gridlore: One of the penguins from "Madagascar," captioned "It's all some kind of whacked-out conspiracy." (Penguin - Conspiracy)
Well, that was a slog. I had a follow-up today with one of Dr. M's associates because the man is insanely busy. Now I expect eye appointments to take a while, but this was epic.

I was there to see if the damn inflammation had gone away (spoiler: no, it hasn't.) But an additional test had been ordered that involved a dye infusion. Normally, when I'm warned ahead of time that someone is going to try to access one of my tiny little veins, I take preparatory steps to help them. I'll drain a 32oz bottle of water on the way to the appointment, I'll wear a hoodie to keep my arms warm, and I'll do exercises while waiting. That sort of thing.

But no warning, so after three stabs, no good vein. So they punted. I'm back on the Prednisolone Acetate drops again, and see Dr. M in August. Tomorrow, I have to go get a blood draw and pick up some meds.

One of the tests is a second check to see if I have Birdshot Chorioretinopathy, which would suck mightily.
gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
Hey kids, it's an eye update!

After a long day sitting around at the Eye Institute (several doctors were dealing with emergencies which left them way behind) I finally got to see Dr. M. He was very happy that I don't have cancer, but as he pointed out, this still leaves us in the dark about the cause of the eye inflammation.

So we may be subjecting my poor eyeballs to a cyberpunk-ish horror called Electroretinography. Which actually, sounds pretty interesting, if a bit horrifying for someone as paranoid about their eyes as I am. But for now, we're stepping down the steroid eye drops over an eight-week period. If the inflammation is still under control at that time, we can start scheduling the removal of the cataract from my right eye.

The funny thing is they were so far behind that when I left the front office folks had all gone home. I'll have to call Monday to set up my follow-up.

In other news, I'm rather disappointed in our latest Giants store purchase. I take blood thinners, which means I do not react well to cold weather. So. as you can imagine, night games at Oracle Park are a challenge. What do you think of when you hear the word "anorak"?

As the child of a Brit, and having been raised on British TV, I think of a warm, hooded, bit of rain kit, usually with a half-zipper. So I was thrilled to see one for sale on the Giants' site. Folks, I have T-shirts that are heavier than this. I wore it out today, on a very mild day, and it provided no warmth nor protection from even the slightest wind.

sigh At least it looks good. I'll just wear it as the outer layer as part of my San Francisco Summer Evening arctic survival kit.

This weekend is the annual city-wide clean-up for our area, also known as "dump everything in the street weekend." Our pile will be small but interesting. I may take pictures of the more interesting piles of junk. After the visit from the plumber, and the need to clean out under the sinks, we are also heading over to the Household Hazardous Waste drop off. Busy times.

Next week we'll mark 31 years of marriage with a dinner at the one surviving Black Angus in the South Bay. Then next weekend we're seeing Dance with the Dead with Magic Sword opening. An evening of trippy instrumental music.

This has been your Eyes and MoreTM update.
gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
Considering my original long-term survival goal was living to see 2000, I take every new year as a win.

So, what's coming up for me and Offhand Manor in 2022? Well, my health is going to dominate things for at least the next few months. We need to find out the cause of the inflammation seen in my eyes and now in a lymph chain in my chest. I had a head MRI yesterday, and still need to schedule a PET scan and a lumbar punch. Ow. Plus there's now a cataract in my right eye that needs to be dealt with. There are plenty of appointments coming up. Just to make things more fun, my hemo-oncologist retired and I'll be dumping this all on a new doctor.

Fun times, folks.

Alongside that, I'm going to keep working on physical and mental health. My job makes getting my daily steps in easy, but I really need to get the TRX bands out at least three times a week and work on getting back to the gym when possible. Mentally, I was able to recognize that I was setting myself up for failure in a situation and back out of it, which was a win, but I need to set aside time for mindfulness. 30 minutes a day of quiet meditation really helps center me.

One big thing coming up is our July roadtrip to Tonopah, Nevada for Westercon 74. [personal profile] kshandra has really wanted to get me away from the warzone our neighborhood becomes over July 4th, and besides the con, there are some cool things to see in Tonopah. Like the The World-Famous Clown Motel!

