Opthalmology, Migraines & Crackers

I've had a weird last few weeks or so. Besides the rampaging allergies that is just part of the joy of living in Texas, we've had the added pollution of the smoke drifting up from Mexico. So I've been tired, listless and sneezing my head off. I swear I've done my best to spend as much time in bed the last few weeks...

I went to the opthalmologist's earlier this week to see why vision has gone to hell the last year or so. I'm only 41, it shouldn't be deteriorating as fast as it is. I'd thought perhaps I'd had an optic neuritis attack because I've been having a ton of floaters, plus double vision and dimness in my good eye, but she didn't see any swelling of the optic nerve. (I'm guessing I probably did have an attack and it's healing now) So I went back the next day to have a visual field test, which came back with the same blind spots I've been having so nothing there either.

She did tell me I need glasses for distance now again. At least I got a little over 10 years of 20/20 with my RK surgery, but she told me because of the surgery I couldn't really go back to wearing contacts again. Drats, I hate wearing glasses all the time.

Anyway, all the eyestrain took it's toll. The night after the visual field I was getting ready to take a shower and go to bed when I noticed some flashing in the corner of my vision. The first thing I thought was "that's a bad floater, why hadn't I noticed it before?". Then after a few minutes of it getting larger and brighter, I realized it was visible through both eyes, and was actually a migraine halo. I don't get haloes very often, usually just the throbbing pain, but I ran and gulped a Maxalt and the flashing was almost gone by the time I got out of the shower. Just this evening I'm finally getting some pain, so perhaps the medicine stalled it for a few days.

I have been really food obsessed lately but I've been in a mood where nothing really seems to taste good. So whenever I've been hungry lately, I've been snacking on those Mini Stoned Wheat Thin crackers that you get in the fancy foods aisle of the store (near the shortbread). They're bland and salty and make me feel like I'm actually eating something. I've been eating these on and off for years, I'm sure I'll burn out again soon but for now it's green tea and crackers. And an occasional real Coke, which I rarely drink but have been craving lately.

I've also had some really major lower back pain, but I'm beginning to think that it's being aggravated by all the extra activity of hunting and throwing catnip mice that I've been engaged in lately ;-)

Posted by Morticia at May 15, 2003 10:48 PM | TrackBack