Morning!
Doug's doing really well; he's able to see up to 1/4 mile away, and in great spirits. He's going through a little withdrawal tho- he really wants to get back on the computer. We're doing a telethon for him. Please check your local listings as to when it airs

S.

doug is home and resting comfortably. He can see great detail and is extremely tired. He's going in tomorrow to the doctor's to see how it looks, so to speak. 

To say that I'm nervous would be a vast understatement.  I'm excited, too, don't get me wrong.

Didn't sleep worth a damn last night... not lookin' forward to having no vision for the next 36+ hours.

Food cut off was midnight last night, clear liquid cut off is 10 AM today.  At least they're allowing me to have coffee (sans cream and sugar); this is a GOOD thing.  A bear without his coffee makes for a real angry bear... haha!

My Mother in Law will be taking us (Sonia and myself) to the surgery.  Sonia's sister was kind enough to loan us her vehicle (it's a pretty decent size), so we won't have to wrestle with trying to get me in/out of a smaller car.

Leaving around noon, surgery is at 2 (already bumped once due to an influx of seniors arriving from two other facilities).  Entire procedure should take about 10 minutes itself, then figure an hour or so for recovery time.  Should be on our way back home by 5 PM, barring any complications.

I'm ready for this, but I'm not.  ::sighs::

I hope like heck that this whole thing is successful.  I want to see "normally" again!

Next update will be done by Sonia, either tonight or tomorrow AM... and then again after my follow up appointment tomorrow (3:30).

More later...

I do apologize for not getting an update after my appointment on the 15th.  All was going well, though I did have a mild case of Pink Eye.  We booked the surgery date for the 28th of this month (two days from now).  I'm now on four kinds of drops until surgery date.  Still a slight inflamation going on, but it's a lot better.

I was actually able to see the Lunar Eclipse that we had last week.  I was also able to track an airplane that was approximately 2-3 miles in the night time sky, just by watching for its beacons.  The vision IS showing signs of improvement, and this is GREAT news.

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't scared as all hell about Thursday's procedure.  But I'm also getting myself focussed a little bit more and am now getting clear as to what I want to do over the next 3 years.  It'll take me at least three years to get my body physically trained for this event... and when I undertake it, it will take approximately 30-45 days to complete.  All I will say, at this point is COAST TO COAST.

I did finally get Hogville launched on v5.  That was a nightmare of a development project.  I'm glad it's my last big project, though... I really feel like I'm going out on top of the game.  Feel free to check out www.hogville.net to see what I've done.

I also want to thank SouthernSports Media, Inc. for kicking in some funding.  Because of their generosity, I will be able to walk into surgery and pay $3570 of the $4270 that I need for surgery costs.

Dr. Faas came down on his fee by another $100 to make his costs $1200.  That $1200 will also cover 3 months of follow up visits and MOST of the medication I need.  This is WONDERFUL news for me (AND my bank account).

I'll do a quick update on Thursday with my final thoughts, pre-surgery.  Sonia will do an update either Thursday night or Friday after my follow up appointment.

Thank you ALL for your well wishes... it means a LOT right now.

--Doug

Okay, I know that I didn't do an update for my last appointment (5/Dec/2007), and I apologize for that, however, I wanted to wait until this appointment today before I announced anything.  I had quite a bit stuff going on in December that I needed to fall into place first before I did any updates.

Let's start with the major news for December.  As of December 20th, 2007, I formally ceased being the owner of TheRealms.NetWorks; I ended up transitioning ownership of all hosting customers and 95% of my web development customers over to Salvatore Poliandro.  This was a MAJOR decision that I had been weighing on for the better part of the last 6 months, and with the myriad of medical appointments I went through in Q4 of '07, it became very obvious that I needed to start putting my own health above everyone else's needs.

Don't get me wrong... I loved the work that I did and as far as customers went, I got pretty dog gone lucky with a GREAT handful of customers.  But after spending nearly 8 years of putting everyone else's needs before mine, and watching my health deteriorate, I decided that I needed to put myself ahead of everything for 2008.  The majority of this would require that I cut back my presense online considerably.  I could not ask any of my customers to just stand by for a few weeks at a clip for stuff that needed to be done urgently.

