Had my bone density test today. My first. They wanted me to avoid wearing metal in/on my clothing so it wouldn’t interfere with the scan, but that was the only prerequisite.

Filled out what it becoming the usual amount of paperwork and waited to be called in. This was the fastest and simplest test thus far. I had to lay down on a table that actually made me think of a treadmill because I seemed to be on a rolling belt. The technician lined me up with a line on the belt and put a thing between my feet to keep my legs at a specific angle. Then the scanner did this stop-start action over me. It was really fast though. I was done in about 5-10 minutes.

I also had my usual meeting with Dr. Opth today. This was the first time he’s had the chance to see my eye since the popped stitch. By now, fortunately, it wasn’t hurting as much but was still much more irritated than it had been prior to popping the stitch.

He decided to remove the popped stitch and the un-popped one. He put some deadening drops in my eye. Then he starting out using tweezers to pull the stitches out. I could feel a tugging but he couldn’t get the stitches out. Then he tried a little blade to no avail. Finally, he used a pair of scissors that quickly did the job.

I told him about the oncology consultation and the appointments I had scheduled. He was glad those were on the books since he was more anxious for those than the things associated with my physical. He told me he had finally met with the pathologist to talk over the biopsy results.

Another pop to that balloon of optimism. Turns out that the other sample he took from the “good” part of my eye during surgery also show pre-cancerous cells. He’s emailed his contact at Wills Eye and they strongly recommend a more aggressive move now. So we’re scheduling another surgery where he will take a larger area from where the bump was, plus he’ll do a more aggressive cryotherapy (freezing) over the whole white of my eye. He explained that my recovery will be slower because of the “extra” effort … and, of course, more pain. He’s calling this a “re-do” surgery.

Best case scenario is that a biopsy of the part cut out will show clear margins. However, the reality is that we won’t have a clear cut answer after the surgery. Since he didn’t freeze the other half of my eye, it’s not like he can take another samples and expect different results from that side. Once this surgery is over we’re kind of at a “wait and see” point.

He wants me to reduce my medicated drops to only twice a day for a week, then only once a day. I also can discontinue to medicated gel at night. However, I must continue the hourly Refresh Gel drops.

He was willing to wait for this second surgery for 2-3 months but I want to get it done sooner to stay within the calendar year’s deductible. His November schedule is already full but he told his admin that, if she can get hospital time, he’s willing to do it whenever I want. We’re aiming for the week of Thanksgiving but she’ll have to let me know if she can get it scheduled then. I hope so because that kind of gives me a week to recover when my clients won’t have much activity due to the holiday.

Dr. Opth’s admin informed me that I owe over $1,100 so far and their billing office wants her to collect. I mentioned that I still hadn’t received the Explanation of Benefits (EoB) from my insurance company and said she told them that. The billing office sent copies of the EoBs they had received. We couldn’t figure out why they had gotten them before I did. However, I did pay it.