Medical Updates

Today the boys and I went to the eye doctor. There is a new optometrist at the practice who seems very young. He graduated from the college where I teach. He was there when I was teaching although he didn't take a class from me. The boys got back to the exam room a few minutes before I did and he and Andrew were sharing stories about their favorite teachers at the high school. He tries a little too hard to be hip. He flips the settings on the machine and says to the boys, "So dude, do you like one better, or are you digging two?"

Brian told me to tell him about the nightmare I had a couple of days ago. So I told him about how I had a dream in which I got angry and was yelling at him and calling him "Dr. Dude." He got a kick out of that and said that he wouldn't mind being called "Dr. Dude." I confessed that we really do refer to him as "Dr. Dude" at our house. His last name is a little difficult to pronounce.

Everyone's eyes are a little worse. Andrew got new boxes of contacts. Brian got his glasses adjusted to fit his growing head and is planning on getting up on time without being reminded (starting as soon as spring break is over) so that he can have contacts. I am debating whether to get new glasses myself. I probably won't, it is only my need for prisms that has changed.

I see double without glasses, but everything is so out of focus that the two images sort of merge into each other. One optometrist accidentally had my glasses made without prisms and it was bizarre. Every time I blinked the world sort of jumped as my brain integrated two images of the world. Anything that isolates each eye (like a microscope) is hopeless. I just have to shut one eye or look at two slides. With my current glasses I am mostly fine. Dr. Dude says that with new glasses I would really only notice the difference when I was tired. I would be able to read a little later at night before the words started jumping and separating.

Dr. Dude is not sure if it would make a difference with the quarter moon phenomenon. When the moon is full the images apparently come to my brain slightly over-lapped and they get integrated -- I see one full moon. As the visible part of the moon gets smaller there is less overlap. By the time it gets to quarter there is none and the part of my brain that does the integrating work just doesn't think it's wrong. So I typically see two quarter moons. Sort of feel sorry for the rest you -- only having just one moon all month.

Brian's cold has spread to Andrew, but so far Roland and I are staying healthy. Brian also seems to be recovering quickly so I think this is just a normally head cold -- not the killer virus we all had such a hard time getting over.

It's really too bad though that Andrew is sick because he is getting his wisdom teeth out tomorrow morning (best spring break EVER). We went to the grocery store today and bought food. We bought food for after the surgery: yogurt, ice cream, mac & cheese, and ingredients for pumpkin pie. And we bought food for tonight. Dinner is steak (unusual at our house), salad and baked potatoes. We have Snickers for dessert and will be eating popcorn for a snack later.

Dr. Dude warned Andrew about anesthesia. Apparently when Dr. Dude had his wisdom teeth out years ago his mother interrogated him during the waking-up period. She found about the party he had when they were gone -- everything.