My left eye (email to Lauren)

Hi, Lauren,

Keeping you posted on my eye condition, I'm flying to San Diego on Monday to consult a high level clinician/researcher I found. I don't want you to worry about this as I'm doing fine overall but I want to keep you informed. I've also shared this with Jenny and Maureen.

After the last procedure I had, a complication developed where the internal pressure in the eye dropped to zero. Apparently that's a rare problem. At present, I'm left with no useful vision in my left eye, just vague light and dark shapes. My right eye is good and I've been relying on it adequately to carry out normal functions since February 2019. 

My retina doctor in Baton Rouge offered very limited options and wasn't able to determine what caused the problem; so, I researched eye diagnostic technology on my own and found this doctor. I'm seeing him on Tuesday and returning home on Thursday. I decided to stay an extra day in case it was needed.

https://providers.ucsd.edu/details/11591/ophthalmology

He's very accomplished and rather nerdy (I watched some videos of him), my type of doctor. I emailed him and he replied right away. I think he will be able to tell me what's possible at this point and what advances in diagnosis and treatment are in development. 

I'm in a position to get the best treatment available so I figured I might as well go for it. I'll be ok no matter what the outcome is. My Baton Rouge specialist is supportive- he's done what he can. I may or may not find there are cutting edge developments in the field but I'll know I've explored the options.

Again, don't worry, be happy! I hope things are well. I'll let you know what Dr. Weinreb determines and recommends.

Dad

On Fri, Aug 28, 2020, 11:30 AM Mary L Kelley <mkelley@lsu.edu> wrote:

I’m so glad you reached out to Lauren.  It made me sad to read about your eye. I love you. ml

 

From: Owen Scott <therapycat@gmail.com>
Date: Friday, August 28, 2020 at 11:18 AM
To: Lauren Scott <astirya@gmail.com>
Cc: Virginia Scott <virginia.k.scott@gmail.com>, Maureen Stevens <maureenscottstevens@gmail.com>, Mary L Kelley <mkelley@lsu.edu>
Subject: The latest on my eye

 

Hi, Lauren,

 

Keeping you posted on my eye condition, I'm flying to San Diego on Monday to consult a high level clinician/researcher I found. I don't want you to worry about this as I'm doing fine overall but I want to keep you informed. I've also shared this with Jenny and Maureen.

After the last procedure I had, a complication developed where the internal pressure in the eye dropped to zero. Apparently that's a rare problem. At present, I'm left with no useful vision in my left eye, just vague light and dark shapes. My right eye is good and I've been relying on it adequately to carry out normal functions since February 2019. 

My retina doctor in Baton Rouge offered very limited options and wasn't able to determine what caused the problem; so, I researched eye diagnostic technology on my own and found this doctor. I'm seeing him on Tuesday and returning home on Thursday. I decided to stay an extra day in case it was needed.

https://providers.ucsd.edu/details/11591/ophthalmology

He's very accomplished and rather nerdy (I watched some videos of him), my type of doctor. I emailed him and he replied right away. I think he will be able to tell me what's possible at this point and what advances in diagnosis and treatment are in development. 

I'm in a position to get the best treatment available so I figured I might as well go for it. I'll be ok no matter what the outcome is. My Baton Rouge specialist is supportive- he's done what he can. I may or may not find there are cutting edge developments in the field but I'll know I've explored the options.

 

Again, don't worry, be happy! I hope things are well. I'll let you know what Dr. Weinreb determines and recommends.


Dad

 

On the road with the Zambo Flirts!

The 2nd time the Zambo Flirts had an out of town gig c. 1972, a young wannabe promoter got us into a club in Savannah. He thought we were going to be the next Rolling Stones which of course played into our rockstar fantasies. We played well to a small crowd and left the venue in high spirits. This became more literally true as Conner, David and I spent an hour getting drunker in our cheap hotel room. The inspiration struck us to drive to a Krispy Kreme donut shop we had passed on the main drag so we piled into Conner's Monte Carlo and I drove us to the place because I was the best at DWI (which I prided myself on). After munching some donuts, we headed back around 2am and on the way, I noticed a patrol car had gotten behind us. This made me a bit nervous so I started concentrating very hard on driving steadily and minding the speed limit. It seemed to be taking forever to reach the motel and I was becoming progressively more anxious, expecting to get pulled over at any moment and hauled off to the city jail. Finally, I couldn't stand it any longer. On an impulse, I signalled and made a right turn into what appeared to be an upscale subdivision. I had no idea what I was going to do next but to my supreme relief, the cops kept going straight and I was off the hook!

