Saturday, November 22, 2008

I'M BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER

hey everybody!! thanks for all your well wishes through this strange time during the last two-three weeks.
I am pretty much all better...here is an update on my condition.
Since my episode I went and saw my primary care doctor, a neurologist, an ophthalmologist, a stroke specialist, got 2 MRIs, a ton of blood work and much prodding and poking around my body.
The blood work came back totally normal with no oddities showing up. The MRIs showed the scar tissue where my mini-stroke occurred (as you can see in the picture I already posted), but nothing else out of the ordinary showed up.
At the ophthalmologist, I received a field of vision test-which at the time had some pretty alarming results. The top left quarter (25%) of my left eye was almost completely missing-I could not see out of that corner (some peripheral and actual vision occurs there). The right eye was better but not perfect. Over the last three weeks or so, the vision has improved and I have gotten used to the rest of the seemingly permanent damage, however, it is still a constant annoyance and I am reminded all the time, everywhere I look that I could see better. The killer part is that I can not just get laser eye surgery or something...the damage is in my brain which makes it impossible to just rewire manually by a doctor-it has to heal on its own...if it even does. Nancy Shankman from the music education department gave me the name of a really great specialist at Columbia Presbyteryan Hospital that works on primarly returning vision to those who lost it due to brain trauma. I really hope he can help me...I want to drive my car agian (we're not sure about that...I think that my vision is okay enough to drive but we have to get my vision checked again...).
Okay, bedtime...you are all officially updated with my condition-perhaps I will update you all on the state of classwork or something next time (I know, thrilling).
I am in good spirits and feel great...I'm just happy to be here.
-Paul

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