Those of you that know me know how much I hate giving up things... I do tend to be a bit of a control freak.  But you also know that I demand absolute excellence with no matter WHAT I do.  Sal and I have actually been talking about him potentially taking over for the better part of 3.5 months at the end of last year.  It became a reality on December 20th.  The good thing about all of this is that I have committed my own account to Sal as a paying customer.  If I can't trust someone with my own account, how can I reasonably trust them with any of my customers?  People I've been with for over 6 years now... I just couldn't.  Sal (and his team) are MORE than qualified to handle any aspect that my own customers have grown accustomed to, and I know they'll be in great hands.

It's going to be a bit of a change for me to get used to not working 14-16 hours a day, I'll be right up front with that.  It'll be a nice change, though.

Today's appointment was a very quick follow up from my last appointment.  I'm on two different kinds of eye drops.  One to reduce the inflamation, and one to help open the iris up a bit more (left eye only).  That medication set me back almost $70... which in the grand scheme of things isn't TOO bad.

The pressure in the left eye is normal (still and YAY!).  There's still some residual inflamation going on, so Dr. Faas wants me to continue taking the medication through the next appointment.

I've alluded to the fact that I have two surgeries scheduled for this year.  The first one is now tentatively scheduled for February 28th (the left eye).

We finally got around to broaching the surgery and recovery schedule.  The GREAT news is that my recovery time has been reduced down to 2 weeks minimum, three weeks max.  This will help a LOT, as now I may be able to pursuade my bosses to not suspend my paychecks (hah!  Jay, if you're reading this, yes, grovelling will be involved!).  One of my bosses is already happy that the downtime is half of what was expected.  I think I'll try to use this to my advantage, hahaha.

The surgery itself... ouch.  NOT cheap.

Surgery Center:  $2370.00 (Has to be paid in full prior)
Dr. Faas' fees:  $1300.00 (will take payments)
Anesthesioligist:  $700.00 (will be billed after)
Grand total:  $4370.00

I may be able to walk out of this surgery with the majority of it paid off.  I can guarantee a MINIMUM of $3000 up front, though I'm going to have to see what I can do to raise the rest of it (hey, if y'all wanna kick in some money, I wouldn't be against it, hahaha, and will thank you profusely for it!).

The good news is that since I'm scheduling this for the end of February, I'll have two checks in the middle of the month that should free up close to another $750 (remember, I still have utilities that need to be paid) or so... which gets me into better shape.

As I said, I just hope I can convince my bosses to pay me for the downtime, even though I used up my vaycay time last month (okay, only 5 days, I still have 5 days left, woohoo!)

Speaking of vacations, yes, I did go on a vacation from December 21st through December 30th.  Went to Colorado.  9 days without internet access.  I absolutely was NOT complaining, no twitters or urges to even TRY to get on line.  The wife and step-daughter got to see a totally different side of me... one they hadn't seen EVER:  A totally relaxed Bear... it was almost a shock to 'em, hahaha

While I didn't take any pictures on this trip, both Sonia and Andria did... so I'll get those up sometime in the next few days.

Next eye appointment is February 15th, though I'll try to do an update at the end of January.

I only have five major website projects on my plate (including Fractured).  After that, my schedule will be 100% mine, at my leisure.  I'm anticipating having EVERYTHING in place before I go in for surgeries.

On the plate:
Hogville (www.hogville.net) Version 5 - This will be my last major hurrah for 'em
Fearless Friday (www.fearlessfriday.com) Forum Upgrade
DiamondDavidLeeRoth.com - Need to finish off this site and get everything back to the original owners
A Volkswagon/Dune Buggy store/website - Just some custom tweaks to their forums
And finally, F3 (www.fractured.net) - a complete overhaul of my original baby, making the site even easier to use, faster and better.

More later!

