Brighter than Usual

My day today started in quite a hurry. Right after I woke up I had to get in the car to go to the eye doctor. I woke up about an hour before we were supposed to be there, but it takes about that long to drive there. I didn't even have time to eat breakfast, or change my clothes. I just got out of bed, turned off my radio alarm clock, grabbed my backpack, my phone and my purse and headed out the door. The sun wasn't even up yet by the time we left, the mountains were still blocking it. It was around 8am.

I just took out my phone and my ear buds, and turned on dubstep radio on Pandora. I was trying to wake up. I was still a little dazed, because I had only been asleep for 5 minutes by the time we left. My mom and I didn't really talk very much on the way there. I was mainly half dozing, half sleeping, just caught between being awake and asleep. Everything went by me so fast and time seemed to just zoom past me. The car ride didn't seem that long, but we were in the car for probably 45 minutes driving up to the office. By the time we got to my eye doctor's office the sun was up. 

We went inside, and and told the person at the front we were there, signed a couple things, provided the info for my insurance, and boring stuff like that.  We then were told to wait, so we sat in some nearby chairs. I was doing something on my phone, don't remember now, but I remember it wasn't a game or anything like that. I try not to do anything that can strain my eyes before I go to the eye doctor. I try to avoid anything that will mess with my eye doctor's ability to give me a good prescription for glasses. I don't war glass very often, but it is always good if I have an accurate pair just in case.

I was called into the office about 10 minutes after we sat down. He put that funny contraption up against my face, the one they use to see how far you can be corrected. He used that to do the right eye / left eye test where you read the letters that are a certain distance away first. Without correction I could only read the first letter with both my right and my left eyes. He then did the correction to the best of his ability and I had to go through the process where you hear a lot of "do you like 1 or 2 better". It's kind of hard for me to tell which one is clearer when I look through that thing because of my nystagmus. My nystagmus makes my eyes move around and it's hard to focus. I am glad he knows how to accurately tell my perscription even with my troubles. 

He put some numbing drops in my eyes, and then he did a pressure test. I then had a few other drops put in my eyes to dilate my eyes. I was then told to wait outside for a few minutes until they dilated.  I went outside the little room I was in and I waited there for what I think was 8 to 10 minutes. By the time I was called back into the little room it was very bright and I had put my sunglasses on. The doctors assistant or something turned the lights down, but it was still pretty bright.  After this we did another pressure test, and the doctor checked my eyes with this really bright light, actually he used more than one bright light, I think he did like 3 separate things. I have no idea what he was doing. One of those times he used that funny thing they use to check what your glasses prescription is and checked my eyes through there. It was at this time he checked to see what my correction was again. I think I only had to answer the 1 or 2 question like twice. He adjusted my prescription a little bit.

We were done after this. My vision with correction is 20/ 300 in one eye and 20 / 200 in the other. My prescription this time is a little bit stronger, but not much.  We left right after this, well right after we gave him this form I needed to have filled out for school proving m vision impairment so I can use the accessibility office at school if I need to. After we gave him that, he said he would fill it out and give it back to us sometime soon. We left after this. I grabbed some of the plastic shades first of course before I did this so it wouldn't be so bright.

I just listened to music and dozed off again while we were driving. When we got close to the school we started talking about where we wanted to go for lunch.  We decided on this little place called "Mimi's Cafe". I had never been there before, and my mom said it was good. I had their french toast a few years back at some kind of food fair, but that was about it.

When we went in they asked us if we wanted the breakfast menu, or the lunch menu. I had been wearing both my sunglasses, and the plastic ones I got at the office at the same time because it was so bright, I took off mine when we got there though.  We picked the lunch menu, and then they brought us to our table.  We sat down and I started looking over the menu. I decided on the strawberry banana shake for a drink, and it took me a few more minutes after I ordered the drink to decide what I wanted to eat.  My mom just got a water, and she ordered some kind of dipping platter for an appetizer. I ordered the sweet and sour chicken meal, it had sweet and sour chicken, rice, and vegetables. My mom got this pot roast dish, I forgot what else it had on it. After a few minutes we were brought our water, and the appetizer, and I was brought my shake. My shake was in a really cool tall glass and had whipped cream on top.  I should probably mention that it was made by a bartender. I thought that was kind of cool.

