Okay, I’ve finally started the doctor rounds.  Yesterday was an optomalogist appointment.   I really haven’t been able to see very well out of my right eye since I fractured my skull.  I wasn’t thinking it was going to be useful, but I was wrong, as usual here.

The guy I saw, i’d never met before.  He says he used to race bicycles, criteriums mainly, when he was going to school in Florida.  Now he climbs mountains.  Pretty nice guy.

As it turns out, he did a ton of stuff.  He took pictures of the insides of both my eyes, measured the thickness of the lenses and lots of other stuff.  I have about 30 minutes of energy in me and this took close to 3 hours, so I eventually just sat, then did whatever his staff asked.

As it turns out, my right eye got pretty squished from my brain slamming forward on it. Squished enough that it isn’t too happy and needs some attention.  It doesn’t sound like I have to have any surgery or anything, but I guess I’m supposed to take some more steroids, like for a while.  He told me that I need to come and see him pretty often and it will probably take over 3 months before we know exactly how it is all going to work out.

Wow.  Three months from now is the end of January.   The steroids cost something close to $300 at the pharmacy, for the first round.  I’m going to research the whole thing a little bit before I commit to this whole deal.  Steroids and these TBI’s don’t sometime like to get along that great.

I have a neurosurgeon appointment this morning at 10 am.   That is 8 hours from now.  I think it is the final appointment with him.  I’m hoping, plus assuming, that I don’t need any head surgery as of now, so this should be a easy one.  I have more appointments next week at KU Med, where I guess I’m going to find out better how long this whole thing is going to take.  I’m planning on getting on a new drug regiment then.  Hopefully something that will allow me to expand my night from 3 hours sleep to something closer to normal, like over 6 at least.  These days are so, so long, like only 2 hours sleep last night.

The Cubs did pretty well last night.  Incredible they hadn’t won the World Series in 108 years.  Probably a pretty happy bunch of baseball players.  Trudi is pretty happy, since Chicago is her home town.

Okay, time is about up.  Funny how short of a time I can concentrate on any given thing now. Guess it is all part of getting better.  Pretty slow going though.

Pretty modern eye doctor’s office.

Guess this is a photo of the inside of my eyes. Seem sort of veiny.

Dr. Marefat looking over all the data he collected. Super good guy.  Really good doctor.

You know, I don’t take much anything for granted.  I realized, really realize, that I won the lottery when being born here in Kansas, in the United States of America.  I have been so fortunate to be able to travel throughout the world, allowing me to observe how the rest of the humans on it live.  It just reconfirms how lucky I am.

As I age, things are getting a little tougher.  Which is to be expected.  It is a new challenge, which I like challenges, so it’s fine.   Injuries aren’t nearly so good though.  Short term injuries can, and sometimes do, turn into permanent issues.  That is understandable.  I get it, so it is just another part of life.

This head injury I have now is something I didn’t expect.  I’ve been concussed quite a few times in my life.  It is nearly impossible to not have been if you race bicycles as much as me.  I’ve been doing this since I was a young teenager, so, of course, I’m going to have been hurt a fair amount.

I’ve been trying to read up on this TBI issue.  I guess just about anytime you hit your head you suffer some kind of TBI, which is traumatic brain injury.   Like I wrote a few days ago, normally when I whack my head hard enough to knock me out, I break something else that overtakes the head problem as soon as I wake up.  Normally a broken collarbone, shoulder, or any number of other bones.  The concussion becomes nearly nothing as I try to recover from the whole crash.

Not this time.  I wasn’t too worried about it at the hospital.  They told me that they didn’t have to drill a hole in my head to relieve pressure and that it might take a bit, but I would be fine.  I though that meant like I was going to have a bad week or two, then everything was going to fix itself.  I knew nothing.

I’ve been reading up on this whole thing for a bit each day.  What I’ve learned is that there are so many different levels of these TBI’s that it is a wait and see game.  I’ve actually talked to a few guys that have had them and I’m skipping that for a few more weeks.    These things can linger for a long while.  I’m going to wait until I see the doctor at KU med and get some answers to the questions I still have before I take a different tact.

My main problems so far are headaches, which are nearly unbearable, and loss of balance. And of course, lack of close to enough sleep.  These three things make the day kind of a wreck.  I don’t have enough energy to do anything and can’t sleep enough to get the energy so I can. Pretty big quandary.   It has to get better sooner.  Because later is going to be a long time from now. Ouch.

I’m hoping this is all over by the time the election is over.   I know that it all won’t be over completely, but I’m hoping that I can sleep by then.  I’ve listened to enough NPR from all over the world about our election.  I’m done with that.  Let’s just vote and move on to the next stupid thing that no one agrees on.  It ain’t going to get any better this next week.

Okay, time limit is up again.  I probably should read my emails soon.  It is over a 1000 now. Most I’ve read are just well wishes, which is super nice.  Lots from people I haven’t seen in a long time, which is great.  It is the weekend.  NPR on Saturday morning is alright.  It doesn’t start early enough for me, since  Friday night is really the start of my Saturday morning currently.

Tucker has been laying on the coffee table in the living room to keep an eye on me and what is going on out front.  Pretty weird spot for a dog.