Q Anon

According to the mysterious "Q," Trump is in charge of the secret plan to round up the global conspiracy of child-eating billionaire Satan worshippers and cart them off to concentration camps for ultimate disposition, which would suggest he knows more than he's admitting... or that the whole thing is a ridiculous fantasy that's stringing a lot of gullible people along. But, hey, you be the judge. (Is anyone out there working on a graphic novel version and screenplay? It has definite commercial potential! 😉)

My parents and music

My Mom was 36 when I was born in 1952. She had a collection of LPs she played while doing housework when I was a kid- Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller, Spike Jones, Dixieland, John Phillip Sousa marches and all kinds of eclectic stuff on compilation albums. She liked solid rock and roll and was good with my bands practicing downstairs at our house in Athens, GA. Thanks, Mom! My Dad, on the other hand, couldn't pat his foot in time with the beat. Nice try, Dad!

Yet another anxiety dream

The morning before last, I woke up early as I often do and after eating a bowl of cereal went back to bed. Mary Lou left to go to her tread class and I fell sleep. About 90 minutes later, I woke from a disturbing dream. I had been at an apartment in a building with my Mac book and seem to have been working on something with another person who also had a laptop computer. My old associate Michael Duttweiler was present along with some other people. I left to go elsewhere but realized I didn't have my Mac book. I went back to the apartment and the Macbook had disappeared. I was quite distressed and began to look frantically for my device. I suspected Michael had stolen it but I had no proof. I left and then wanted to return to the apartment but had difficulty finding where it was in the building (a frequent recurring theme in my dream life). I walked around the building several times and reentered, finding myself in other people's apartments, which increased my anxiety. I was never able to recover my computer and I woke up feeling distraught.

Call from Dr. Fivgas

The phone rang and it was Dr. Fivgas, my retina specialist. He was a bit apologetic about calling but I was glad to hear from him. He conferred with a senior colleague who is head of the retina department at Emory Medical School in Atlanta. From their discussion, nothing new emerged. There is no technology that can make a definitive determination of the cause of my loss of intraocular pressure in my left eye. The only option for propping up the structure is another injection of silicone oil. I'm less than thrilled about that idea. The only other step Dr. Fivgas offered was a steroid injection into the eye, literally a shot in the dark. I accepted this as the only thing short of another oil injection. I've had a shot in the eye and it wasn't so bad so I'll find out how my eye is doing from the routine assessment done each visit, get the shot and see what happens.

The latest recurring dream

 I remember two parts of a dream I had on Saturday after I went back to sleep in the morning. In the first part I was surprised and happy to see that Lauren Scott was visiting. Someone reminded me I had seen her the previous evening.  The second part was the recurring scene where I am with a parent or grandparent who is very old and barely hanging on to life. In this case, it was Grandmama and Grandpapa. Grandpapa was slumped down on a sofa, apparently asleep. I approached him and said "I'm proud to be a Scott." I didn't get a response and so I repeated it, "I'm proud to be a member of the Scott family!" I told him and I was feeling it sincerely. He picked up his left arm which seemed like a sign he was alive and conscious. However, I then noticed the move seemed mechanical as if a reflex rather than a volitional movement.

Thoughts about the dreams.  Lauren is the present of the Scott family. Grandmama and Grandpapa are the past.  Lauren is brilliant but I'm concerned about the survival of our genetic heritage. I love her unconditionally and delight in her wonderful qualities.  Maureen doesn't appear in the dream but her child is the future of the family.

Thoughts on whether the USA has failed as a system of government

US citizens on the extreme left and right believe the governmental system of the USA has failed. On the right the fear is the government will take away basic personal freedoms. On the left, the belief is the government is only serving the wealthy and will never address the problems of poor people, minorities, undocumented immigrants, and low paid workers.

