The Beginning of My Leukemia: A Visit to the Optometrist

Bloody eye!

On January 13, 2011 I had a routine eye exam. I was relatively happy that my eyes had only changed .25 percent that is until Dr. Jon Kat started staring into them with that “bright light”. His first question was “Do you have high blood pressure?”, “No, it is 90 over 60”, “Do you have diabetes?”, “Not that I know of”, “Do you have anemia?”, “I don’t think so, why?, You’re starting to scare me”…”Well, you have blood inside of your eyes”…”Should I be scared?”…. “No, but you should see a retina specialist.” “Great!”

Of course, my first thought was that my eye issues might be related to the Cipro poisoning that I have been suffering from since April 2010. I had severe light sensitivity in October from the Cipro and thought that it might be related.  I went straight to the pharmacist after my eye appointment and told her what the eye doctor said. She said that it could totally be from the Cipro, as Cipro can affect your vascular system. In my own stupidity, I put “Please don’t let this be the Cipro, too” right out into the universe, you see, side effects from Cipro are untreatable. My thought was that if I had anemia, or something else, I could be treated.

Being that my insurance was only hospitalization, I began the process of changing it to include office visits and outpatient procedures. Dr. Kat felt as though I would need them. Several weeks went by and I had yet to make an appointment. I went back to see Dr. Kat in hopes that the blood was gone. He informed me that the amount of blood was “significant” and strongly encouraged me to get my butt and my eyes to the retina specialist.

My insurance was scheduled to go through on February 1, 2011 so I made an appointment.