First, I have to send out my eternal gratitude for Dr. Kaufman's generosity gave me.  It wasn't just a routine appointment with dialation, I also had three tests performed today, including an ultrasound.  The wife noticed that today's bill was nearing $600 by the time the cashier was finished ringing everything in... then dropped down to $120.00.

Dr. Kaufman waived ALL of the additional test fees today and just did the routine Dr's visit fees.  I was honestly expecting today's visit to set me back around $400.00.  I *cannot* thank Dr. Kaufman enough for doing this for me.  I'm glad to see that there are still medical professionals out there that are not 100% driven by the almighty pocketbook (my Godmom is one of those such people, as well, FYI).

Today's visit was nothing but GREAT NEWS all around.  I could hardly contain my excitement on the way home.  Probably drove Sony crazy with my jumping up and down with joy on the train ride home, hahah!

For the first time in 15 years, I finally feel absolutely confident that I am now connected with the best possible medical professionals in the eyecare industry.

Today's visit was originally to focus on the left eye, however, it yielded some news about the right eye as well.  I'll start with the left eye first.

Cataract is still holding steady.  I have good days, I have bad days.  The dirt and debris is still pretty prevalent in the left eye, the cataract, though.... we finally talked about cataract surgery!

Took the Dr's staff three tries to dialate my eyes... they were going to attempt a fourth try, however, 3 dialations in two hours is still pretty much good enough, hah!

There's a good chance that I can get near normal vision with my left eye once the cataract is removed.  This will still make us deal with the dirt and debris rolling around in the left eye, however, by the time they're ready to tackle that, more information could be known and still more advancements in medical technology have yet to be uncovered.

They did an ultrasound of the eye, plus took a scanned image of the cataract and feel that they can safely remove it without causing irreparable damage to the eye.  This bodes very well for me, as this would mean that I could finally sit back and enjoy watching TV or working on the computer in a very comfortable position.

And now... for the right eye... dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!

They have finally opened up the POSSIBILITY of doing cataract surgery which opens up the chance that I can finally regain a functional pupil after nearly two years of not having ANY pupil/iris activity.  The WONDERFUL thing is that there is now no evidence of floaters or dirt/debris in my right eye.  The inner fluid is very clean and clear, which means that the medication that I took did its job, exactly as it was supposed to.

Again, just as a reminder, the medication is also the culprit behind the cataracts.

There is a LONG road ahead with the right eye, as I suspect the iris will have to be repaired, and I believe that there might be a retinal detachment involved.  Again, with the sheer size of that cataract, the Doctors are unable to make a solid determination at this time (the last Ultrasound I had did not have clear pictures, again, due to the cataract).

I have an appointment with someone that specializes in severe cataracts... a Dr. Faas (who is also in the same office as Dr. Kaufman).  This one should strictly be a consultation on December 5th (WOOHOO!  A 20 day break from appointments this time!).  I believe there will be one or two more appointments scheduled, then we'll book for a February or March surgery for my left eye.

Downtime for NORMAL cataract surgery is 1 day with an eyepatch, 1 week of lightened duty.  Projected downtime for me is 1 day of eye-patchiness, up to three weeks of downtime, and up to three weeks of lightened duties.  So I'm looking at 6 weeks (or so) of downtime while I recover from cataract surgery.  I'm sure the right eye will be even longer, due to the ugliness of that eye.

Next year is going to be a tough one on me, physically and emotionally.  But it is what it is, and I can only do one thing at a time.

For the record, I am already making plans of what I'll be doing when I get vision back in both eyes.  First damned thing I am doing is buying me a recumbant bicycle and getting Sony and Andria bicycles so we can start bicycling together!  I really miss doing that; I just don't trust my vision well enough to know that I can easily watch out for the homicidal drivers out there.

There are more changes coming over the next week or so, as soon as I am at liberty to discuss them, I will.

There's an outside chance I'll do an update next week, however, if I don't, y'all have a WONDERFUL (and safe and well fed) Thanksgiving.  Me?  I'll be looking forward to watching LSU beat Houston Nutt on his last game as the Arkansas Razorback's coach.  Good Riddance, Nutty, you will NOT be missed!

