9 am, out the door, and off to the Spokane Eye Center—had a very fast rush into filling out paperwork, answering tons of questions: no fool I, I brought my previous meds with me so that was one set of blanks. Then we wait 30 minutes for the doc, who runs the usual things the optometrist does, then does a lesion scan with yellow eye drops, a pressure test with numbing drops, and finally dialation drops and sends me off to wait 20 minutes out in the lobby—Jane is in a political argument with 2 locals out there, but alas, I had to leave her, as I was nabbed back to another room to wait for 30 minutes (it is a busy place) and finally to get a really thorough once over: so—I appreciate the doc, who is very willing to talk science and what she’s seeing and how she reasons it: the upshot diagnosis: iritis, or inflamation of the iris. Which, no, I have never been diagnosed with betore: if I had they would worry, but not a big worry. It is an indicator of autoimmune disease, such as lupus, various others, but also arthritis, and I do have a bit of a problem in one finger, not the one I broke, but the one I overuse with the trackpoint mouse.
So the prescription is some prednisone-derivative eyedrops 5 x daily and a blood test for arthritis markers. Well, if that should be what it is, it might be a really lucky break to tag it early. Or it could just be from the contacts. I really hope I don’t have to go over to wearing glasses, but the fact is, I like seeing. And I am impressed this doc knows what she’s doing.
So no contacts, and these eyedrops—plus 2x daily I have to dilate my eyes (yep, the stuff they use) to give the iris a rest and try to calm that down.

So that’s the story. We went out to exchange my cable tv box, which had quietly died the death yesterday: all its little lights had gone out. We got my meds at Freddie Meyers, and we also got our flu shots. We were going to go to Costco, but I had begun to have that kind of ill-defined headache you get from having your eyes messed with and pressure-tested, so I decided we should leave off the last stop and go home.

We have also resolved to use up what we’ve got of carb-type food in the freezer, then go back on Atkins for a few months to get rid of the weight we’ve gained being bad. WE always feel better when we’re on Atkins, anyway, and I think it’s time. I’m going to have to do some shifting about in the kitchen, and we’ve got some things to eat up, (logical, eh) before we diet them off.