Love in the Present Tense by Hyde Catherine Ryan

Author:Hyde, Catherine Ryan [Hyde, Catherine Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Random House, Inc.
Published: 2007-07-10T04:00:00+00:00

MITCH, age 25: a graceless new language

Long-term complications of retinopathy of prematurity. Laser photocoagulation. Cryotherapy. Late-onset retinal detachment. Scleral buckling surgery. Retinal dragging and folds. Vitreous surgery. International classification of ROP. Injection of intraocular gas. Retinal reattachment surgery. Blindness.

Blindness.

Blindness.

The worst thing about my list of new words, other than the actual retinal detachment part: it was laced with treatments that could have helped Leonard already, at earlier phases of the game. Except blindness, of course. That was a specter for further down the road.

Leonard remained absolutely silent on the way home from the ophthalmologist’s. Maybe he was freaked out, but I doubt it. He’d heard all this before. I was the one learning the new language. I was the one with the words spinning in my head. And behind each new word, more words. Hidden words. Words like insurance coverage. Preexisting conditions. Hospitalization. I was the one who was thrown, and I fully believe he stayed quiet only to allow me time to think.

There are screening programs for ROP in most neonatal intensive care units. That’s what the ophthalmologist had said. They screen because so many of these problems can be avoided with early diagnosis and treatment.

Well, then, what happened? I wanted to know.

Well, she’d said. I don’t know. I wasn’t there. But if the mother was on public assistance, or was just low income…if she had to resort to a county hospital. I hate to say it, but it’s a factor. I can’t sit here and pretend it’s not a factor, she’d said. And when the condition was diagnosed, even if the mother had Medi-Cal, well, just try getting Medi-Cal to throw for laser photocoagulation. Since there was no guarantee that he was headed for more than pronounced myopia. They’d probably buy him a cheap pair of glasses and leave it at that.

I remembered the first phone conversation I’d ever had with Leonard, remembered him telling me he had to spend lots and lots of time at the clinic. What clinic? I wondered. How good a clinic? What did they really do for him? Everything I would if I had my way? Or just the least required? Just what Medi-Cal would throw for?

Visual rehabilitation. Flashes and floaters. Traction retinal detachment. Slit lamp biomicroscope. Ophthalmoscope. Ora serrata. Arteriovenous shunts. Neovascular ridge.

The orbiting words were beginning to give me a headache.

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