The appetizer had crispy chicken sticks, and some kind of zucchini sticks.  There was also 3 kinds of sauces, tomato, ranch, and I'm not quite sure what the 3rd one was but it was great. After we waited for a while longer we were brought the food we ordered.  Both of our dishes were great. I loved everything about my sweet and sour chicken, rice, and vegetables, and my mom's dish looked pretty professional looking as well. I was very glad we decided to g there, it was obviously high quality and they all did their jobs well. We just sat there talking and eating for a while, really enjoying our food and talking about a sports team that was sitting nearby us. We were trying to figure out what kind of school they were from. Later after they started to leave we noticed they were from another local school besides the one I go to.

After we were done we put the rest of our stuff in a take home box, paid, and then left. I got out my pair of shades and put them over the plastic ones again. 

We drove to school and my mom dropped me off at the library. I was wishing I had brought my cane right about then, because things were a bit more blurry than they usually are when my eyes were dilated, plus I had 2 pairs of shades on, so it was pretty different. I somehow managed to walk to my class without tripping or running into anyone. When I got to class we just discussed our essay and stuff, nothing that interesting.

Astronomy was awesome today, we talked about stuff like the movement of planets, more stuff about orbits, comets, and stuff like that. What really got my interest was when we went off on a tangent at the beginning of class when someone asked something about warp speed. The professor proceeded to tell us more about how warp speed works, and that they are getting closer to being able to achieve it for space travel. He explained what anti-matter is and how it works and stuff like that as well. My mind was so blown by the time class ended. I have a whole new level of hope for space travel in the future now. We also talked about other possibly inhabitable planets that are 40 or less light years away from us, and a few other space travel related things.

The room that astronomy is in is pretty dim, so I actually took off my sunglasses for a while, the plastic ones were starting to bug my ears a little. I was glad I got to take them off during astronomy, I was a lot more comfortable.  Also, there is usually a chair in the front I sit in, but I decided to sit somewhere else in one of the other chairs. I chose a really good spot and it was awesome the whole time I was there.  We are going to be using the planetarium again on Monday and are going to be simulating more stars and stuff. I think if it is anything like last time we used the planetarium it is going to be awesome. 

After class ended I walked to the library where I usually wait for my ride and called my mom. I was going to go to Jamba Juice while I was waiting, but changed my mind. I was craving a smoothie but decided to make one myself when I got home.  It took my mom a while to get to the school to pick me up, I was only wearing one pair of shades by this time, things weren't as bright by the time school was over. 

I dozed off again on my way back home, I was pretty tired. Nothing much happened after school. I ate some pineapple, and just hung around the house looking through our new cable channels, watching anime, and working on homework. We had bought the pineapple a few days earlier and it was getting to be a little too ripe, I was the only one that noticed this, and it was just in time too! 

It took my eyes another hour or two for the brightness to wear off.I am a little bit behind in English, so I am mostly going to be working on catching up and working on my essay and upcoming astronomy quizzes. I really hope this will not be a boring weekend.  Anyway, I am probably going to go back to reading manga or something, so I'll write more later. Sorry for the lack of updates.

Needle Pricks

So for a couple of years now, probably 3 or 4 I've been having some troubles with my wrist. I expect it has something to do withe the fact that I spend most of my time on the computer, and the repetetive movements I do with my fingers and wrist when I move the mouse. I try to be careful when I am moving the mouse around, I try not to click a lot, it causes my wrist to get worse sometimes. We are still trying to find out the whole cause of it hurting though. We also think it might have something to do with a Ganglion Cyst, I have one that appears sometimes and usually the times when it appears are the times i have been using the computer mouse more heavily, or have been doing repetetive movements with my hand or fingers. I have been trying to do more things that involve less mouse clicking lately. 

I have been meaining to go to the docktor and get it checked out for years now but I had no insurance until now. Since I am on SSI even though I hate being on SSI it has allowed me to get insurance finally, so now I can do stuf at the doctor now like i've been meaning to for years. I mentioned a few days ago that I had my first check up in a while, probably about 3 or 4 years. When I had that checkup my doctor took a look at my wrist and he said we could do a few things about it. One of those thingswas we could have an ultrasound done on it to see if they cold find anything wrong.

When I had my checkup a few days ago we also dicided to do my basic blood work as well, so I decided that when I got my ultrasound on my wrist I would also get my blood drawn since I would be at the hospital anyway.

