all the questions

Rod here,

I just wanted to give brief information of what is going on with my eye. There is a lot still unknown, and it will likely turn out to be nothing to worry about, but there are also more serious alternatives.

Starting Saturday, I began seeing spots in my right eye. It is a few dots right in the middle of my vision in my right eye. From time to time, I will get a “cloud” which covers the center of my vision in that eye that will last about an hour. I was going to wait till Friday to have it looked at because I had a couple of days of flying, but was told quite sternly that it needed to be looked at right away.

So yesterday morning I went to see an opthomologist (let me make something clear right now! -- I am not a doc so I cannot be held responsible for the butchering of medical terms -- although, I do find it fascinating to sit and listen to two doctors speak a language that is completely foreign to me!). He is one of the two retinal specialists in the country. He was able to squeeze me between procedures, PTL! After a thorough exam, he told me that my retina is intact. What I have is a swelling of the optic nerve at the back of my eye, along with swelling of the blood vessels surrounding it. A term for what he saw is optic disc edema. Which is a fancy way of saying that there is swelling back there.

The question is: what is causing the swelling??? Optic neuritis is a scary medical term which is a possible worst case scenario. From what I understand, this could lead to loss of sight in that eye. There is also the possibility that there is a viral infection around the optic nerve causing the swelling, which requires allowing it to run its course. Another possibility is swelling of the brain, which puts pressure on the nerve. We don’t know what the problem is, so he sent me back into town to see a neorosurgeon and to get some more tests run. We saw the neuro-guy and he immediately admitted me into the hospital for a few tests. After congratulating him for being the first to admit me to a hospital in my life, off we went. We arrived last evening and they are doing the following:

-- put me on a steroid drip to reduce the swelling
-- get an MRI and MRA (I don’t know what MRA is)
-- get an FLA (this is a test where they put dye in my veins that works its way to the eye. It is in the eye for about 40 seconds, during which they take a picture per second to see if the dye leaks out of the veins in the back of my eye)
-- maybe a few more tests thrown in here and there, if they have nothing better to do . . .

So, here I sit, waiting for the MRI and nursing a headache that I am blaming on the steroids. I’ve been told that I need to work out during the steroid drip. :-) Fortunately for me, the hospital is close to a really good Indian food court, but it may look strange for me to be wandering around the food court in a gown, dragging the IV tree.

From what I understand, in 50% of cases, the doctors don’t know what causes it. In 50% of the cases, they do, so they are trying to figure out what is going on.

We live in a region of the world full of strangeness, so I am still hopeful that it is some strange something that will run its course and go away.

Please pray that the Lord give me wisdom about how to go about this regarding my flight physical. Obviously, I don’t want to loose it, but at the same time, I realize that I have blind spots in one eye making it difficult to spot other planes.

The Lord knows what He is doing, and from what I’ve been told by some American doctors that have been sort of keeping an eye on me, I am following the right track, being treated by some of the best doctors, and am in a hospital with state-of-the art equipment.

There you have it. Thank you for your prayers! Please continue to pray for Michelle and Cristiana most of all during this.

Thanks again.

Rod