me up, told me she could prescribe something but told me a remedy to try first.   After she looked, and the rest of them all took a peek at my eye, she told me I had Wet type Macular degeneration (CNVM) and a blood vessel has broke on my retina and her goal was to get me back as close to normal as possible.  Then she described the course of treatment which is essentially injections into the eye of a chemical to shrink and stop the bleeding.  By then, she and the rest of the doctors in the room knew I was a member of the Lions and had actually worked to collect the funds to build the building we were in.

We talked a bit about her research, she holds the Lions Endowed Chair; and she was excited about some of the work she was doing.  She then mentioned that I was an ideal candidate to take part in a new trial she was about to conduct and explained what it entailed.  She mentioned the risks, the goals and the benefits to others if the concept proved successful.   I agreed to the concept and went home with another appointment for the next day where I would get an injection in the eye help my problem.