Restoration

I had a pretty horrible day today. I had to go into the hospital for a fluorescein angiogram. It's a test for working out the blood supply to the back of the eyes, and there seems to be a lot wrong with my eyes so this is one of the tests I'm having done. It involves having a needle stuck in a vein in my arm (I have a bit of a phobia of needles and didn't enjoy this one at all) and putting eye drops in my eyes that make my pupils dilate as wide as possible, so that everything becomes blurry and uncomfortably bright. Then, through the needle, I get an injection of sodium fluorescein and, very quickly, they take a lot of photos of the back of my eyes to see how the fluorescein spreads. As usual, I got there well in time for my appointment but had to wait over an hour. As usual, the staff at the hospital were brilliant - professional, competent, knowledgeable and kind.

I did not have any of the adverse reactions that are possible with the fluorescein (which range from nausea to, in extremely rare circumstances, full blown anaphylactic shock) but I felt rubbish for the rest of the day. I couldn't see anything all morning and the nurse at the hospital had warned me to stay protected from sunlight because the fluorescein could react to UV light (I didn't have my wits sufficiently about me to ask exactly how it might react). The fluorescein also made my wee a lurid, luminous orange colour, like I was peeing Irn Bru. I felt no better in the afternoon and took to bed where at least I was able to sleep for a few hours. I'm finally starting to perk up a little now it's evening.

Meanwhile, the builders finished rebuilding the front wall of the house - just fifteen days after discovering it needed demolishing and rebuilding. Not bad. There's a huge amount to be done inside, so we won't be back in for at least six weeks, yet, but it's still a reassuring sight to see the place intact again.