My hearing is fine - I'm just remind of an old-timer I knew many years ago who was fond of that saying.
"You're going to have to speak up; I'm deaf in one ear and can't hear out of the other."
The week before last I woke up and noticed I had a blotch in the vision of my right eye. There was an afterimage whenever I blinked, and everything in the blotch area was blurry as if being viewed through rippled glass. I did some reading on torn retinae, and I was pretty sure that's now what I was dealing with. I'd suffered a couple of (what I figured out were) ocular migraines in the preceding month - none since - and I initially wondered if this might be related. Since there were no other symptoms, I decided to leave it for a day or two and see if it got any better or worse. By the weekend it was unchanged, so I had![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
atara drive me down to the 24-hour emergency eye centre to get it checked.
They traced it to a retinal bleed, probably caused by high blood pressure. They told me they were going to book me in with a retinal specialist, and in the meantime strongly urged me to see my own GP to address my blood pressure (at the clinic they'd measured it ridiculously high). I managed to get in to see my doctor on Tuesday (by moving up an existing appointment) and he measured my blood pressure as high, but nowhere near the dire readings they'd taken at the clinic. (Fortunately, he'd received the results of my bloodwork from the week before, so it was a productive appointment all around). He gave me a prescription for a calcium blocker and ordered me to come back in two weeks for a follow-up.
We have a blood pressure machine thatatara borrowed from a coworker some time back (who subsequently left the company without ever asking for it back). I am convinced that it reads my blood pressure consistently high, but I've been tracking it daily anyway because even it if reads high, it is still showing it dropping day by day.
In addition to the new medicine, I've also drastically reduced the amount of salt I've been using. I haven't eliminated it entirely, but I've cut it significantly.
I was using way too much salt.
My doctor also mentioned my weight, and said that it was something we'd have to begin to address. On the plus side (pun intended) I've been more active so far this summer than I have been since I used to work an outdoor job, and I've actually lost about 15 pounds since the start of the season. If I can keep doing what I've been doing the past couple of months, I shouldn't need to change much at all if I want to keep shedding the pounds.
So, other than being half-blind in my right eye at the moment, I am doing pretty well health-wise.
"You're going to have to speak up; I'm deaf in one ear and can't hear out of the other."
The week before last I woke up and noticed I had a blotch in the vision of my right eye. There was an afterimage whenever I blinked, and everything in the blotch area was blurry as if being viewed through rippled glass. I did some reading on torn retinae, and I was pretty sure that's now what I was dealing with. I'd suffered a couple of (what I figured out were) ocular migraines in the preceding month - none since - and I initially wondered if this might be related. Since there were no other symptoms, I decided to leave it for a day or two and see if it got any better or worse. By the weekend it was unchanged, so I had
atara drive me down to the 24-hour emergency eye centre to get it checked.They traced it to a retinal bleed, probably caused by high blood pressure. They told me they were going to book me in with a retinal specialist, and in the meantime strongly urged me to see my own GP to address my blood pressure (at the clinic they'd measured it ridiculously high). I managed to get in to see my doctor on Tuesday (by moving up an existing appointment) and he measured my blood pressure as high, but nowhere near the dire readings they'd taken at the clinic. (Fortunately, he'd received the results of my bloodwork from the week before, so it was a productive appointment all around). He gave me a prescription for a calcium blocker and ordered me to come back in two weeks for a follow-up.
We have a blood pressure machine that
atara borrowed from a coworker some time back (who subsequently left the company without ever asking for it back). I am convinced that it reads my blood pressure consistently high, but I've been tracking it daily anyway because even it if reads high, it is still showing it dropping day by day.In addition to the new medicine, I've also drastically reduced the amount of salt I've been using. I haven't eliminated it entirely, but I've cut it significantly.
I was using way too much salt.
My doctor also mentioned my weight, and said that it was something we'd have to begin to address. On the plus side (pun intended) I've been more active so far this summer than I have been since I used to work an outdoor job, and I've actually lost about 15 pounds since the start of the season. If I can keep doing what I've been doing the past couple of months, I shouldn't need to change much at all if I want to keep shedding the pounds.
So, other than being half-blind in my right eye at the moment, I am doing pretty well health-wise.
