a bit of good news

[miriam_e]

Went to an eye specialist yesterday. He thinks that although it looks similar to macular degeneration, what I have is not that, but a viral infection in the retina of my right eye. He believes it will continue to worsen for a while as it runs its course, then quit leaving some permanent damage, but at least without blinding me. Best of all he doubts it will spread to the other eye. While this is not really great news, it is certainly way better than the prospect of going blind in the near future. Yay?

Comments

[patchworkkid.livejournal.com]

That's pretty awesome news, double-edged as it is. All the best for you, Miriam.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

:) Thanks
I'm supposed to go along for a followup appointment, but I'm really doubting I'll go. At $270 this appointment cost as much as a month's rent. I don't think anything can be done to help viral infections, generally. I might make an appointment with the local GP again (at least he bulk-bills so I can afford it) and see if any anti-viral drugs like zovirax or interferon might work. I think interferon costs thousands of dollars though.

This makes me think of something I keep harping on in my waffles: The rich tend not to care about the poor being blinded by illness because they aren't "deserving" of better medical help, but I imagine they would have problems with being exposed to an epidemic of it if it's allowed to flourish unchecked in the poor. I wonder if this might be the beginning of something like that. (A tad over dramatic I know, but I remember when I was living in Sydney and reading in the science journals of the first cases of AIDS, before it even had a name, and wondering what this weird new disease was. They generally thought it was a fairly innocuous curiosity. Even when it started to grow to the beginnings of an epidemic nobody was terribly worried as it appeared to hit only gay guys. There was a point near the beginning where it could have been brought under control, but the opportunity was thrown away.)