We won't be staying there. But we will kill the camera batteries in the 19th-century cemetery across the street. It'll be a fun trip!

What's really cool is
Burning Man is coming back! After a two-year hiatus, we're going back to the desolate, dusty, sun-blasted Playa we love. Planning is already in progress, as I was born to be a staff officer. Speaking of which. . .

The Free Trailer Beowulf is dead, long live the Far Trailer Marava! After five years, the homemade kludginess of the Beowulf is showing. Rather than fight a long battle to keep it road-worthy; which we really lack the skills, tools, and funds to do right; we've decided to take the plunge and buy a real trailer.

We're getting an Outbound Extreme Standard Model. Scroll down a little to see the model. Ours is the base white with black trim. We did go for a few necessary options (which you can see on the Order page.)

Exterior Options
100 Watt Solar Panel, 30-Amp LCD Display Solar Charge Controller with Battery Temperature Sensor.
15" Spare Trailer Tire
Front Cargo Rack
Front Diamond Plate
Rear Support Jacks

Interior Options
Roof Fan, 3 Speed
Memory Foam Mattress
Front Storage Cubbies
Electric Package (basically a surge protector power strip with USB ports mounted inside the trailer.)

We'll need to pick up a new marine battery, battery box, trailer lock, and a few other things. If you're in Northern California and want a trailer that is in decent shape but needs some work, contact me or Kirsten for details. We'll throw in the solar power panels we've been using.

Also, I am determined to spend the time to make Sideways Solutions work. So I have a schedule to make sure that when NaNoWriMo kicks off on November 1st, I will have everything ready to roll. The total word count goal for the 1st draft is 90,000 words. Expect to see a lot of drabbles and ficlets in this space, and folks, I need your feedback. Not just "that's cool!" but tell me what works, and where I'm weak. I'm a former infantryman, I can take harsh criticism!

The only other big thing on the schedule for the year is we have vouchers for a couple of San Francisco Giants' games, and in September, the long-delayed Rammstein show in LA may finally happen. Crossed fingers.

Hell, crossing my fingers for all of this! Happy New Year!
gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
Well, here we are again. Reaching the end of the calendar year for all of us who use the Gregorian Calendar.Of course, given my druthers, it'd be Idibus Decembres MMDCCLXXIV Ab Urbe Condita. But I'm weird that way.

Where are my druthers, anyway? However has them, give them back post-haste!

Anyway, for me, 2021 was dominated not by the political upheaval in Washington, but by my ongoing eye issues. What started as a simple diagnosis of a cataract in my left eye has ballooned into a still-evolving investigation of which my body is showing so many inflammation markers. But getting here has been epic. Because for the first eight months of this I was seeing an ophthalmologist who was very hesitant and unsure of herself. When she finally referred me to a more experienced colleague, it was one visit and surgery scheduled. Everyone assured me that cataract surgery was super easy, barely an inconvenience.

I came out of the surgery blind in my left eye. It was like looking through a cloudy glass brick. This was not the result anyone expected, and I began a brief odyssey of being punted around to different eye doctors before getting a referral (an insurance approval) to the Stanford Eye Clinic. We were told that this appointment could take several hours, but what happened that Friday was, well, special.

After going through all the usual eyedrops, pictures, and tests, we were visited by a succession of escalating doctors, all of whom wanted to confirm that I hadn't eaten that day. Finally, the senior eye surgeon on duty came in and told me that my retina was detaching, and we needed to head over to the Stanford ER to check in for surgery that night. Of course, due to COVID-19, [personal profile] kshandra. couldn't come in with me.

Any ER on a Friday night is going to be an interesting place. Stanford did not disappoint. However, it was also the night the Giants were going for the 100th win of the season, and I couldn't see my phone to follow the game! (They beat Colorado 7-2.) Eventually, They roll me into the ER proper if only so I could charge my phone. After really geeking out over how the ER is run, I'm rolled up to the surgical theater. This is the first time I've entered one in a wheelchair, so I got to really geek out over all the cool shit. The anesthesiologist and I agree on a general, and the last words I hear are "I'm giving you the relaxing medicine now."

