The View
- From: "David W. Fenton" <XXXusenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 21:01:58 -0600
Well, it looks like my eyes really are getting better.
Over the last week or so I've started regaining significant
noticable visual acuity. It started with peripheral night vision
(peripheral vision has never been as affected by the uveitis as the
center of the visual field; actually, the center has remained,
though it gets pretty small sometimes, and there's basically a big
donut of blurriness and dullness that expands and contracts; but I
digress), then the improvment expanded to enhanced low-light vision
in the center of the visual field. This was accompanied by some
sharpening of focus in the center of the field. I can see the
numbers on the front of the microwave without a flashlight, which
actually was hard before because of a combination of factors (low
light, low contrast, blurriness in the center of the visual field).
I can also read the computer monitor sitting up straight instead of
leaning forward. Soon, I might even be able to recline!!!!
Anyway, for now, my vision is still far from where it was last June
when I first got the diagnosis, with significant blurriness, haloing
and sensitivity to bright light (can't make the transition from
bright light to low light), but I can read my pager's readout in
decent light without taking my glasses off and holding it up to my
face under a light source. That's something I've been unable to do
for months. And I can read the computer monitor without having to
scrub my eyes across the text being read. Also, I can find the mouse
pointer now without having to move it to a defined location (upper
right).
The ability to see more in low contrast situations is a huge
difference, one that I haven't experienced so much in previous
intervals of good eyesight (the improvement was in center of the
visual field and in clarity, not in contrast and low-light vision).
I actually first noticed it watching TV at night. When my eyes were
bad, I could see the TV screen, but the rest of the room was
complete darkness. This was partly because there's not much light in
the living room when I'm watching TV (if I turn on lights, it's hard
for me to see screen well, even though I know you're supposed to
watch TV with some light in the room), but was mostly a matter of
the contrast -- what light there is in the room is so dim that by
contrast to the TV screen, I couldn't see anything else in the rest
of the room unless I turned off the TV and let my eyes adjust (and,
of course, that also reduces the amount of light in the room, too,
so might not have worked). But I started noticing that I could see
my bookshelves and the pictures on the wall, which I had not been
able to see in the same circumstances for many months.
All of this is, apparently, the result of one of the two treatments
I started undergoing 2 weeks ago, when I went to a different doctor
(on referral). The first thing they did was put me on a mild dosage
of an SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor), Lexapro, in the
hope that the extra serotonin would relax my bowels and help relieve
my symptoms. In the first week, I experienced a great reduction in
discomfort, but this week the discomfort has returned to somewhere
close to the way it has been, though never as severe, and not as
often, nor as long-lasting (i.e., it's an improvement, but not a
complete disappearance of the symptoms). On balance, I'm better than
I was when I started the Lexapro, but I'm still within the range of
symptoms that I have experienced at times during the last year
before I started the Lexapro. So, the jury's out on whether there's
any effect or not.
The new doctor also found that I had a sinus infection again (I
didn't even realize it -- I have sinus congestion so often, I don't
notice, and I'd had no discharge indicating an infection, perhaps
because it was draining down my throat -- dunno), and they think
that perhaps I've had a recurrent sinus infection for a long time.
[aside: I don't quite understand why a referral on IBS would be to
an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist instead of a gastroenterologist, but
that's the way they did it] Chronic sinus infection would certainly
be in keeping with my family history, but it annoys me that my other
doctors would not have pursued this (they did treat me for a sinus
infection twice last year, but never talked about a chronic
condition). So, I've been on antibiotics for the last week.
Between the two, or because of one or the other, I've got more
energy and am more chipper, but that could be because the gut is
feeling better and because my eyesight is improving (it's now better
than it has been since the weird 2-week period in December when my
right eye went really bad while simultaneously my left eye cleared
up more than it had been since the early summer; this was
immediately followed by the left eye getting to the worst it had
ever been, about 2/3s just gone, the description of which in this
forum seems to have greatly alarmed Jess, prompting one of his "Good
lord!"'s). And it could be one of those self-reinforcing mechanisms,
where depression/stress was making me feel worse, which was
exacerbating the problems I had, which made me feel bad and unhappy
and depressed, lather, rinse, repeat.
I don't know what's working. All I know is that I appear to be
getting better.
I have a return visit on the sinus infection next week and a
followup on the IBS/Lexapro April 10th. If I stay on the SSRI, I'm
hoping I can switch to Lexapro's generic near-equivalent (Lexapro is
one of those drugs designed explicitly to be under patent, i.e., a
slightly altered version of a drug whose patent had expired, and for
which there's no clinical evidence that it's more effective than the
non-patented generic version), as it's much cheaper (right now I'm
taking 6 weeks worth of samples, provided by the doctor). But,
ideally, I'd like to not be on an SSRI at all, if I can help it.
On the other hand, I've been prone to mild depression for a long
time (I took St. John's Wort for several years, until it started
causing me to feel sick for some reason), so maybe this is just
something I'll have to do the rest of my life. If so, I hope I can
manage with an inexpensive medication.
But, overall, life is looking better.
Now, if only my finances would improve, I'd really have reason to be
happy after a very long time of unhappiness.
--
David W. Fenton http://www.dfenton.com/
usenet at dfenton dot com http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/
.
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