This "Friday, the 13th" will be one for the memory books!!!! Our day started with Mark getting up and saying he had a film in his eye and something was not right. We checked online for an opthamalogist in Marathon and there was one, but when he called, the recording said he had retired. So, he rode his bike to an eye doctor and sign on the door said "Doctor is out of office today for training". He then rode 2 miles to the ER.......Dr. was concerned that it was a detached retina and said we needed to get to Miami ASAP.
So.....the harbormaster, Roy took me to the airport to get a rental car, I picked up Mark and we were off (113 miles from Catrina to the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in downtown Miami). The doctor said Mark should not drive.....yikes....me driving in downtown Miami??? But ya do what ya gotta do!!! Of course, alot of this trip was on 2-lane roads with 45 mph speed limit.
Unfortunately the directions and address were not correct (said it was 17th Avenue, but really Street). AAARRRGGHHHH!!!!!! Finally found this 4-story building (entirely for the eyes) in the heart of a huge medical complex, including 2 hospitals and several specialized health centers. Very comforting and nice to have Philip and Annette with us - Annette had driven to Miami and had planned to spend the night with Philip at a hotel and tomorrow after he finished teaching, they would be coming to see us. So, we sat and waited......long story short. Mark does NOT have a detached retina (Thank you, God). He has a large floater (totally different from what I experienced). Because of his severe near sightedness, he's at high risk for a detached retina and if anything changes, he's to see an eye doctor ASAP. Whew...what a relief. He had a young female doctor who was very thorough in her examination, explained in detail about this and said "someone is here 24/7 if you need to come back". It was quite a happening place!
Because of heavy traffic in Miami on a Friday night and driving in the dark, Annette and Philip made the decision that she would drive our rental car with us back to Marathon. Mark has no restrictions, but could not drive as they had heavily dilated his eyes. We had dinner at The Hurricane and are now settled on Catrina. We (especially me) were extremely grateful that Annette (she's a keeper) got us back here safe 'n sound!
So, that's how our day went! Scary but all is good for now. Philip will arrive tomorrow in the early afternoon. While we were gone, Joel and another technician came and put Catrina's innards all back together. Monday morning.....test run and hope she'll purr like a kitten.
Okay....enough excitement for today. Have a great weekend and remember, if you ever have floaters or something abnormal with your eyes, do get to a doctor ASAP!
1 comment:
Pat: Bob had this one time. Yes, just out of the blue floaters big time. He went immediately to our eye doctor who confirmed he had floaters but nothing else. He did want him to see the retina specialist at their office which he did. The retina doctor said everything was fine and they were just floaters. This was before he had his catarac surgery too. Glad Mark is OK, but yes, this is scary, scary, and scary. So glad Philip and Annette could come to your aid today too. Hoping for a good weekend and no more problems. Also good luck with the test cruise on Monday. I happened to be talking to Brooke when Michael called about Mark's eye problem, but when I talked to her later on she still did not know anything more. Good to read the Blog tonight so I know the good news. Love, Judy
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