June 2, 2025
The Ophthalmology visit
Between jet lag and maybe achy from her hike yesterday, Rachael endured another restless night last night and wakes up feeling like she needs to take it easy. Maybe not a full-blown rest day, but not another fast-paced 12 miler up into the west hills either. We'll leave her here comfortably lying on the couch and settling into a new mystery, and check in later to see whether she holds to her resolve and takes it easy today.
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My plan is to bike over to Clinton Street for my coffee date with Bruce, and after that I'll bike out to the Columbia Slough for some birding. It takes me awhile to get started though, which seems to be the norm now. We're still pretty disorganized here, and minutes are wasted as I look for one essential item after another.
Finally I get it all together though and have the door open wheeling my bike out when Rachael's phone rings. I stop in the doorway to see if it involves me, and it does. It's Doctor Torres, my ophthalmologist. He's calling in response to my test results and wants to see me as soon as possible. He's got a cancellation at 11 I can have if I can make it to the Salmon Creek facility just north of Vancouver, where he's working today. I can make it.
It flips the deck on my plan for the day though. I can't bike over to coffee with Bruce on that timeline, and am not sure I can make our date at all. I come inside and study the navigation to see how much drive time I'll need, and conclude that Bruce and I can at least squeeze in a brief visit. I wheel the bike down the hall but get half way to the elevator and turn back; because now I need the car keys. I pick them up, get halfway down the hall and then turn back again, this time for my glasses. I had them with me originally but took them off to study the navigation and set them on the table.
Twenty minutes later I park the car on Clinton Street and walk a block to the coffee shop. When I place my order I frisk myself but can't find my wallet. I can't believe I left home without that too, but there's no time to go back now. I ask the counter gal with the flaming orange hair if she can enter the card number manually, because I know our credit card number and other details; but then I space out on the easiest part, the last four digits. The sale gets cancelled, I walk (painfully, of course) back to the car, but thw wallet's not there. Exasperated, I'm about to sit down in the car and drive off when I find it in a pocket I hadn't checked - I had it with me all along.
Because along with increasing my prednisone dosage comes a return of some of its side effects, including its annoying effects on my short term memory.
So it's back to the coffee shop, where I compete my order this time (a cinnamon raisin bagel with peanut butter, and a refillable coffee mug), have a seat, and wait for Bruce. At 9:10 though he's still a no show (very unusual as he's always been prompt), and I decide I can't wait any longer. I call Rachael and ask her to call Bruce or Andrea to let him know I'm gone, and then leave for the half hour freeway drive up to the clinic in Washington.
Later, I'll hear that Bruce didn't stand me up after all - I just got the date wrong. We're meeting tomorrow (Tuesday), not today. My theory is that I mentally scrambled up numbers, getting mixed up by the fact that today is June 2nd, but tomorrow is the 2nd day of the week.
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So that's all just amusing foreplay. How did the ophthalmology visit go, and how are my eyes doing? In summary, everything went great. My vision really is remarkably better than two days ago - it's astonishing how responsive the condition is to the increased cortisone level, just as it was six weeks ago when a similar scare happened. I felt perfectly fine driving the freeway north, with my distance vision sharp and clear again. At the ophthalmologist's I'm shown the Snelling chart and I can still read the bottom (20/20) line with my glasses on. My optic nerves get imaged, and then finally Dr. Torres comes in to examine me. He's very encouraging, and sees no evidence that there's new damage to the optic nerves. He advises me to stay at 40 mg until I get new direction from the rheumatologist, makes an appointment to see me again in three months, and sends me off. Best possible outcome I could hope for.
I've still got time in the day and I'm up north anyway, so on the way back I drive over to Vanport and spend the next few hours slow-biking the Columbia Slough looking for birds. I find some - 26 species, a respectable showing for this slow time of year- and one new one for the year. I'm starting to resign myself though to the idea that reaching 200 probably won't happen this year, unless we manage to fit in a trip back to eastern Canada and collect some of the east coast species.
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So let's check in with Rachael to see how she did on her relaxing day off, loafing around on the couch reading her mystery and munching on bon-bons. Oh, wait! Here's a shock - she went for a walk instead. But at least it was an easy 12 miler, out Leif Erickson Drive and back. Nothing like that shin-buster up to Pittock Mansion yesterday.
So she bested me again! So far since we returned home she's walked 24 miles and I've biked only 21. I'm getting closer though. Maybe tomorrow, and maybe if I start averaging more than 5 mph.
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Today's list: Turkey vulture, Osprey, Bald eagle, Red-tailed hawk, Eurasian starling, Red-winged blackbird, American robin, Rock dove, Western gull, Great egret, Snowy egret, Great blue heron, Double-crested cormorant, California scrub jay, Stellar's Jay, Song sparrow, House sparrow, House finch, Ruddy duck, Wood duck, Mallard, Redhead, Canada goose, Tree swallow, Cliff swallow, American crow, Spotted towhee (26)
Today's ride: 12 miles (19 km)
Total: 959 miles (1,543 km)
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