I am old enough to remember if a child in the neighborhood contracted measles, mothers would marshal all of the other children to the stricken child’s bedside and have a measles party. In this era before vaccinations, the idea of such an exercise was if you were going to have one sick kid, you might as well get it over with for all of the rest them. I can remember contracting one of these diseases and my visiting out-of-town cousins were ushered into my sick room, to spend some “quality” time with me. Back then these so-called childhood diseases were inevitable. Nowadays, we have a vaccine and measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) have been packaged together into one convenient shot.

This year, a measles epidemic is running rampant across the country. Originating in West Texas, it has spread across the country, killing children as it goes. This plague popped up on my radar early, because we were planning a western road trip that was planned to pass through the hot zone. This concerned me. I am too old for the vaccine, and I am also too old to remember exactly which diseases I had had. Due to other circumstances this road trip was kicked down the road to another year, but the measles epidemic has continued unabated. This week, after asking my doctor, I got the measles titer. Actually, I got the MMR titer. The good news is that I am immune to all three. I guess those measles parties worked! 🙂

Yesterday, when I went in for the blood draw, I mentioned to the medical professional my fuzzy memory. She said that it wasn’t just a matter of whether or not I had had the diseases, but also whether after all of these years I had retained my immunity. Today, I got a text from my doctor reinforcing this. The messaging app used also contains a wealth of auxiliary information. On an MRI I once got, the results also came back positive in the form that I was pronounced “grossly normal,” as opposed to normally gross. My measles titer’s result was 300, where anything above 16.4 is considered good. My titer result is good, but not great.  Further “research” clouded my initial joy about my high score. A value of 2000 would put me in the “League of Legends.” Leaving me with a question for my doctor when I see him next month.

I went to the eye doctor today. Good news! It has been almost four years since my cataract surgery and my corrected vision is still good. Before the surgery I was extremely nearsighted (20/200 and 20/400). Today, my corrected vision is 20/20 and 20/25 respectively. There has been no drifting in my vision. I still wear glasses, but it is more for eye protection and habit than for vision.

Additionally, when I had the cataract surgery, I also got stents in both eyes. These stents relieve the too high pressure in both eyes caused by glaucoma and if untreated would lead to blindness. I recounted a story to my present doctor/surgeon about his predecessor Kayes. I first met him thirty years ago when he first diagnosed my glaucoma. He prescribed eyedrops, beta-blockers, as treatment. The way he put it the alternatives were either the eyedrops or having holes drilled in my eyeballs. I recoiled from the idea of this surgery. This recoil got doubled downed when I spied a collage of old eye surgery implements that was then office decoration. Fastforward the quarter century that I had spent using these eyedrops, when I had my surgery and got holes poked in my eyes.

But wait there is more. Macular degeneration runs in my family. This is a disease that affects the retina. My dad has it, as did his mother and sister. I always ask about this condition when I see the doctor and this time the news was good, no sign of this condition. I will be vigilant and always ask in the future.