TTFN!

Just a brief blog post, since I have another appointment on Thursday.  All items that were tested for came back negative, so, thus far, it's not a health issue internally or physically.

More on Thursday or Friday!

Today's visit was with a Rheumatologist, to get some blood work done and a basic health checkup.  Dr. Botstein did a 12 point physical checkup (meaning the 12 most common diseases that are attributed to Uveitis).  The physical checkup went fine.  Though I know he wasn't real happy with my weight (somewhere around 270), my BP was great (120 over 84) and everything else looked good.  He sent me over to the lab to get blood work done, ergo that's where I went.

The blood suckers lab techs took 4 tubes of blood; I should have the results back next Monday.  I'll post an update as I find out the results.  They're not checking for anything wrong with the kidney, liver, etc, since cost was a concern, and the fact that the physical checkup yielded good results.

Funny comment by Dr. Botstein:  Your right eye isn't a happy eye!  (Meaning that there was no response after shining a light into the pupil itself).

I got in at 9:45 and was making payment by 11.  Talk about efficient!  The receptionist was not the least bit thrilled when I told her that I was post-dating the check to Friday (to ensure adequate fundage, so my rent check wouldn't bounce).  Told her that I had already let Dr. Botstein know that I would have to postdate the check, and he was fine with that.

Oh, and today's visit set me back $275.  Ouch!


I'm still progressing with the other changes going on with my life, should have an update around the 15th-20th regarding that.

Next up:  Retina Specialist on the 15th!  Stay tuned...

Okay, so I finally succumbed with the masses and installed a "blog" on one of my sites... I never really wanted to do this in the first doggone place, however, with upcoming events that may come to fruition, thanks to my employers, I need to be able to start documenting things from time to time.  Easiest way to do this would be to run a blog and open up the forums.  As such, I have installed a modified blog package that integrates with my favorite forum software, SMF - Simple Machines.  For all the people that I've ever told that I'd never install any kind of a blog... get your laughs in now.  Slackers. 

I had an appointment today with Dr. Silverman, and there was more good news than bad.  The wife was also with me for today's visit, so she can better gain an understanding with what's going on with my eyes.

Dr. Silverman was happy to inform me that the cataracts in BOTH eyes have not increased in shape/size, and that my eye pressure was also normal, both of these great news.  The bad news is that the cataract in my left eye has shifted slightly and is now starting to hamper/affect the pupil's movement/function.  This would explain why I've progressively have moved closer and closer towards the monitor (I'm sitting between 3 and 5" off a 19" LCD monitor now, and have had to purchase a desktop/wall mounted arm ($130, ouch) so that I can position the monitor up higher and bring it closer, so I don't suffer from muscle/neck strain.

Dr. Silverman did not write me any new prescriptions for Prednisone/Predforte, and I am quite ecstatic by this, as this means that I can go at least another 20 days without my funky sleeping pattern made even more funky.

We finally got into some serious discussions about cataract surgery, though it's not guaranteed that this will happen.  I now have an additional appointment scheduled November 15th with Dr. Kaufman (Retina Specialist), to get his opinion about the condition of my eyes.  This is in addition to my appointment with the Rheumatologist on November 5th.

Surgery is projected to run between $7 and $8,000, with an allowance for up to $2,000 for follow up visits, treatment and medication.

While most recipients of cataract surgeries are usually allowed to go back to a normal workload after about a week of recovery, Dr. Silverman said that I need to allow up to 3-6 weeks of recovery and then light duty work.  Because my eyes are such an extreme case, the doctors want to be uber-careful about my treatment, IF we decide to move forward with surgery.  And yes, as always, there is a risk that this surgery will cause more harm than good (including total loss of vision).  I won't know more until after I meet with Dr. Kaufman.

Can I say again just how much I *hate* not having insurance?  Today's visit set me back $110.  ::sighs::

Next update as things progress!