Eye health, mini-strokes and other updates!

So I was just sitting down to a little mid-afternoon news catch-up after some chores on Monday April 19 and this grayish black shade dropped down in my right eye to a straight line in the middle. I tried to blink it away, but when that didn't work, I hurried in to our office, got online and started looking up various eye phenomena - but found nothing just like this. By this time, it started dissipating until it was just a little grayish quarter circle in the corner of my eye, then gone all in about 15 minutes. I got right on the phone with my Ophthalmologist's office and got an appt for the next day.

Not having seen Dr Nelson in a while, it was good to get an exam for all the possible causes - diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, detached retina - and get an all clear on those. He also said my Glaucoma levels were normal and my very minimal cataracts were also still very minimal. I wasn't even aware I had those. So what then? Ever heard of a TIA? Transient Ischemic Attack? That means mini-stroke, a prelude to a bigger stroke, if that's what it even was. Usually it has other more glaring symptoms, but eyes can also be indicators. I felt nothing with this episode however, only saw that little shading for awhile.

Nevertheless, he suggested and ordered an echocardiogram and a carotid artery scan, both ultrosonic, which I did in the next few days, and since have shown nothing out of the ordinary, a little irregularity here, a little abnormality there, a little plaque in the right carotid - but nothing momentous or cause for extreme measures. This prompted me to have my kidneys and prostrate checked - all ok - and get my blood sugar and pressure checked - all ok, even better than ok, because my A1C was down from 7.0 to 6.6 and my bp was 106/60 at IHC. Just need to get that colonoscopy done still, after Colleen's out of school for the Summer so she can drive me home during the wooziness after.

I also saw a neurologist, and he said an MRI of the upper carotid under my jaw might be an option, but that the ultrasound showed good blood flow to the brain, so it appears that there is no real blockages going on. I'm always conscious of clots in my legs from sitting too long, since losing two good friends around here to blood clots from recent traveling without walking enough. I've also been having some facial nerve pain called trigeminal neuralgia, and an MRI might show neuromas, but he didn't really think there would be any - and the other has been minimal since my blessing from Stephen O'Bryant and Steve Hansen back a few weeks ago at Wendy's baby blessing.

So where does all this leave me? I'm still pretty healthy for a big old heavy balding bearded guy, am losing weight at about 4-5 pounds a week on Isagenix, and those weekly cleanses may be helping my sugars and pressures. My urologist said that initial kidney tightness was from adjusting to the extra protein and water consumption - and after a few weeks, I am having less bladder urgency but still need to drink more water to overcome the occasional backup, if you get my crass "TMI". More roughage, you say, more roughage?

I need to exercise more of course to see more results on Isagenix, which is really a whole body cleanse program with weight loss as a side effect. But I'm feeling better mentally and physically, have more hope and confidence, more creativity in eating the right foods, with only a minor relapse now and then. Now if the world would stop falling apart with volcano eruptions and oil spills and earthquakes, I could sleep a little easier, though I am actually sleeping better lately anyway. I may even be nodding off right now, in fact, and not even know it...Oh yeah, and today marks the 55th anniversary of my baptism, of no small import in my life of course, but almost glossed over in all this other health hullabaloo.