New update page 4. Choroidal Osteoma, update post #47

[tempus vernum]

Praying for wisdom. As we have had so many costs associated with medical care, I have personally decided you cannot put a price on health. I'm not sure if that helps you or not but we've accumulated a ton of debt to help our daughter get healthy. After that happened, I realized I put more value on my children's health than mine. I decided I will not longer not get myself help due to money. My children and husband need me to be as healthy as I can realistically manage.

Now that obviously needs a dose of common sense applied because I certainly don't "need" chiropractic or acupuncture weekly I've learned a back stretch to suffice and learned acuppressure at home. BUT my dd does need acupuncture almost weekly. It's hard to swallow the expense but it's the only thing that keeps her functioning.

So, I believe it's a huge balance and I don't want to tell you what to do BUT I do want you to know YOUR HEALTH IS WORTH MONEY! In ancient days health was considered wealth.

I am praying for wisdom as I am not at all trying to tell you what to do.

[ShangriLewis]

Oh that just sounds difficult all around. We have some medical stuff that needs done and our insurance won't cover it. I am just now working on how to pay for my 4yos hernia operation.

[Little Forest]

Originally Posted by Amythestmama

New update: so far the bleed has now become fibrous and is no longer bleeding. The dr said it has responded well to the shot, yes I only got one. I asked him what his thoughts were about me not getting any further treatment until a new bleed comes up. He said he'd prefer to watch it and perhaps spot the beginning of the bleed and head it off with another shot but he could understand where I was coming from. He said there was nothing they can do for me other than the shot when a bleed occurs or seems likely so he said he'd be ok with giving it another check in 11 weeks and then letting it go until another bleed occurs. But. The pressure in my eyes has been consistently high at every check up I've had since the bleed occurred in April. It varies between 28-32 in both eyes. Highest it's supposed to ever be is 21 and that's considered concerning. So he wants me to see another eye dr to check that out and monitor it and possibly get drops for that or surgery. He said if the pressure is this high all the time, and considering my vision has noticeably declined already, that he feels if left untreated, I will be blind in 5 years. I have no idea how much that will cost- these new dr visits and treatments. I don't know if it's really necessary....research indicates that high pressure in the eyes means you are a glaucoma suspect...it doesn't mean you will have glaucoma, but it's an increased risk factor; some people just have higher pressure in their eyes and nothing comes of it. One study said that treating high pressure would prevent/lessen the impact of glaucoma in 4% of cases- literally 4 out of 100 and the other 96 people had high pressure that didn't do anything. The high pressure is unrelated to the choroidal osteoma so I don't know how CHM will handle that, it's a separate diagnosis, so I'm afraid it will start the medical bills all over and we have to pay another $500 for this diagnosis before they'll help. They still haven't done anything except say they've received the bills I've submitted. Anyway. Just trying to process it all and decide whether to seek treatment or just forget it since I personally can't pay for it.

Thank you for the update. That was good news about the bleeding stopped.

I don't know what information you read, but I can tell you that occording to the Ocular Hypertensive Treatment Study, that for pressure levels above 24, there is a 10% chance of visual field loss over 5 years.

Not to scare you, but further investigation and monitoring of this is very important. If your corneas are thinner than average, you get higher readings that in reality (but vice versa) so corneal thickness is critical to know. Now there is a sophisticated imaging device called an OCT that analyses the fibers of the optic nerve and puts numbers to things so very useful for assessing whether there is glaucomatous damage now, or any changes along those lines in the future.

If there are any signs of the damage having started by the way the optic nerve looks and/or defects in the visual field, then being medicated is critical to prevent becoming blind. This is all the more important because you are young.

The costs to detect and treat are worth it. Before all the sophisticated testing more people might have been treated based of off pressures alone so that testing helps make much more judicious use of medication (and laser procedures to lower pressure) which is a good thing.

Praying for you!

[Amythestmama]

I went ahead with the dr appt to check out the high pressure in my eyes. Turns out I just have very thick corneas so the pressure my eyes have is normal for me. I feel stupid first for wasting another $200 and 3 hours just to find out I'm normal for abnormal. I guess at least we know right? Thanks for all the prayers!

[Little Forest]

That is great news! Defimitely worth every penny to have followed through on that and there was no better outcome than that!

But yeah, I hear you about the time. Not very efficient use of 3 hours. That would have driven me crazy!
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[tempus vernum]

Originally Posted by Little Forest

That is great news! Defimitely worth every penny to have followed through on that and there was no better outcome than that!

But yeah, I hear you about the time. Not very efficient use of 3 hours. That would have driven me crazy!
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[Singingmom]

I agree, worth every penny

[ShangriLewis]

Originally Posted by Amythestmama

I went ahead with the dr appt to check out the high pressure in my eyes. Turns out I just have very thick corneas so the pressure my eyes have is normal for me. I feel stupid first for wasting another $200 and 3 hours just to find out I'm normal for abnormal. I guess at least we know right? Thanks for all the prayers!

My eyes were driving me crazy this year. I have had an eye exam since my teens. I wore regular glasses with bifocals in them because I have a condition where my eyes are super focusers. My vision is perfect but they will try to focus and cause a blurry place in between me moving my vision. It hadn't bothered me in years. But, I took up knitting and go a smart phone. I felt so dumb