Why is nothing easy? Mom’s new glasses came in. They made everything look blurry. I compared them to her old glasses and found there was a very significant difference in one eye. Mom and I have an appointment with the ophthalmologist tomorrow afternoon to see what went wrong.

Our big news this week was a visit with JAMM. The adults had a good time, but Mira was having nothing to do with her grandparents. When we first arrived, everybody came to great us. When she saw us, Mira immediately started crying. Mira has a fenced play area. She let me read some books to her as long as she was inside the play area and I was outside. She let me give her two blueberries. Other than that, all Danita and I got was looks that kill and crying. As you can see below, Mira has mastered the art of climbing stairs. She’s also doing very well with her language skills. She is definitely above average in every way.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Mom got a clean bill of health from the neuro-ophthalmologist. Her condition is not all that unusual. She was lucky to have it clear up so quickly. Some patients take a year to get normal vision back.

It looks like the Nissan Leaf might be working. After having so many problems, I saw the battery drop from 14 to 12 volts and immediately started charging the battery. I went to a different dealer. The mechanic there explained that this is normal for the Leaf. As long as the battery stays above 12 volts, it’s fine. We’ve been monitoring the battery closely. If it continues to do well for another week, we’ll declare the car fixed.

Coming up for this week, Danita and I each have a routine doctor appointment. Our neighborhood has a food truck coming Friday. We had a lot of good weather last week, but my bike was in the shop for routine maintenance. I learned that I haven’t been paying enough attention to some torx-head bolts. That was mostly because I didn’t have a set of torx wrenches. It’s always fun to buy new tools! I should get a ride in tomorrow. Then it’s back to bad weather for the week (cold rain).

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Mom had a bunch of doctor appointments this week. Her double vision is gone, but the consensus is that she should see a neuro-ophthalmologist. That sounds like a very specialized field to me. Perhaps they have doctors that specialize in neuro-ophthalmology for blue eyes, or left eyeballs? But as it turns out, the doctor we were recommended to is incredibly busy. We were lucky to get an appointment for next Thursday.

Mom’s glasses gave up the ghost. She’s been wearing a backup pair, but they aren’t very good. While we were at her non-specialized ophthalmologist, we got her prescription updated. I asked the doctor to include her PD (pupillary distance). Sometimes doctors let the opticians measure the PD. Obviously, if you go to an optician and ask for your PD, they are not very happy about providing it. He immediately asked if we planned to order glasses online. The doctor said he thinks getting glasses online is a good idea and recommended EyeBuyDirect. The first three pair Mom liked didn’t have clear lenses. They came with lenses that automatically darken in bright light. This isn’t what Mom wanted. Then we tried Zenni, which Jul recommended. We quickly hit the jackpot. We ordered a pair of bifocal glasses with her prescription for $30. We’ll see how they are when the arrive. We opted for standard shipping, which is a couple of weeks. Zenni has very low prices for standard glasses, but adds a lot for extras (such as fast delivery).

We went to the first neighborhood activity in quite a while. Covid cases are dramatically reduced from their peak here in MD. In our county, the positivity rate is under 6% and the number of cases per 100,000 population is under 20. We’re still masking up. But we are going back to restaurants and we went to a neighborhood party last night. It felt good to socialize.

That’s the news for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Saturday morning Mom suffered from sudden onset double vision. This is often caused by a stroke. I spent two days at St. Agnes Hospital with her. The doctors were great. The admitting doctor used a few simple test to determine that her left eye was not tracking normally. There were CAT scans, MRIs, and other tests. There were evaluations and reports. At the end of the two days, there was no doubt that this was not caused by a stroke. We will be turning to Mom’s ophthalmologist and retina specialist for a possible explanation of the cause. The good news is that her vision started improving Sunday afternoon.

There were some genuinely funny moments. The ER doctor was trying to establish a timeline of events. Mom said the double vision started about 10 of 6 (AM). The Doctor kept on trying to confirm the time was 5:50. The difference was obvious to me, if not to anybody else at first. Mom learned to tell time on an analog clock. With the minute hand so close to the 12, it is much easier to think of it being just 10 minutes before the hour. The doctor leaned on digital clocks, and kept on thinking of the reading she would see on the clock. It didn’t take long for the doctor to see the two were the same, but it was a funny moment.

Then the doctor was trying to test’ Mom’s mental function. She pointed to the wall and asked “What is that device on the wall that tells time?” The correct answer was a clock, but Mom couldn’t see the clock because a nurse’s head was blocking Mom’s view. Then the doctor pulled her smart phone out and asked Mom what it was. Mom’s reply was that she didn’t know about those things — Apples or whatever they are.

The staff throughout the hospital were very good. Hospital rules clearly state I had to wait outside the building until Mom was admitted. The admissions staff quickly offered me an exception when I explained Mom would feel anxious by herself. That was fortunate, because Mom wasn’t admitted until after 5 PM. The hospital is that under-staffed.

Mom was evaluated as a fall hazard. The rules were that Mom had to stay in her bed unless a nurse helped her. When Dani called Sunday morning, Mom swung her legs over the edge of the bed to help her reach the phone. That caused the bed to issue urgent beeps. Then the PA system issued repeated warnings, “Bed exit in room S5011”. The staff were always responsive, but never more so than when they thought Mom was leaving her bed. (I wasn’t there just then, but bed alerts in other rooms occurred while I was there.) In spite of that, the staff was happy to let me walk Mom around. They turned the alarm off. Mom’s room had a family niche that had a window with a great view. We walked over to sit in the sun for a while. Then we walked up and down the hall.

Mom’s back home and doing well. I’ll be contacting doctors and making appointments tomorrow.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.