Recap
- With an inflamed optical nerve you usually have a headache when moving your eyes, I did not;
- Inflamed optical disc: “unilateral presentation is extremely rare”. I have that.
- Inflamed optical nerves are often caused by things like MS. That is: people with MS often have an inflamed optical nerve. I’m too old to start having MS, I think. The target group is women 20-40 years old. The engineer definitely is not that. (See impressive hairy chest photo in blog before previous blog.)
- “Unilateral papilledema can suggest a disease in the eye itself”. Well, Lyme quite possibly.
- Inflamed optical disc: “unilateral presentation is extremely rare”. I have that.
- Inflamed optical nerves are often caused by things like MS. That is: people with MS often have an inflamed optical nerve. I’m too old to start having MS, I think. The target group is women 20-40 years old. The engineer definitely is not that. (See impressive hairy chest photo in blog before previous blog.)
- “Unilateral papilledema can suggest a disease in the eye itself”. Well, Lyme quite possibly.
An “optical disc” is a good thing to have as an engineer, no? He was not aware.
Monday August 18, 09:00 Oftalmologia for revision(!) of the past days. And interesting days they were. Fortunately the same doctor as last Thursday, and not the “lady” we experienced in March (different story).
“How are you?”
“Regular” (that means: not great)
Explained the hiccups with the prednisolone treatment, wondered why 40 mg was administered and not 1 gram, and if they had discussed that with him (no), and that I may have determined the cause (Lyme), not a virus, asked for a blood test, taking another week, and that antibiotics treatment was started as a precaution.
“Was it the doctor at Urgencias who determined that?”
“No, me. (sorry)”
“Please give me the papers and wait outside”
“And room 5 for eye scan”
“Please come in again”. Two doctors, I think the department head, as she seemed to have the bigger authority, and the bigger office. Both eyes were thoroughly examined again with bright light, prisms, lenses, and atropine, then they sat behind the screen to happily browse through the CT scan images, discussing in their jargon.
Jansen Test
Then they giggled, haha, the Jansen test! There appears to be a test for Lyme that is called the Jansen test:
Verdict
Anyway. The verdict: “we see activity in the scans that is consistent with Lyme, protocol determines:”
- standard treatment 2x100 mg doxycycline per day for 4 weeks
- lumbar punction to determine how far the infection has gone, to see if the treatment can be shortened to two weeks
- if severe: intravenous antibiotics
Well, the engineer is over 65 and is not into lumbar punctions in general, so he declined.
“Are you ok with that”
“Half”
“Stop the other antibiotics” (4 pills of 20 down)
“3 weeks doxycycline 100 mg 2x day” (should be 4 for late disseminated Lyme)
“Two hours after meals”
“Temperature reading 3x day, you must write those down”
“Come back this Wednesday for further consult”
Back home
We were on the way home around 16:30, almost home at 17:00, still in the car. Phone. Huercal Overa.
“You must come back for giving blood for analisis, today!”
“We just got home…”
At 17:45 we left for the hospital again, arriving 18:30. Consulta 8.
“There is nothing in the computer”
After some phone calls I suggested to just draw some blood and see what you do with it later.
“Ok”
That took more than 3 hours, and not without pressure from engineer De Waal, who had had more than enough by then.
We were home at 22:00. Poor dogs, all alone, and without light.
Sandwich, to have before first pill, temperature readings for the report.
Luckily the engineer had bought a new 7€ electronic thermometer (not the expensive 34€ infrared gadget), because the battery of the old trusted Philips thermometer ran out the next day. The Philips has a digit more after the decimal point, the engineer likes that.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow we have another appointment at Oftalmologia, at 08:30. While typing this: call from Huercal Overa: “we don’t have sufficient blood from you. You must come in tomorrow, before the appointment, at 08:00, no breakfast, to the Sala de Extracciones to give blood.”
Engineer De Waal almost exploded, engineer Jansen had a laugh.
🙄
PS
The engineer’s decision to skip that 1 gram prednisolone treatment and leave was correct, as is his Lyme self diagnosis, and everything else, in fact. (Can the engineer please have the telephone number of the Norwegian Minister for Health?)
PPS
What’s this about no breakfast then?!
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