The next thing I know it's like 0400 and I'm being rolled out to meet [personal profile] kshandra at the car. The procedure lasted about three hours. What they did was absolutely fucking science fiction. Along with cleaning out the gunk from the failed cataract surgery and resetting the artificial lens, they used FUCKING LASERS to weld the tears in my retina, put a silicon band around my eye to force it back into shape, and injected a gas bubble into my eye to further restore the proper retinal surface. This was out-patient surgery!

What sucked was I had to keep a head-down posture for the next week or so to keep the bubble in place. I listened to a lot of Judge Judy and podcasts at my desk. Things are still not perfect, but we're getting there!

My job continues to be fantastic. The mini-session they had in April-May last spring was weird and sparsely attended as many parents elected to continue distance learning. The new school year is back to regular days and hours, and with the exception of the six-week hole the eye problems blew in my ability to work, I've been happy to get back to my corner and shout in German at my kids. My boss was amazing, finding that I still had hours left in a special COVID-relief time bank, and a few PTO hours, so at least a little money came in during the time off. I'm so happy that I took the chance on becoming a Crossing Guard.

It was a good year for me in baseball. The San Jose Giants, now a Low-A club, won their league championship. The big league team was predicted to finish no better than 3rd in the National League West. What followed was one of the most amazing divisional races in the history of baseball. The Giants won a club-record 107 games, and still only clinched in the last game of the season because our rival Los Angeles Dodgers won 106 games, also a team record. We met in the NLDS and it went to five games, of course. LA won, and I'm not going to make excuses. But what a fucking season!

Due to the pandemic, we didn't get out much. We did make a long-planned trip to Los Angeles to see Avatar at the Wiltern Theater. We made a mini-vacation out of it. We went to the Rainbow Bar and Grill and spent too much money at Lemmy's Lounge. Hey, I'm an old Motörhead fan! We also were able to have dinner with [personal profile] isomeme and her lovely wife and with [personal profile] kshandra's halfsister and her lovely wife and kids.

We also visited the Getty Villa.. I killed my phone taking pictures. It's that amazing.

Then, just a couple of weeks about, we went to the first night of Metallica's 40th Anniversary concert. THEY PLAYED FIXXXER! AND KING NOTHING!!!

So, those are the highlights of 2021 for me. The whole eye thing dominated and continues to shape my life. But there are big changes and events coming in 2022. Which will be the next post! Stay tuned!
gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
We're closing this out at the end of November. Things are looking so much better, with a lot of the thanks going to all of you. So, one last time, please, give if you can and share this campaign. Thank you!

20-20 in 2021: Help Doug See Again
gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
An update. While my eye is healing nicely, there are now concerns about lymphoma. So now I'm looking at more labs, a brain MRI, even a lumbar puncture. Please, if you can, anything helps. Sharing this helps!

https://gofund.me/2b080569
gridlore: One of the "Madagascar" penguins with a checklist: [x] cute [x] cuddly [x] psychotic (Penguin - Checklist)
We're still living with the Damocles' sword of the Stanford bills hanging over us. We really need to bunker up and be ready for what's coming. Thank you to everyone who has helped so far.

If you can't afford a donation, which I totally understand, please share this campaign on your social media. TMLers, if you could post this on any Traveller sites where people might remember me, that would be great. Many hands make like work. If 200 people could give $20, we'd hit the goal and be ready to deal with the damage caused by this eye issue.

Thanks in advance.

Here's the link: https://gofund.me/2b080569
gridlore: One of the "Madagascar" penguins with a checklist: [x] cute [x] cuddly [x] psychotic (Penguin - Checklist)
Accomplished today, after I spent Monday being a slug.

- All the dishes are done.

- Mopped the kitchen floor, which really needs to be a weekly thing.

_ Got the garbage bins out to the curb after we forgot to do that last night.

- Since I'm going back to work next week, I also got about 3,700 steps and 8 of 10 active hours.

- Tomorrow I'm planning on going down to Central Park for a good, long walk and to see how much water is in Saratoga Creek. Expect video. I',m also going to try to get in vacuuming the entry and the hallway.

