cronechronicler

July 14 was a wonderful day. I joined the small church where I was once pastor for the 175th Anniversary of its founding. My son, who had spent many weekends visiting me there, was my escort. It was a lovely travel back in time. By the end of the month I was in quite different territory.

Toward the end of July while typing the newsletter for the apartment building where I live – along with the word game ladies and the wonderful patio occupied by oak trees and squirrels, I suddenly saw bizarre forms marching across my computer screen. Upside-down vee’s and scallop-like humps decorated the page. This went on for several days until I finished my task. Then my vision returned to a new sort of normal. I thought stress had done me in. Typing was never my strong suit.

About a month later, on the day after Labor Day, I awoke with horrendous pain in my right knee and down my leg. I had experienced pain from sciatica before, but never like this. My doctor prescribed pain medication which took care of things until the RX ran out. The next step was x-rays and a visit to an orthopedic doctor. He told me that my knee had almost no cartilage left. In due time I’ll be a candidate for a knee replacement which this doctor specializes in. Nice to know but I think I’ll wait. Instead I’ll go for Physical Therapy.

At a regular check-up with my eye doctor I reported the strange vision I had experienced in July. She said if I had notified her when it happened she would have sent me straight to the ER to check me out for a TIA. Instead she sent me to a retina specialist. This doctor diagnosed me with age-related macular degeneration, the wet kind, and gave me an injection in my eye. During the hour I had spent in the waiting room I heard a woman talking about having such injections for the past five years with the result that she could still do most of the things that mattered to her, including driving. Never dreaming that I was about to discover I had the same problem, I nodded to myself that that was a good thing. After I received the diagnosis I thought that I would probably be able to see until I was ninety.

My primary care physician received reports concerning these visits. Wait for the next installment to see where that led me.