Limping nurse and Picachu
Mar. 12th, 2003 09:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidLast night included a visit to the nurse-practitioner, and an a cappella show.
I'd made the appointment because the double vision I was getting, on top of the month and a half of headaches, scared me. Hypochondriac that I can be, I thought about brain tumors and all sorts of scary possibilities.
Happily, this is unlikely.
The nurse listened to my timeline of events, then started tests. Ears, eyes, and throat had lights shined in them (so bright my eyes had strangely-shaped and colored after-images for quite some time). Then she tested my reflexes. I had to alternate touching index fingers to my nose with my eyes shut, and touch fingers and thumbs in a pattern with eyes shut. She bonked me by the knees, and my legs shot out. What surprised me was that she went on to hit near my elbow, and on the back of my foot. Nothing happened, but apparently as long as both sides do the same thing, and don't do whatever particular wrong thing, it's fine. I took off shoes and socks, and she ran the tip of some scissors in a curve along the bottom of each foot; she was surprised there wasn't a reflex reaction to that, but in the end, all my reflexes are ok, so it's unlikely I have major brain damage or anything. Hooray.
Instead, I apparently have a vision migraine (?). I now have drugs (well, drug, a Midrin-substitute) to take. If I still have problems in a couple of weeks, I get a CAT scan. Oh, and I need to see an opthamologist.
I walked to the All Asia Cafe to meet Bitty (and, as it turned out, a recently-returned Bubblebabble) for an a cappella performance.
I'd not been to this place before. The name made me thing of something like the Middle East, but apparently it's more bar than cafe. There are small booths along the wall, some high tables with stools, and the bar in the middle of the room. Some interesting art on the walls, too.
Apparently the food is mediocre. I tried a mango pearl (tapioca) drink. It was interesting. I like tapioca, but was surprised to see that they were brown in this drink, looking like bits of date lurking at the bottom of the glass. They were large, so the straw that came with was wider than usual, which made it look rather... medical.
Turns out there was a cover charge. In another small-world moment, the guy taking the covers was someone I know slightly from work.
I hadn't realized there would be two groups. The first was the Harvard Callbacks, and they were quite good. The corner area that was the stage was far from an ideal place to perform, with some speakers casting strange shadows, the acoustics a bit strange, and some posts in the way of sight lines. Still, they did a good job. I was surprised that they left one song into the other group's set, though.
The other group, Soundstage 7, was a hextet (is that really a word?) including Bitty's friend Hyounpark. They used microphones, which were a mixed blessing. At times they seemed to work fine, while at others, not at all. I missed some of the banter between songs, for instance, and there were some microphone sounds at times, too. The music was a lot of fun. I knew only one or two of the songs, and enjoyed the lot of them. Picachu definitely stood out, and the "in *these* shoes" song, too, for fun lyrics. I think I'd like to hear them in a better venue.
Oh, and I have to mention Hyounpark's shoes, clunky thick-soled black shoes he could do en pointe in... with three silver stars on each toe.
By the walk home, the drug had knocked out the headache :-), and it felt like if I had just a bit more mental energy to focus, I might've forced the double vision away, too. I hoped a good night's sleep would help, and I think it has, some, but it's not quite over yet. I hope it ends soon...
F
I'd made the appointment because the double vision I was getting, on top of the month and a half of headaches, scared me. Hypochondriac that I can be, I thought about brain tumors and all sorts of scary possibilities.
Happily, this is unlikely.
The nurse listened to my timeline of events, then started tests. Ears, eyes, and throat had lights shined in them (so bright my eyes had strangely-shaped and colored after-images for quite some time). Then she tested my reflexes. I had to alternate touching index fingers to my nose with my eyes shut, and touch fingers and thumbs in a pattern with eyes shut. She bonked me by the knees, and my legs shot out. What surprised me was that she went on to hit near my elbow, and on the back of my foot. Nothing happened, but apparently as long as both sides do the same thing, and don't do whatever particular wrong thing, it's fine. I took off shoes and socks, and she ran the tip of some scissors in a curve along the bottom of each foot; she was surprised there wasn't a reflex reaction to that, but in the end, all my reflexes are ok, so it's unlikely I have major brain damage or anything. Hooray.
