Something Unexpected...!

What a peculiar day!  It all started with a regular eye test, I hadn’t had one for just over two years but my varifocals were working well, so I was hoping not to have to splash out on yet another very expensive pair of spectacles.  Well...we never got that far, my optician was concerned about the pressure test, you know that horrid test where they blow air at your eye and even though you know it’s coming, it still makes you jump?  Apparently the pressure in our eyes should show a reading of under 18, my left eye was showing 30 and my right eye over 40!  So the next thing was that the optician had rung the Norwich & Norfolk hospital, given them details and said they would ring me with an appointment within a couple of days.
Well, actually they didn’t, so I chased them and they then saw me that day.  We were at the hospital for 7 hours, when I finally got to see a doctor he explained that we all have liquid washing through our eye all the time, and it drains away quite happily, but in my case, it wasn’t, in fact one of the drainage holes was completely blocked so the pressure of the fluid was building up in my eye, if left untreated this can lead to a specific type of glaucoma and loss of vision.
So, in a nutshell, there was a lot of eyedrops administered, a lot of waiting around for them to take effect and then the doctor had to perform an operation using a laser beam, where he bored two new drainage holes through the iris (the coloured part of the eye).  Interestingly, those of us with brown eyes are the most difficult to drill throughas they are much stronger than other coloured eyes.  More eye drops and sitting around followed.  During which time my husband M. went to get coffees from a machine and the cups containing the hot beverage were too flimsy and the very hot coffee spilled onto his hands scalding him!  Luckily two off-duty nurses came to his rescue and organised a large bowl of very cold water to put his hands in, which he did for as long as possible, luckily they didn’t blister, but they are still red and a bit tender.
Eventually we left the hospital at 10pm, feeling very tired.  I don’t remember the next two days very well, I seemed to sleep most of them (I’d had a 5 day migraine through all this as well).  M kept waking me up to take tablets and eye drops but I didn’t really emerge properly until  today .  My blip is of the beautiful flowers that dear friend B. bought me to cheer me up, they are white with a hint of pale green in the petals, and I thought they looked lovely in the morning light today.

Back to the hospital tomorrow for a check up (and presumably another pressure reading).  Everyone moans about the state of the NHS these days...and quite right, it is definitely under pressure but I cannot fault the dedication and care shown to me by the doctor and his assistant who treated me, they were wonderful.  Yes, we had to wait a long time, but the staff are putting up with very difficult conditions every single day, I have the greatest admiration for them.