We did this yesterday, a few hours after I posted my accent challenge post. It was cold and rainy, we left about 3:30pm.  When we got to the hospital my dad dropped me off at the door and went and parked. I just stood there in the lobby looking at the map and checked facebook on my phone really fast. Dad came inside the lobby about 2 minutes later and we walked to the place where I was going to get my blood drawn. The room was fairly medium size, it had booths that were separated by curtains. Each booth had one chair and 1 table to put your arm on for when they drew the blood. I sat down on the chair and watched the nurse get the stuff ready. She asked me if I was fasting and I said no, then she told me to put my arm on the table. I hadn't gotten my blood drawn in years but I still remembered the last time I got it drawn, so I wasn't that nervous because I remembered t didn't hurt at all really.  I remember when I got it done the first time, and the only other time I have had it done. I was pretty scared the first time, I looked away that time, I probably should have done it this time as well.

There is something really weird about watching a needle being shoved up your vain in your arm. I think me watching her do it actually made it hurt a little. She had tied one of those rubber tourniquet things around my arm, I don't really know what those are for, but i think it's part of the reason why it doesn't hurt that much. She pulled it off when the needle was still inside my arm. it didn't really make that much of a difference, but i made me a little nervous,  I think this little bit ov nervousness was also from watching the needle inside my arm as well though. I was glad when she took it outof my arm and taped it off. It wasn't really that traumatic, but I was glad to have it over with, and wished that I hadn't looked.

After this we went to the imaging center to get the ultrasound on my wrist done. When we got to the office they showd mea  sheet of information and told me to verify it, after I did that they told me to sit down and wait. I just played around with my iPhone for a while and about 10 minutes later they called me in. It was in a dimly lit room with a normal medical bed. I sat down on the bed and layed my hand on my leg. The doctor put this jelly stuff on my wrist and she began to to over my wrist with the machine. I had never had an ultrasound before so this was really interesting to me, even though i didn't see anything on the monitor it was still a pretty cool experience, it made me curious. The doctor told me that they would have a look at the pictures and they would get back to me today. We left after this.

We went to the store after that and picked up some fruit, juice, nuts, and a few other things. We had picked up my mom just before this so she was with me and my dad. They got occupied with a presentation they were doing, I think it was some kind of blender. We were at Costoco, and I just decided to go see if there were any books I would be interested in. sometimes there are some pretty neat books. There were also some old TV shows on DVD, including Perry Mason which I love a lot. I was so tempted to buy the DVDs.  I managed to un glue my parents from whatever they were doing and we picked up some chips and a few other things and went through the checkout stand. I was really hungry and got a piece of pizza. I love costco's pizza it is my favorite!

We went home after this and I just got back on the computer after unloading the groceries. I moderated the Destiny Forums for a while and read some stuff on Xanga as well. I took a nap for a few hours after this. Nothing much else happened after that, just the usual so far as I can remember. It was a pretty interesting day.

today I got the results back, they came back normal, I think I just need to rest my wrist more so the pain won't come back. I was just reading doing that can help the cyst go away, and the pain as well. I have been being more careful lately and I think it has been working. Even before I read about it I kind of guessed that t would help if i didn't do as many repetetive movements.

It's been kind of a boring rainy day today. I've been catching up on some anime and starting some new ones. Anyway, I guess this is all for now. I might go on COLOURlovers for a while after this. I actually forgot to give you the link to my profile on there last time. 

Starberry

Absent Minded

Forgive me for being so out of it on Xanga lately.  I have just needed some time to myself for a while. I decided to devote more time to Destiny Online for a while, killing monsters, and talking with friends can be very relaxing.  I have thought about Xanga every day, even though I haven't written anything for almost two weeks. I try to stop when I start feeling like it's a little forced, I was starting to feel that way and decided I needed to slow down a bit for a while. It's been a pretty uneventful month so far anyway, besides Darik and Dylan going off to work for the summer, Kayla getting baptized, me getting sick for the first time in forever, and having to deal with a few other things.

I had my first doctor's appointment in probably 3 years. it was just a general checkup. I have a new doctor now so we just got t know each other a little and he just did a normal check up. I told him about some problems I am having with my wrist, and some weird stuff i hear in my ears sometimes, turns out that is normal, but my wrist is going to be checked out in a few days, they are also going to do my basic bloodwork. I have to get my blood drawn sometime this week. It was pretty nice meeting my doctor, we just talked for a while. I can't wait to meet the other doctors there, they seem pretty good. I am going to another doctor for my wrist exam. I will make sure to update you on that when it happens.

