Adonis Diaries

Any cures for seeing double? (September 30, 2009)

I am resuming my previous article.

I woke up at 7:30 am on Saturday seeing double. I got in bed seeing double but I reflected that maybe my eyes are just tired; it didn’t affect my sleep or my hope in a better world.

Waking up seeing double had the world around me tumbling down. I could have waited for a couple of days shutting one eye to see singular objects or subjects on the assumption that this nasty symptom will adjust, but I didn’t count on my brother’s hysteric reaction.

Since my brother is a dentist, I figured that he might give me a relief feedback.  First my brother said nonchalantly: “See an eye physician”. I expected that answer. Ten minutes later my brother barged in my home, while I was watching the news with my folks.  He said in a horrified voice to the assembly: “I just remembered that one of my friends had such a symptom and he discovered that it was a mild stroke. You should be going to the emergency right away”.

Dad was not aware of my case and mother had not taken seriously my declamation “I am seeing double”.  Now everyone is hysteric but we have no family doctor to bother at night.

On Sunday morning, my brother told us that a physician in our hometown is head of the emergency section in a nearby hospital but he had not his phone number. I called the hospital and I got the cellular number of Alain. Alain was still asleep at 10 am and he asked me to visit him around noon.

My brother-in-law Victor gave me ride to the private clinic of the physician. Alain performed on me the usual eye movements and arms and legs stability. Since my health insurance does not cover “out” (meaning all check ups before emergency entry) the physician decided to sent me to emergency in the evening as he was to attend on me.

My niece Ashley gave me ride to the emergency room and the doctor had placed a call for the necessary checks. I was instantly led to a room and had a cardiogram, oxygen counts, and serum pouch attached to my right wrist and then dispatched to have a chest X-Ray and then a full head scanning. There is no MRI equipment in this hospital which would have been the best testing for brain hemorrhage or clotting locations.

Alain said instantly after the scanning: “Everything is fine”. I was then sent to a large private room with a private balcony facing east.  Two nurses, a male and a female, repeated the same checks of oxygen content, temperature, blood pressure, and whatever routine requires. Two of the remote controls for the TV were malfunctioning and I slept with the TV on.

I was wakened up at 5:30 am for the usual and regular checks of oxygen, pressure, and temperature. Breakfast was sent at 7:15; it was utterly milk-based breakfast of milk, yogurt, cheese, a piece of tomato, and a cucumber. No physicians visited for the entire day.

The next day afternoon an eye doctor saw me for 30 seconds and told me that my right eye is not covering the entire eye range movement: the 6^th nerve is caput. I certainly suffered a mild stroke but its location is not deep since I feel normal (no dizziness, no heaviness in the limbs, and perfectly stable on my feet.)

Then a nerve doctor visited me and filled two pages of comments before even checking me up; he asked me if I have blood pressure, sugar, cholesterol, and all that. I told him that the nurses have drawn blood twice and he should know better than me to cover all these answer if he read my files.  The nerve doctor asked for an MRI for the occipital brain, a Doppler echo for the neck arteries, and a heart echo.

The purpose is to locate exactly the location of the stroke since the solution is anyway medicine for blood anticoagulant or thinner. Only on Tuesday evening did I receive an injection of blood thinner.

I called Alain on Wednesday and he visited me before noon. The MRI was out of the question since the insurance would not cover the cost of $400.  Alain said that the insurance would cover the heart echo and the neck Doppler echo since the equipments are available within the hospital premises or “In”.

I convinced Alain that I should be released from the hospital after these two last tests. I did both tests and I was in top form.

I called mother and told her to come after 2 pm to pick me up. As my sister entered, the accounting called and said that the release bill is ready and that the insurance did not cover the heart echo of $250. There was no argumentation that the doctor assured me that the insurance agreed to cover that test.  I called Alain and he said that he called accounting and told them that it was covered.

Thus we felt relieved. I asked the nurse to remove the serum pouch and nasty needle and to prepare copy of my file. We walked in to accounting and we were surprised to learn that what the doctor said was not correct: we had to pay the $250.  Mother had some cash and I had some and we barely put together the sum. I am now to take anticoagulant medicine everyday for 6 weeks before I check again with Alain.

All these tests were done to just locate the source of the minor stroke that turned my life upside down.  I have to learn to manage with one eye open for who knows how long, if ever. I will have to learn to read, write, and publish with one eye.  I should get the courage to drive with one eye open.

The other hardship is that the hospital had no adequate eye patches and I will have to design one.  The bottom line is that one eye is failing to cover the whole range of movement and the brain is unable to superimpose the two pictures. I yet have to have my eyes tested by machines.