Opthamologist Report

Update from Dr Alexandrakis, opthamologist, today.

Dad has no useable vision in his right eye.  Dad's left eye is at 20/100.  He has dry macular degeneration in both eyes.  Both corneas look good.  Dad's left eye surface is rough from not getting enough eye drops.  We need to give him eye drops every couple of hours, even when his eyes have been watering.  Continue the lube at night.  He feels that Dad's left eye will regain it's original shape, but wants to see him in 3 weeks to assure.  If it does not, and there is a chance especially because the eye lid surgery he had done in the past makes the eye lids tighter, then he will need a procedure that will most likely require him to go to L.A. for it, it is a very advanced procedure.

Tom is taking Dad to Dr Aziz right now, then to get blood drawn for a paracentisis tomorrow at 3:45. 

Bill

May 16th

To bring everyone up-to-date, Dad has been struggling with an ear infection in his left ear.  The drops they were giving him had no effect on the bacteria and so the Dr. changed to oral administration.  According to Mary, the Dr. is considering iv administration as the next step but first she wants to do a CT scan of the ear.  Dad says the earache can be quite painful at times, especially in the evening after dinner.  The ear canal is completely closed up and he cannot get new hearing aids until this is cleared up.  Thankfully the folks at the hearing aid company he goes to had a “demo” amplifier they could put into his right ear and that has improved things.

I played tennis with him this am and he’s tired of these inconveniences but he still keeps plugging along.  He walked up the slope to the tennis courts slowly but without stopping as far as I could tell.  He can’t see the ball for $%$#, but he still managed some good shots.  He had courtside conversations with the other players telling them about Nedra who has sprained her ankle.  He had a fall, I think out of bed, and bumped his head.  There is a half dollar size bruise and it looks like it’s healing okay.

Mary is taking him to the ear Dr. on Thursday, I’m not sure when the CT scan is (it was just scheduled), he gets blood tested today, and another EPO shot on Tuesday.  Bill is considering coming down for a visit next week.

According to Dr Rose's patient notes Dad was seen today, his canal is slightly less edematous (filled with blood) but she still cannot see the ear drum.  Dr Rose added a prescription for tylenol with Codeine.

Nov 9, 2009 Update

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to give everyone a short update on how Dad is doing. Just over a week ago, Dad went down to Palm Desert with Woody to hangout with Nedra for a few days. They came home on Sunday, Nov 1. The next morning Dad says he was having difficulty seeing, especially out of his left eye. Everything looked distorted. At tennis that morning, yeah he stilled played tennis, he could not see the ball until it was right in front of him and he really couldn't see the faces of the people he was playing against. He couldn't read the newspaper either. Fortunately, he had mentioned this to his regular dr about a month earlier who set him up with an eye specialist, which happened to be that day, Monday. The specialist saw dad and told him that he has Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and scheduled him for eye surgery last Wed, Nov 4th.

Tom took him to the surgery on the 4th and exactly what they did is a little sketchy, what they did was place a membrane in the back of his eye that is filled with a solution, so basically a bubble. The body absorbs the solution over time and lays down a new membrane that the eye can focus on. Dad believes the dr told him that he has dry AMD as opposed to wet AMD, in case you want to do further research. Dad does have stitches in the back of his eye and right now they are itching, which means they are healing. It will take 3 - 7 days for the body to absorb the fluid in the bubble and Dad is scheduled to go back to the dr this Thursday at 3:00. Dad's vision over the past few days has been getting slowly better, where last Thursday he probably had a 90% or greater loss and now he is able to see some, but he says it is like looking at something under water. As John explained it to me. the bubble is placed in front of the retina or his focal point and until it is absorbed, his focus is out of whack. Dad's eye was sore for the first few days but the pain is gone and replaced with the itching.

Dad also has been having problems with his hearing for the past several months. Dad went to Costco hearing center and said "my grandkids are complaining that my hearing aid is whistling', so the guy said "I can fix that" and plugged the vent holes in the hearing aide. Unfortunately, those holes are required to allow your ear to remain dry and with them plugged he basically had sweat in his ear that developed a fungus that wouldn't go away. After several months of medication, Dad went to a different hearing center where the lady looked at his hearing aide and told him that someone plugged his hearing aide and that was causing his problems. Well after removing his hearing aide for awhile, the medication had a chance to work and he now has a new hearing aid, just got it last Thursday. The hearing aid is actually outside the ear with a small tube leading inside the ear. He can hear much better and these new hearing aides don't whistle. He is still having a little problem hearing in a large group with several people talking and says he especially has difficulty hearing the women. I think it is a feature of the hearing aide that many men would pay for, but we are going to go back in tomorrow and see if they can't fine tune it a little more to help with this situation.

I am making a list of question for the eye dr on Thursday, so if there are any questions that you would like asked, just let me know and I will add them to the list.

Overall, Dad is in good spirits and hopeful that the dr and his eyesight will allow him to resume playing tennis shortly. Al and Woody have both called checking on Dad as well as his neighbors.

Love,

Bill and Dad