I want to apologize to my readers this morning. Normally, my posts are on time and not so sporadic. But I am not feeling well. I woke up Friday morning feeling like I’d gotten hit in the left eye by Muhammad Ali. My vision was blurry in that eye, and I was seeing floaters—black spots. After my doctor was finally able to fit me in and I went to see him, he gave me a referral to see six ophthalmologists. Three closed their clinics at 1pm, and the other three did not take my insurance. He would not give me a release in his doctor’s note because he wanted the eye checked and said if the pain continued, to go to the ER.

Needless to say, the only ER in the Tampa Bay area that has an Ophthalmologist staff 24/7 is Tampa General Hospital, which, from my side of the town in Land O’ Lakes, is on the other side of the earth. I arrived at about 3:38pm after having to turn around and go back home to fill out my time for work; only for the registration desk to give me the wrong name tag, which, when they called me back to triage, sent me back to registration to make the correction. Now setting me back another half hour. Triage finally called me, took my vitals, ran a test to check my eye pressure, then sent me to the Purple Zone–go figure. I sat there until 5:21pm, and a nurse came, drew blood and asked me my pain range, and gave me a Percocet.

Some interns came over, put some numbing drops in my eye, then checked my eye and wanted the histology and asked me my pain level, then added Tramadol to the mix. I told the nurse I was concerned because I had to drive back home. He assured me that the dosage wasn’t that high. That was about 8:12pm. Then a resident doctor came and did what looked like a light show on my eye while training the resident on how to use this apparatus, which I’d explained had already been done in triage. And did more visual tests. They told me they’d ordered a CT scan of my head as a precautionary measure. About an hour later, they took me in for the CT scan with contrast.

I finally saw Dr. King, the Ophthalmologist on staff, at about 10pm. I explained the issue about my eye to him, and he ran a gamut of tests, along with one that I’d never had done before. He concluded that it could be a form of uveitis and that something like liquid tears might help, otherwise, my eye looked fine. Even though my eye was still hurting me.

Shortly after, the Sr. Doctor told me that the CT scan showed pressure on my brain and that it might not be anything serious, but they wanted me to see a neurologist as soon as possible. After waiting another 1/2 hour, they gave me my discharge papers.

I waited for the valet to bring me my car—that was roughly about 12:40. When I got home, it was somewhere after 1am Saturday morning. I’m usually almost done with my Sunday posts before going to church. Didn’t make it to church today either. So please forgive me if things are a little off kilt today. Still in pain, but doing my best. Please keep me in your prayers.

Blessings and Peace!

C.F. Leach