- The green "gas bubble in eye" wristband fell off sometime last night. No idea where it landed. It's probably lurking in the bed somewhere.

- Taco Tuesday is about to happen!
gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
While everyone's generosity has been humbling, we are still dreading the potential barrage of bills resulting from emergency eye surgery at Stanford on September 24th. So we have reluctantly raised the fundraising goal on the GoFundMe.

If you can give, even a little, thank you, But the important thing is to get this campaign in front of as many eyes as possible. Please share this link wherever you feel appropriate.

https://gofund.me/2b080569

Thank you all, and we will keep you updated.
gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
The expedition to Fremont and Half-Price Books has been successfully completed. As usual, we found books we wanted that ate half of the redemption value of what we brought in, but the main thing here was clearing shelf space of books we no longer wanted.

I picked up yet another history of Istanbul and an interesting-looking history of the Battle of Lepanto that examines the build-up and consequences of this, one of the pivotal battles in European history.

After leaving Fremont, we came back down to Santa Clara where we stopped at our Denny's for a late brunch, and then. . .

I DROVE HOME!

This is the first time since the first cataract surgery that I've driven Darby the Ford Ranger. I had no issues beyond the fact that I'm wearing glasses with a wildly outdated prescription. I'm still not going on the freeway until my new glasses are ordered and arrive, but knowing I can drive on surface streets is an immense relief and frankly, takes a huge burden off Kirsten.
gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
We are still waiting to see the bill from Stanford Medical for the emergency eye surgery. We fully expect to have to fight the insurance company and face heavy out-of-pocket costs. Anything helps, and that includes spreading the word.

So the fundraising continues. Thanks for anything you can do.
gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
Well, I'm a bit over a day out from emergency eye surgery. The doctor at the follow-up was very happy with what happened. Me? Healing is a hard process. Currently, my left eye socket is a bit sore and swollen, and I'm tearing up constantly. That's to be expected. I'm also working hard to maintain a head-down position to keep the injected gas bubble in the right place.

And how fucking cool is that? Right now, the is a bubble of gas that was injected into my eyeball to help reshape the eye along with a metal band doing the same job. Lasers have been shot into my eye to weld the retina back into place. Science fucking rocks!

The big drawback is that the eyedrops are burning like shit due to the healing hoping on, and frankly I'm in the "more annoyed than hurting" phase of recovery. But, I'll keep soldiering on, like I always do. The next big milestone is a follow-up very early Thursday morning. I'm very optimistic.

Now the really good news, we've hit our funding goal on the Go Fund Me! But since this was an emergency surgery, there was no time to get authorization, so we're wary of surprise big bills. So we're keeping it open, and do ask that you keep sharing the link. Thank you to everyone who has helped out in this latest crisis.
gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
Today's Giants game was giving me ulcers, I had to play phone tag with two ophthalmologist offices over my authorization for tomorrow's visit with Yet Another Doctor. Honestly, I feel like I'm getting passed around the Bay like a hot potato.

My solution? Play Civilization VI. Comfort food, Trajan on Prince, huge map. Early on Kupe of the Maori popped up and built a city right where I was going to build my gold-churning port. Suprise war! And five turns later, No more Maori in the game.

Now, I have a mod that gives more realistic names for cities, and as a fun bonus, if you conquer a city that has a name in your Civ's language, it will change it to that. For example, if the Romans took London, it would be called Londinium.

Of course, this only works for cities that have programmed alternate names. Roman and the Maori never crossed paths. So I was left with the original city name.

This would not stand. So I changed it.

To Hobbiton.
gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
Fuck fuck fuckity Fuck.

The second eye surgery has been canceled. I need to coordinate with the guy I'm seeing at Stanford Friday for a new date. I'm also now taking ALL THE STEROIDS to manage some inflammation in my left eye.

As you can imagine, this makes things even tighter. Please, please, please, donate if you can, and share the campaign wherever you think it is appropriate.

Thanks for any and all help.

Profile

gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
Douglas Berry

October 2023

S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
2223 2425262728
293031    

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Aug. 9th, 2025 10:39 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios