Betty Update

It's all good news.

We arrived at Duke early and I got in early. How about that?

I had my eyes numbed, I had my eyes dilated, I had them scratched with this funky funnel looking thing for pressure, I had blood drawn or some dye put in me for some pictures. Then to another room and machine for more photos. Then I was taken to a room and a team gave me shots, took photos, drops. Honestly it was so much shit!

When I got there they ask questions which I think are geared toward Covid. Then they ask if I have fallen. I have never been asked that before. I said No. Then I said quickly - Oh yes I did a week ago roughly. So I had to explain the medication that makes me light headed etc. I said my ankle is better but still 2x the size of the other and it is still purple, black and blue and it hurts on the outside bone. They asked if I had an X-ray. I said No. That was that.

Then the eye test. This young man who I see at the beginning is my buddy from NYC. I love this kid. He has a 1970's Afro. I complimented him last time and he said he saw I was coming in so he had to make sure he looked good. He is so damn cute. He is maybe 31 and he is a flirt. He is cute.

When he transports me to another part of the eye center we walk. He walks really fast as does the doctor. I was a bit surprised because this young man is short. the doctor is 6'2" and all legs. So as we walk down the hall he turns to me and says you keep up for a short one. I laughed and told him because I have always been short (ha ha) I have learned to walk fast to keep up with people so now I am considered a fast walker which is rather funny to me.

He said, and a bruised ankle. I said, "that's right darn it, does that win me perfect vision?" HA. is all he said.

I had my standard eye test and they asked if I felt my eye sight was better.

Oh my God Hell yes. I went from seeing snow only, to dark shapes, to color, to seeing people only fuzzy and not as sharp as my 20/20 left eye. So they gave me the thing to hold over my good eye and I was to begin reading the chart. It was 20/200 last time.  It's 20/40 now.  Excellent for me right now.

But  I don't know how ya'll walk around with 20/40 because it's not very good but the fact that I can see looking down and peripherally is so damn good. It's all fuzzy but seeing something not sharp is far better than not seeing what is in front of me at all. 

By the time the doctor came in to show me my pictures I couldn't see shit. My eyes were so dilated it was all a blur really. But I squinted and tried. I even used my computer glasses. 

Dr. S. was as giddy as a school girl as the saying goes. Oh my goodness. He rocked on his feet back and forth, clapping his hands. He did everything but jump up and down. He was so excited. He said this kind of response was what they hope for but he's only seen it react this quickly once before. Normally it takes longer. He was so thrilled. All I kept thinking was how damn glad I was that all this awfulness is at least paying off. 

Then we went over the images. Poor Betty is nasty looking. Oh and speaking of Betty. 

Dr. S referred to her as Peggy and said, Peggy's dying look at this!

I said, "Pardon me? Please tell me you mean Betty Doctor S."  

He said, "OH MY GOD, I'M SO SORRY, YES, BETTY, BETTY BETTY!!

I laughed and said, "it's okay, got it."  He was so mortified.

I saw the image from day 1 then the 2nd visit and then today 3 months later Wow.

I see all the scar tissue which will never go away. I see Betty and he showed me where it was on the bottom of my eye now but where it was the last few times. He went on to explain why when sitting there I could see nothing looking down (you know missing the table and putting Chinese food all over as i shared here.) 

Then the next 3 sets of pictures at yet another angle. I could obviously see the difference even without him pointing them all out to me. I also can tell the difference in how I can see right now. 

It was mentioned again that glasses may never rectify it as it would normally. So while it won't be 20/20 I think we are now just focusing on removing it more so it doesn't spread to another eye or more in this eye.

Then the bad news. Another 5 weeks on steroids a.k.a. the devil. 

Then a year of chemo light. A fucking year!  I also will have to increase my folic acid. Fingers crossed I haven't lost my hair so far and I won't.

Betty can come back, Betty can spread. They don't want to stop now. 

I go back in 3 more months. I am hoping that this is so much better a year won't be necessary. He will be as surprised in 3 months as he was by these results in only 3 months. (fingers crossed!) I'm only thinking that and willing it to happen!

Just not thrilled about taking the steroids I am certain I will feel so much better when done with them. 

Steroids are just awful in high doses like this. They sound so harmless but my God they are horrific. 5 more weeks of those little shits.

So there ya have it. Betty is slowly dying. Will it go away 100%? He sure doesn't think so but this surprised him so much that he is hoping he is wrong. Me too.  I did ask him why he told me only 6 months on chemo. He said because If I had said a year you would have freaked out and I wasn't 100% certain of your response.

So you lied to me. 

He said, Yes, I did and it hasn't been 6 months yet so we never know. It could be only 6 months but the worst-case scenario is one year. I wanted to give you 6 months at a time so you weren't so freaked out. I also know that you are seeing that most of this awfulness is steroids. Not to minimize what you are going through with the other pills but steroids are the worst of it right? 

Yep!

So I guess it was okay that he lied to me. He is so nice and charming and honest to God I see how he gets away with it. Rick found it funny. Rick added his 2 cents and said, "boy he knows you already" And the doctor said, "she's like all the others who are scared. I just want to give you something to hold on to. Besides things are better than I could have ever predicted so we shall see won't we?"  I got it. I wasn't mad, well not 100%. I'm shooting for surprising him again so there! 😛

Once off the steroids, I can be around people more, etc. (Not sure if that's a good thing or not) As I said steroids are the worse aspect of this as far as symptoms and feeling like shit. He did give me hell when Rick had to be a tattletale and tell him how I plow through. He said on those days I really shouldn't it's not good for my body and yada yada yada. So I guess I get to be even lazier. I told him I was a type A, this isn't comfortable for me and he said, "tough shit" So there ya go...

One other thing, if it comes back it will be small so I could get a steroid injection in my eye next time. You can't start there because if it's too much you can't take it away so he prefers doing it orally. Also too big and it could blind me. But since he thinks I've handled the steroids well (yea right!) that is now an option should it come back and we catch it when small. So there ya go, in Betty news. All good...for the most part

😁

Continuing our medical fun--

Wednesday morning Rick was to see his new kidney doctor.

Rick wanted a new doctor here because he wanted him to have his records and a baseline so if he needed him he wasn't a new patient, having to wait 6 months to get in etc.

Rick had his records sent over and brought some things with him.

His blood work was amazing. 

His tests were all better, but how?

He went from stage 3 kidney disease where the last doctor was fearful of how close to stage 4 he was getting.

He is now stage 2. He was told that is so rare. Your kidneys do not normally repair themselves. In fact, Rick's numbers are better than the majority of Americans his age. The doctor didn't understand it but was thrilled and said Rick had no reason to be there. They went over his numbers from many years ago up to today. It was a fast climb and now it's gone backward. 

They ran that test a 2nd time to be certain because he said it is just very rare to have that happen.

We don't know how but we are thrilled.

Then his blood pressure was 130/70. Much better than it's been and Rick asked if they would do it again because he didn't believe it. The nurse laughed. They did it via cuff and machine. 3 x. All the same. 

Then his cholesterol was 138.

Oh come one, this man eats cheese while looking for the bacon. 

He has low cholesterol? 

So all things Rick are good for the old coot and no more doctors! 

I'm getting there. yipee.

When Rick got home he poured this self-leveling concrete over the bottom of the stone hearth so we can tile over it. As he was getting up from the floor he said, "I'm supposedly healthy for a man my age, but yet they haven't figured out how to get me up off the floor easily"  I put out my hand to help him up and we both laughed. I said, "well we're still in our 60s."

"Yes, damn it. Can we go back to 40 please?"

From your mouth to God's ear!  

No more doctors for a long while!