"I see" said the blind man

Today was my followup appointment at the opthamologist. I have been going quite frequently since the corneal abrasion on 9.23.06, so this is just one visit of many!

This time I went armed with my list of concerns and issues.

Q. I am on Prednisone drops for the eyes. Is this going to cause vision issues??
A. Not in drop form, but in ointment form, yes it could.

Q. Your nurses continue to tell me that my vision with the glasses is still 20/20 and without hasn't changed from 20/25 in right eye and 20/20 in left, so why am I having MORE trouble seeing without my glasses than ever before?? I shouldn't need them all the time and I seem to.

A. That has nothing to do with your actual vision. You have some swelling around the tear ducts in your eyes causing the lids to swell, both upper and lower. This is causing your eyes to tear, but not to moisten the eye properly as the moisture is leaking out rather than working on the eye as it is supposed to. You will need to fill a script for a opthamologic ointment called Tobradex to be used on the outer eyelids and refresh PM on the right eyeball at night before you go to bed. That should help solve the problem. Both eyes are affected so if you don't see an improvement with the one eye, go to both until the tear duct and lids are not so swollen and visible.

Q. All these steroids make me nervous. Especially Prednisone. Is this going to get into my blood stream and cause problems with my body? I also don't need to gain any more weight.

A. Do you have any idea how many bottles of this stuff you would need to take in rapid succession in order to have those things happen? Your kidding with me right?

So, we may have found the root behind why my eyes water so much when the rest of my body is not suffering from allergies. It will take some time, but time is all I've got really.

I don't have to go back until December and my vision should be cleared up by then as far as this blurriness is concerned. I won't need to wear my glasses as much and frankly I don't have anything against them other than the fact that its a hassle and I'm not accustomed to wearing them that much and tend to misplace them a lot.

I am feeling better about this than I have in a long time. I was worried there was scarring on the cornea. I am lucky.