Doctor, Doctor Day 2

Today was Tim's turn for 2 doctor appointments.  First was the hearing appointment at 8:15 where they check to see how things are going, do any cleaning of the aids as necessary.  A quick appointment.

On the way home, we stopped at Walmart (imagine that!) to refill one of Tim's prescription meds for seizures.  While we waited for that, we had a Mickey D's breakfast sandwich.  I had an egg mcmuffin and he had a mcgriddle.  I also needed to get some cleaning supplies and more Gatorade.  While I did that, Tim sat on a bench because he still doesn't have enough strength in his legs to traipse up and down the aisles with me. Then we did the self-checkout and went to the pharmacy to pick up the drugs and headed home for a few hours.

I checked my email and found an answer from the digestive doctor that she did intend to add the Ranitidine med for me to take at night.  So, Tim went to the office and I went back to Walmart to pick up my prescription.  At 11:00 I went to the office to take him his morning dosage of pills and found him asleep in his chair.  I told him he had an hour and a half before we had to leave for the eye appointment and that he should go home and take a nap.  He agreed.  He went right to sleep and was sound asleep when I woke him at 12:20 to get ready to leave for the eye appointment.

We were at the eye appointment for 2 hours.  They tested Tim's vision thoroughly.  He has "healthy eyes."  Unfortunately, his brain has made them not work properly.  He could've gotten a new prescription, but the change was minimal and the doctor told him to save his money and buy a pair of readers, which Walmart would not have done.

The main problem Tim has is his peripheral vision.  In his left eye he has 72% visual field.  In his right eye he has 76% visual field.  If you draw a circle to represent the eye and divide the circle into quarters, the left bottom quarter of the right and left eye are basically gone.  The doctor said his vision could possibly come back, but was more probable that it would not.  So, this translates to Tim not being able to drive because the lack of peripheral vision puts other people at risk.  And he told me he basically knew that before even coming for the appointment, so at least he had not gotten his hopes up to have them dashed.

I thought it was interesting, however, that the right eye was affected, too.  Remember, the tumor was on the right side of his brain, which affected (and still does to some degree) his motor control on the left side.  So, that being the case, I did not realize that the right eye would be affected, too.  But it makes sense seeing that the same area in both eyes are affected.....bottom left quarter.  Here's a picture that was printed out from the testing they did:

The left eye diagram is on the left, etc.  The dark indicates the peripheral vision that is gone.

So, there you have it.  Our Doctor, Doctor Day 2.