Good Morning Toothbrush!

I'm on top of the world this morning - I was able to see my toothbrush! Let me put this into context: on the weekend my toothbrush had essentially disappeared, to the point that I put the toothpaste on the wrong side, only to realize my mistake when I put it into my mouth. Ha!

Yellow's back again as well. I saw it briefly Tuesday morning, much to my delight. I hope it stays around for more than a couple of hours this morning. Even if it vacates the building again though, I'm hopeful that I will see it again soon.

It has been a busy couple of weeks, trying to get to the bottom of what's going on with my sight. Here's my timeline of what's been happening:
Monday, 5-14-12: noticed that my computer screen looked a little odd. It was as though the white background was trying to engulf the black text. Yellows and light colours seemed blindingly bright, while the dark colours appeared darker than usual.
Wednesday, 5-16-12: made optometrist appointment for following Tuesday
Friday, 5-18-12: called optometrist in desperation to see them earlier - no luck
Monday, 5-21-12: beginning to have difficulty driving, Daryle had to take over
Tuesday, 5-22-12: optometrist suspects optic neuritis - referral to Dr Anderson at St Paul's Hospital (SPH). Eyes otherwise healthy, field of vision not good, prescription changes ineffective, borderline for driving.
Wednesday, 5-23-12: vision worse this morning. Saw Dr Yang @ clinic (recommended going to emergency to get to a specialist more quickly). Back to work for morning, then drove home to park the van. Walked to have hot-lunch with Daniel. Daryle picked me up from the school and took me to emergency. ER sent me to Dr Tsuyuki who came to the same conclusions as optometrist and recommended that I see Dr Anderson as well. In the meantime I heard from Dr Anderson's office and had an appointment for 9:00 the next day.
Thursday, 5-24-12: vision worse this morning. Appointment with Dr Anderson was frustrating in that I had to go through some tests for the third time in three days: field of vision, colour plates, basic eye exam, etc. Was hoping to have some different tests performed, but such was not the case. Dr Anderson wanted an urgent CT Scan done, but his receptionist wasn't able to get anything before June 7th. She was able to make an appointment for a Vision Evoking Potentials test for the 28th and a followup appointment with Dr Anderson for June 7th. Very emotional night - felt like I was going blind and the medical system just didn't give a damn. With my vision diminishing each day, I was truly panicking.
Friday, 5-25-12: better grip on myself today - not quite so emotional. Made arrangements for a CT Scan at office in False Creek in the afternoon (love the private system, too bad it's so expensive).
Monday, 5-28-12: VEP test (alternating checkerboard) this afternoon. After the test Ted made arrangements for me to follow up with Dr Anderson the next morning at 8:30.
Tuesday, 5-29-12: Saw yellow for a few hours this morning! Also saw whole birds in the sky, instead of the glimmer that a bird may have flown by, that I've been seeing lately. Dr Anderson's office. VEP test showed that the signals from my eyes are delayed in getting to my brain, indicating demyelination of optic nerves which falls in line with either a viral infection or MS. OCD test performed again to check retina. Scheduled for Goldman test on June 7th and need to arrange an MRI.
Wednesday, 5-30-12: no improvement this morning. Trying to make MRI appointment, no success yet. Hope to hear tomorrow about appointment.

Throughout all of this activity, I've been trying to keep life as normal as possible, working whenever I can, exercising, cooking and caring for my family. All of these have been challenging. At work my screen settings have been changed to high-contrast, extra large font in addition to using magnifiers. I've been itching to use my new Zumba DVD, so I tried to follow it the other night - hilarious. So I had Daniel join me in the hopes of following his moves. Wrong, trying to follow an uncoordinated 8 year-old's moves while keeping an eye on the screen was dizzying! Even cooking is different. For example, I can't see where the knife blade is on a tomato or how big the slices are. Also, red and brown look the same (a big issue when cooking burgers). Personal care has also presented a few challenges: I can't see my own face and nails, let alone see Andy's nails well enough to trim them. Perhaps we'll be heading to a salon for a pedicure in the near future. There's gotta be an upside here somewhere.

Today, I'm just hoping to hold onto the colour yellow and not use my magnifiers quite so much. Fingers crossed.