Not Seeing Clearly

November 10, 2013

Michael woke up one morning and thought he was congested and his eye wouldn't focus.  He said he was seeing double out of one eye.  That's never a good sign.  We had a zone conference in Rome that day and were grateful we didn't have to travel anywhere because it really bothered him to drive.  The doctor from Germany was visiting our mission on that exact day.  He checked a few things and said we should do some followup care.  We tried to get him into a couple of facilities and we just couldn't get him in because they were closed or some other weird thing.  We had to go to Napoli for a zone conference and tried to get him into a facility there, but it was a holiday and nobody was there.  I was really getting nervous.  He had had a blessing and was not promised an immediate recovery.  That made me even more nervous.  In the meantime we had another week of travel before we were to return to Rome.  (The really bad thing is that I have been terrified to drive in Italy.  With Michael unable to drive, I had no choice.  I might yet learn to drive like an Italian.)  We still were unable to get an appointment to have Michael's eye checked.  We were finally able to get an appointment on Thursday of the following week with what was supposed to be an ophthalmologist.  Turns out it was just an optometrist with primitive instruments.  At least he referred Michael to an actual ophthalmologist.  The ophthalmologist referred him back to the original optometrist and said to see a neurologist.  The receptionist said the neurologist wasn't available for months.  Finally the optometrist called and said he had made arrangements with a neurologist who was joining the practice in December and was trained in the states and was returning to Rome.  She was in Rome and had agreed to see some patients during her brief stay here before actually joining the practice in December.  She was pretty good and immediately sent him to another clinic for an MRI.     

Long story short, the MRI ruled out any cancer or aneurism or tumor.  We were able to breathe a sigh of relief.  The bad thing is that the double vision is still there, but not quite as bad.  The doctor recommended he take cortisone for a week and see if that reduced the swelling that might be causing the double vision.  We left the clinic and called the doctor in Germany to tell him what we had found out and see if he concurred with the recommendation.  He breathed a sigh of relief and said how blessed we were because from the very first time he checked Michael, every sign pointed to a tumor.  He said in 9 out of 10 times, the diagnosis would have been a tumor.  We are feeling so very blessed.

We don't know if there was really a tumor there and now is miraculously  gone or what.  What we do believe is that Michael just experienced a miracle and that the Lord loves him very, very much. We said a sincere prayer of gratitude that night.

However . . . the double vision is still there.  (The worst thing right now is that if I stand on his right side, he sees two of me.)  The pharmacy has been closed ever since we were told to get cortisone.  The doctor made the recommendation on Saturday afternoon.  Pharmacies close for pranzo (lunch) for 3-4 hours every day and then close early on Saturdays, remain closed on Sundays, and don't open again until Monday  It's not like we can just take a prescription in and get it filled.  Once the pharmacy opens, the pharmacist has to call and talk to the doctor who will then give him the prescription and hope he has the right medication on hand.  That's tricky right now because tomorrow is Monday and we have to leave at 4:00 pm to catch a plane to the next three zone conferences--and a stake conference--and won't return to Rome until late Sunday night.

I remember a saying once that said:

"I never said it would be easy.  I only said it would be worth it."

Right now it's worth it just to have a little piece of mind . . . and the missionaries are praying for him.