Anyway, so the past few weeks i've been really active on Destiny Online, I even started buying gold and training a lot more and participating in the events more. I think I am starting to wind down again though, I might become less active in a while, it's starting to wear on me, and I think i'm going to stop buying gold as well. The game itself isn't that great, i just mostly bought gold for it because I have a lot of friends on there and i wanted I catch up to them in level. If you look at my activity patterns on Xanga since I joined you will notice I have a few activity gaps, some of them are quite large, especially in 2009. I can honestly say that most of these were caused by the game. I started being more active on the game and the exact opposite happened on here every time. I feel a little bad about this so I try not to stay away for too long every time I disappear.

I said a few weeks ago I was coming back to Xanga in full swing, I decided to wait a little longer. I still felt a little pressured at the time, so I decided to just let it be for a bit longer. I never forget about Xanga though.

Anyway, I have a lot more I want to say but I will save it for tomorrow, I'm really tired ha ha.

The Eye Doctor

so yesterday I had to go to the eye doctor. I’m trying to get SSI income, and insurance so I can get a neurological scan and some other things that I really need.

It was really interesting. We filled out a few forms to get started at this new office that I had never been too. My eye doctor was one up in primary Children’s hospital for so long called Dr. Hoffman. When I was in my senior year of high school I started going to another one though. Can’t remember his name but he seemed pretty good. He was a good doctor but I am a bit tricky when it comes to measuring my vision. If your not really careful and check to make sure the correction you give me is right for sure then I can end up with the wrong prescription for glasses. That can mix a lot of things up trust me.

I went to this doctor 2 different times. 1 time at the end of high school. That time he said my eyesight was better than it used to be. He said it was 20 / 100 with best correction. The second time he said that my best correction was 20 / 80. I thought my vision had gotten better again. Well I went to this really great eye doctor, they were so professional about their job!

First they did the test with my glasses on, that thing they make you stare at and rad the letters. They keep making the letters smaller until you say you can not read them.   Then they had me do a color blind test. I am not color blind and I aced it as usual. Then they did a test that had me staring at a grid, I had to look at a little dot in the middle of the grid and tell the doctor if i had distorted vision, that is if the grid looked distorted. I did not have distorted vision thankfully.

Then they checked how much my vision could be corrected, you know when you look through that machine, and they flip the lenses back and forth and ask you which one you can see through better.

Well this is where it got interesting. I don’t know what it was but we were able to find out that my former doctor made a few mistakes when measuring my vision. The people at this new office I went to were really thorough about their jobs and did so many tests that I did not get from my other doctor. I really liked it. They were able to properly diagnose me with 20 / 200 vision with BEST correction. So in other words my vision has not gotten any better. I know I haven’t gotten any worse, I would have noticed that so the former diagnoses es of 20/ 100, and 20 / 80 from my former doctor were wrong. 

I can’t say I’m sad about this because me being legally blind officially again, even with glasses is a good thing for SSI. I will have a lot better chance of qualifying for it.

So next they did a pressure check. They put the numbing drops in my eyes that make my eyes feel really weird, and then they did the pressure test. I don’t know exactly what they do but they had to apply a little bit of pressure of something like that to my eyes with this really little blue thing. I is always a little difficult for me to do this because of my nystagmus. The doctor had to keep my eyes open with her fingers because it’s a natural instinct of my eyes that I should close them when something is going to touch them. My nystagmus had a factor in it as well. My eyes wanted to go crazy but I had to resist and keep them from moving as much as possible it was tricky. 

After this the doctor put a series of drops in my eyes. he put another set of numbing drops in my eyes to dull the sting of the dilating drops. He dilated my eyes with eye drops.

While I was waiting for my eyes to dilate we did a peripheral vision test. I am not to good at explaining this test so you should probably look it up.

After that the doctor checked my eyes, my retinas and stuff, made sure my eyes themselves were healthy. A lot of my vision problems aren’t in the eyes themselves but originate from my brain. 

It was really bright because of my eyes being dilated, so they gave me a pare of shades before I went home.

We went out to Wendy’s and ate, and then took my mom to work. The line at Wendy’s was sort of slow. My food was hot though, like I like it when I got it. i got a spicy chicken sandwich. I really love those.

Then I went home and did the usual stuff.  I’ve been watching Aladdin the TV series, I finished it yesterday, that took up the whole day. I played Destiny Online as well, leveled my characters a few times.

Today I’ve just been surfing blogs, and watching videos and stuff. Can’t believe it’s saturday once again.