Eye Doctor Blog

Yesterday I saw an opthalmologist. (Which has to be one of the strangest words I've ever encountered. Did you know it's pronounced off-thal-mologist?)

Actually, the opthalmologist whom I saw was rather strange himself, but in a nice way.

I saw Dr. Oph (I'm assuming a nick-name basis here for the sake of simplicity) at the suggestion of Dr. Pulmonoligist. As I understand it, there were at least two reasons for this:

(1) Sarcoidosis...

Digression Alert: For the sake of simplicity, I am also going to assume a nick-name basis for my relationship with that oh-so-ugly name for a condition for which I shall never feel any affection. I shall no longer refer to my affliction by its revoltingly proper name, but shall instead revert to a more familiar form of addressing my medication-requiring conditions; henceforth, I do not have sarcoidosis, but rather, ODD (Oxygen Deficit Disorder). There -- that sounds better, doesn't it?

All right then...

(1) ODD can also affect the eyes. (Of course then it wouldn't be ODD; I would have to come up with another name.) If Dr. Oph had discovered granulomas in my eyes, it would have helped Dr. Pulmonoligist to be more certain of his diagnosis. (I should mention here that once I had read about symptoms of the disease that can cause granulomas to appear in eyes, I immediately realized that I had had all of them at one time or another. Perhaps that had some influence on Dr. Pulmonologist's decision to send me to Dr. Oph.)

(2) I am now beginning my second week of taking prednisone (or The Big P, as I like to call it.) TBP can cause cataracts if taken for a long period of time (i.e., three years or more), so I suppose an exam by Dr. Oph would determine if cataracts were already present, pre-TBP.

The good news is that Dr. Oph found no signs of granulomas, glaucoma or cataracts. My optic nerve looks good, and pressure is normal. In fact, my prescription hasn't even changed in the last two years. The downside is that there's no help for Dr. Pulmonoligist and the certainty of his diagnosis.

Oh -- Did I mention that, although I do indeed have granulomas in my lungs, they are not 100 percent like the granulomas normally found with ODD. Here -- do you see the difference?

"Normal" ODD granulomas tend to be smaller clusters, and more numerous than those that appear in my lungs. See how mine are larger and more "flowery" appearing. (No, Dr. Pulmonologist did not actually use the word "flowery." I just like it, ok?)

So while there is still room for a diagnosis change somewhere down the road, for now, in addition to ADD, I also have ODD -- the flowery variety.