Travel Blog

On Friday, Phil and I went to State College to get my eyes checked to see if I qualified to laser eye surgery. We got to town early so we went to the HUB at the University to see if we could donate blood for the annual PSU/Michigan State blood drive. We were able to get in pretty quickly, and Phil passed all his pre-screening tests with flying colors. I, however, missed the temperature regulation by 0.2 of a degree (what can I say? I run hot) and my pulse was 4 beats faster per minute than they would have liked. Hmmmm. That was a first. I had been turned away for my hot bloodedness before, but not for a fast pulse. But the good news is my blood pressure was awesome, and my iron level was good. It was like getting a free checkup. Ha!

So while I was waiting for Phil to get siphoned, I went out to the common area and sat amongst the youngies. The HUB has changed a bit since I was there 15 years ago. Big-screen TVs litter the landscape, and the show of choice on Friday morning was Entertainment something-or-other. Egads. The biggest observation I made was that nobody seemed to be talking to one another. I had a lot of sleepers, a lot of TV watchers, and the rest were in their own iPod universes. The main sign of life was when campus tours came through and a couple choruses of "We Are"..."Penn State" broke out. Then the realization that I could have a college-aged kid hit me hard, and I had to flee.

After Phil was finished, we continued the quest for the perfect PSU sweatshirt. I almost found it, but it had a hood and a 60-dollar price tag, so I decided to call it quits. I'll make due with my 15-year old, bleached-stained sweatshirt for a few more years until crew necks come back into vogue.

Then it was time for my eye evaluation. This nice girl named Jasmine did all sorts of things to my eyes, including poking them with a semi-sharp stick. Everything seemed to be going fine; Jasmine told me I was really good with having things stuck in my eyes and all that, so I was feeling pretty confident. But then it was time for the doctor to go over my test results. I knew things may not go as I hoped when he sat down and started the conversation by saying, "Well-ll-ll, it seems you may be a pretty good candidate for surgery." Pretty good? I had expected exceptional. Turns out my corneas are too thin for the regular laser eye surgery that I had read about and was prepared to get. I could still get surgery, but it would be something called PRK, or something like that, and it entails scrubbing off a couple of layers of corneal cells with an alcohol-like substance. Sounds great. The doc was cool and was straight with me, telling me this was just the first step, and if we proceeded to the second step, with more in-depth tests, who knows what would happen. But regular eye surgery would be out of the question, and the one I could get was painful and took more recovery time. I said, "I can handle pain." He said, "Ah, yeah, well...." I like him. He had a bulldog. I'm rambling.

So I was still considering it, especially when I found out that if I went to step 2 and they said I wasn't a good candidate after the more in-depth tests, then I still wouldn't owe them anything. I wanted to schedule my next appointment and get things moving along since I was upfront with these folks that I was a full-time RV'er and wouldn't be in town for much longer. Let me stress that they all knew I was leaving at the end of the month. The receptionist I was talking to needed to consult with Jasmine about when they could get me in for step 2, and Jasmine was with a patient, so I was told Jasmine would give me a call. An hour later, I get the call, and Jasmine then told me that the surgeon comes from Pittsburgh once a month to do surgeries in State College, and the earliest I could get the surgery would be December 18th. Say what? So I guess that's the end of that. Why they didn't tell me that in the beginning when they knew I had limited time, I cannot say. But now I'll have more time to read about the PRK or whatever it's called, and to decide if I want to get an alcohol scrub of the corneas.

That's about all that's going on with us right now. It's snowing as I type this, but I don't think it's anything to worry about. My dad has a plow.