While I share the concerns of the leftists, I think things are more complex than that. The human world has never achieved anything like an enlightened ideal state of peace, freedom, good will, justice  empowerment and safety. Societies always have competing social forces driven by caring and uncaring beliefs and agendas that play out in a tremendous  unfolding process no one is able to control or even predict reliably. Right now the USA has swung into a destructive, divisive period where wiser and more insightful people have lacked the power to prevent dangerous and destructive agendas from being implemented. I'm concerned for global civilization for reasons all of us know. The best thing I can think of to do is to to be a good influence in my little social network and hope for the best.

Questions for Dr. Fivgas

I'm concerned about damage that may have occurred due to having 5 procedures since 2.2019. The left side of my left eye is still tender since the last procedure. I'd like to develop a clear idea of the state of my eye and what steps are possible to address the functional deficits I'm experiencing. 

1) Am I correct in understanding that a significant part of my retina never detached? If so, why wouldn't that part process light normally? 

2) Is the fluid in my eye murky? Does that account for why I see as if through a frosted glass or murky water? 

3) If the intraocular fluid is murky, what is making it murky? Is there a definitive way to determine this?

4) If the intraocular fluid is murky, is there a way to replace it with clear liquid? 

5) If so, what are the risks associated with the procedure(s)?

 6) Is there a way to determine why the intraocular pressure is low?

What to believe about HCQ?

This article gets at the central question of epistemology- how do we determine what is true or likely to be true so we know what to believe? Neither of us has ever treated a COVID-19 patient. What do we rely on the judge whether to believe Dr. Fareed? We have his report that giving the HCQ cocktail early prevents COVID-19 patients from becoming severely ill. He says other doctors he's in touch with have gotten the same results but medical authorities like Fauci refuse to accept these results. 

Questions

1) How do we know Dr. Fareed's claims are completely true and accurate?

2) How does an expert in infectious diseases decide whether to believe Fareed?

3) Why isn't his approach getting widespread support?

Additionally, is The Desert Review a trustworthy news source?

I'm going to wait for you to answer these questions before addressing these points.

Owen

I'll give the short answer question 2. A randomized, placebo controlled clinical trial is the gold standard for showing the effectiveness of any treatment. Are there relevant studies. Yes.

I couldn't find a randomized controlled clinical study that found benefits for HCQ at any stage of treatment. Several randomized controlled studies found no signifiant benefit. But apparently there is no definitive study that is strong enough methodologically to settle the issue.  But the studies that claim there are benefits are so flawed methodologically that you can't draw any conclusions from them; yet, unqualified commentators (e.g., the President and his economic advisor Navarro) keep making claims for HCQ. If a randomized, controlled, double blind clinical trial comes out showing HCQ is effective, I will change my opinion on it. This article summarizes the issues and reasons not to believe HCQ is effective.  

https://www.statnews.com/2020/07/16/new-covid-19-study-despite-flaws-adds-to-case-against-hydroxychloroquine/

(I looked for information about the Desert Review and couldn't find anything other that their web page that says they're an award winning independent local news agency. Nothing about the actual awards, no reviews from any media bias evaluating site, no wikipedia entry. I noted they have several articles presenting hcq treatment for covid in a positive light. Should I believe their coverage and conclude hcq is an effective treatment?

Footnote: The studies indicating HCQ isn't effective come from a number of different countries including the USA, Canada, the UK and Spain. Should I conclude there's an international conspiracy to discount HCQ even though it's a highly effective treatment for COVID-19?

Footnote 2. It's all about the methodology. That's what makes science science.

If you know of a methodologically sound study providing support for HCQ, please let me know right away.

This quote is from the published article (link below) by the Ford system about their favorable results with HCQ.  "In this multi-hospital assessment, when controlling for COVID-19 risk factors, treatment with hydroxychloroquine alone and in combination with azithromycin was associated with reduction in COVID-19 associated mortality. Prospective trials are needed to examine this impact."  The last sentence is about the need for randomized, controlled clinical trials to show whether they've got something or not.  Am I biased against HCQ? Only because of my review of the evidence in this controversy. As I said above, if good evidence comes out for HCQ, I'll modify my opinion.  

https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(20)30534-8/fulltext

Then, again, maybe there is an international conspiracy in the scientific community to keep people from getting effective treatment for COVID-19. Maybe the Deep State is involved. Maybe Q-Anon is right. Maybe our Universe is a computer simulation some advanced beings created for recreational purposes (as Elon Musk says he thinks). I can't disprove any of these possibilities.