Thursday 12.11.2008

I had a wakeful night, sleeping until about 2. I got out of bed about 3, hungry, and had a snack and watched tv until I felt like going back to bed. 4:30. Then I couldn't get back to sleep. I listened to the radio until 7 or so, and got up about 8. sheesh. What's that about??

I had breakfast and got ready for the day.

I get up to Lansing Ophthalmology for my 11 o'clock appointment. I checked in, was directed to the appropriate area, and waited to be called.

After a few minutes, a young woman called my name. I got up, and she introduced herself as Kim. I told her I was a little anxious, as I have a hard time with the "this way or that way, number 1 or number 2...". She told me that it's ok, we'll take our time, and "I'm pretty good at this". Cool.

She did a good job, reassuring me and she did indeed take her time. Right off the bat she thought that the left lens wasn't right. She went through the different steps, looked at the new glasses with the machine, "#1 or #2", and we were done. She was confident that astigmatic correction on the new lens was not what I needed. She spent about 25 minutes with me.

She led me down a hallway and showed me into one of the doctor's exam rooms. I then saw her talking to Bob, who is the Dispensing Manager. He worked with me a couple of years ago with those glasses (the ones I'm wearing now) and did a good job. He came in and told me that he would take care of me after I've seen the doctor. Thanks, Bob.

So, I wait in the exam room, and after many minutes, Dr. Ebert came in. He looked over the notes the previous technicians had written about the adjustments, and Kim's exam this time, and he opened a large drawer that had many different lenses in it. He got the frame that the lenses go into, and he started building the lenses for me, referencing the prescription and Kim's notes several times while doing so. When he had the "glasses" assembled, he put them on me.

Ok, these work good. Right eye, check, left eye. Check. He did something to the left lenses which totally messed it up. Ok, he said, we had a little too much correction of the astigmatism on the new lenses. He changed the lens back to what worked, then added the magnification lenses to each side. Good again. Whew. He was very kind, wrote out the new prescription, and we were done. He led me out to to the end of the hallway, where I continued on to the desk.

Bob was there, looked up and saw me, and approached. He took the chart and asked me what we needed to do. "New lens", I said.

We went to an open desk where he looked at the paperwork, then took the new glasses over to wherever he went. When he came back, he had marked them for whatever they mark them for, and had me put them on. He carefully looked at the markings in relation to my eyes and was satisfied that they were ok. That being done, I could put my old glasses back on. He ordered the new lens in the computer, and told me he would make a phone call to see if the order could be hurried up at all, and that when the new glasses came in, he would personally dispense them to me and make sure they were good. "There's always a solution," he said. He's so kind, and good at what he does. I thanked him and went on my way.

Back home, I visited with Daniel, and before long it was time to go to my appointment with Ike.

She smiled and greeted me, and we went back to room 2.

She looked me over then started working on my arm, shoulder, abdomen, back, breast. At the end of the hour I noticed the difference, that the fluid had been moved away. If it would only stay gone...My hope is that eventually my body will have developed the channels to do so.

Back home again, and Daniel was ready to get some food, so we went to Los Tres Amigos. Yum. When we got back home, I went out for a walk in the complex. It was pretty cold. I ended up being gone maybe 40 minutes or so.

The rest of the evening I've been on the computer. I'm going in to shower, then bed.

Tomorrow is a workday.

Thank you for reading. Hugs.