Instead, I apparently have a vision migraine (?). I now have drugs (well, drug, a Midrin-substitute) to take. If I still have problems in a couple of weeks, I get a CAT scan. Oh, and I need to see an opthamologist.
I walked to the All Asia Cafe to meet Bitty (and, as it turned out, a recently-returned Bubblebabble) for an a cappella performance.
I'd not been to this place before. The name made me thing of something like the Middle East, but apparently it's more bar than cafe. There are small booths along the wall, some high tables with stools, and the bar in the middle of the room. Some interesting art on the walls, too.
Apparently the food is mediocre. I tried a mango pearl (tapioca) drink. It was interesting. I like tapioca, but was surprised to see that they were brown in this drink, looking like bits of date lurking at the bottom of the glass. They were large, so the straw that came with was wider than usual, which made it look rather... medical.
Turns out there was a cover charge. In another small-world moment, the guy taking the covers was someone I know slightly from work.
I hadn't realized there would be two groups. The first was the Harvard Callbacks, and they were quite good. The corner area that was the stage was far from an ideal place to perform, with some speakers casting strange shadows, the acoustics a bit strange, and some posts in the way of sight lines. Still, they did a good job. I was surprised that they left one song into the other group's set, though.
The other group, Soundstage 7, was a hextet (is that really a word?) including Bitty's friend Hyounpark. They used microphones, which were a mixed blessing. At times they seemed to work fine, while at others, not at all. I missed some of the banter between songs, for instance, and there were some microphone sounds at times, too. The music was a lot of fun. I knew only one or two of the songs, and enjoyed the lot of them. Picachu definitely stood out, and the "in *these* shoes" song, too, for fun lyrics. I think I'd like to hear them in a better venue.
Oh, and I have to mention Hyounpark's shoes, clunky thick-soled black shoes he could do en pointe in... with three silver stars on each toe.
By the walk home, the drug had knocked out the headache :-), and it felt like if I had just a bit more mental energy to focus, I might've forced the double vision away, too. I hoped a good night's sleep would help, and I think it has, some, but it's not quite over yet. I hope it ends soon...
F
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Re: Glaucoma test
Date: 2003-03-12 10:37 am (UTC)(I tend not to watch needles going into me either, and tried to avoid seeing the pins in my hand when they were in; that brought me much closer to fainting than I've been before.).
I don't know anything about glaucoma, other than it has to do with pressure in the eye. Is it something that can be treated, or is it more a monitoring to see that things don't get worse?
Re: Glaucoma test
Date: 2003-03-12 10:53 am (UTC)Glaucoma is high pressure of the fluids within your eyeball. Untreated, this puts pressure on your optic nerve, which slowly gets crushed. I'm not sure exactly what causes the high pressure; I imagine that it's vaguely like having high blood pressure, maybe. (No direct relation that I'm aware of, though; my BP is just fine.)
Glaucoma can be treated but not cured. So unless something changes, I'll be taking medicine for it for the rest of my life. Oh well. Things could be much worse. Untreated it can lead to blindness, so people who have it or who are at risk for it or who just haven't had it checked in a while should get it checked. Mine was diagnosed when I was 11, before it had a chance to do any real damage. Treatment for me has consisted of eyedrops; my father (who also has it) also takes oral meds. But the treatment hasn't been more invasive than that.
One symptom connected with glaucoma is seing rainbow halos around bright lights (like headlights at night). I don't know what other clues there are that one might be at risk; I was getting tested regularly because I inherited all my father's eye problems, so we figured I'd get this one too. I get the impression that even absent any predisposition toward it, one should get checked every few years just to be safe.
I am, of course, not a doctor or other person with actual credentials...
Re: Glaucoma test
Date: 2003-03-12 10:59 am (UTC)Thanks for the explanation of glaucoma.
At first I read it and thought, "but I see rainbow halos sometimes!" Then I realized that that's when I'm looking at things without my glasses on (I'm extremely nearsighted), so of course they look strange...
Still, it sounds like it's time for me to get my eyes checked.
s