Thursday Andy got his new contacts. There is good news and bad news to this. The good news, he can finally see. Bad news, he can hardly open his eyes. His contacts are hard which makes it difficult to even open his eyes. Dr. Richardson numbed his eyes the first day so on the drive home he was like a kid in the candy store. Reading every single sign that we drove by became quickly annoying but I had to laugh at him. Yesterday was a lot more difficult. We got them in but taking them out deemed impossible. I finally had to take them out with the "succor". Needless to say his eyes were very red and irritated.
The reason Dr. Richardson had to numb his eyes was so he could run some more tests on his optic nerve. We didn't think he would be able to do it the same day but he did. I think he could sense our urgency of knowing what is going on. He ran two tests: one that looked through the eye and into the optic nerve and the second, to test his perphial vision. First test went OK. It basically told us what we already knew. His optic nerve in both eyes are "damaged". What that means is it could either be glaucoma or optic neuritis. All we know is that something is wrong. Next test was a lot harder for Andy. While one eye is covered, he had to press a button for every green flash he saw with the uncovered eye. The test took 15 minutes for each eye and after that, he was exhausted. It doesn't take much for him to get dizzy and tired and that test really pushed his limits. He finished and tried to stand up but he nearly fell down. Good thing we were both there to help him to the chair. After a brief break he went over the results with us. From what I understood, everyone has a blind spot but according to this test, Andy's is bigger than normal which confirms what the other test found, damage to the optic nerve.
So, needless to say and what Dr Richardson says, Andy's eyes are goofy. Diagnosing MS is very tricky. There is not one test that diagnosis it. What the doctors do is take all the evidence they have and give you a "you are ms suspicious". So Andy had one more MRI yesterday to check the lesions he already has on his brain. They look to see if there are new ones or if the current ones are changing. If this test comes back abnormal and along with the eye tests it is pretty safe to say that he has MS. But like I said before, doctors hate to diagnose it too early.
As of now, my husband can kind of see. We meet with his neurologist April 30th to go over the MRI results. I hope it is good news. We are long overdue. Good news doesn't necessarily mean good outcomes. Good news can mean something bad like being diagnosed with MS. But for our family, being diagnosed with MS would mean good news. Sounds crazy but it is better than not having a diagnosis at all. We have faith though. Faith that Heavenly Father knows what our plan is. I have realized these trials have been a blessing for us. I don't think if my husband had gotten sick I would have decided to go back to school. I have talked about it in the past but this obstacle has really driven me to do it. Yes, I am going back to school. I actually start on Monday. I am entering the Medical Assistant program at Charter College. Funny, huh? I always liked the medical field. I took a health occupations class in high school and really enjoyed it. But when Kaitlyn was born and had to spend a month in the NICU, I had a lot of time to talk to the nurses. I knew someday I wanted to go back to school to be a nurse. Becoming a MA is my first step. If I eventually wanted to become a nurse, I could, but as of now, this is what's right for myself and our family.
I will let you all know how Andy's apt goes on the 30th. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We can't express how much we appreciate all of them. May Heavenly Father bless each and everyone of you...
Stacey
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