“Andy was acting goofier than usual. He was chattier than normal and kept repeating himself.”

Pam says I kept repeating: “the show starts at 7:00, I think I can do the show.”

Doctor Gerard’s office staff know me quite well. I visit that office four to eight times a year because I’m a soccer dad, driving Bobbobot to his annual eye exam or his followup fitting of glasses, picking up contact lenses for the princess of my planetoid, or having the office staff fix a pair of my Altair frames that I’ve stepped on for the nth time.

So as not to alarm me, they kept me busy doing a visual exam in one room while they talked to Pam in another.

The most telling results came from the Automated Perimetry Test. I have the printout and I’ll post a visual of it when I get a chance to scan it. What’s the test?

“You sit in front of a concave dome and stare at a central target within the dome. A computer-driven program flashes small lights at different locations within the dome’s surface, and you press a button when you see the small lights in your peripheral vision. Your responses are compared to controls to determine the presence of defects within the visual field.” (source: medlineplus.gov – National Institutes of Health.)

Dr. Gerard told Pam I needed more than an eye exam, that I was disoriented and unable to answer some routine questions. They noted to Pam that I was behaving a lot weirder than I usually do. I kept repeating that it was “Saturday instead of Thursday; January instead of December.” They said to get to an emergency room ASAP.

By the way, Dr. Gerard’s staff did not charge me for their time or the exams they conducted that day and asked Pam to give them a call after things settled down. If you don’t have a family “eye doctor” and are near Rancho Cordova’s shopping center on Zinfandel and Olson, check ‘em out.

Pam drove me the one block to First Covenant to drop off stuff the princess needed before that night’s performance, said a quick hi/bye to the cast, where PatiCakes quickly prayed over me and the doctors, then scurried off to Kaiser, which would become my home for the next few days. Again, Pam said the ride to Kaiser was full of interesting and goofier-than-usual conversations.

Quiz Time, this one harder than the last

What are nine things you can monitor or control to lower the risk of stroke? I didn’t, but I do now.

After reading this blog entry, go find the nine on the CDC stroke prevention page.

I could make this a quiz, ask how many you can name, and award prizes, but this isn’t about passing a quiz, it’s about raising your awareness and doing something about it, maybe saving someone’s life.

Read older posts in this story…part I – invisibility cloak

part II – bizzaro behavior

to be continued….
part IV – tests, test, more tests