Opticians

On Tuesday I went to the opticians .
They were lovely people in there, gave me all the time in the world repeated as much as I asked them to and so on...BUT the acoustics were horrendously bad, very echoey. And it was scrambling what everone one said. No matter how much I altered the Cochlear settings it was very difficult to actually hear anyone saying. And I was exhausted the rest of the day and just slept.

The optician himself was brilliant - kind, understanding, and never once impatient, even though I must have delayed his whole schedule. I was with him for about an hour and a half, and he gave me his full attention the entire time. The eye tests were thorough, much more so than Specsavers, and he used very up-to-date equipment, including an OCT scan.

He confirmed there’s nothing alarming in my left eye - no sign of what the hospital mentioned about a nerve issue - but I do have a very slight dry macular degeneration and a tiny cataract. It’s not causing problems yet, and it may never worsen, but he gave me advice on eye care and diet. The right eye (the one that had the cataract removed) is absolutely perfect.

He tested my eyes and he spent a very long time with me to get both eyes perfect. Mostly it was my left eye which does need some help and I am thinking Specsavers did just a few minutes of similar kinds of test where this new guy spent well over an hour just testing my eyes. He did not rush me at any point whereas Specsavers rushed me and I got flustered and all hot and sweaty. I was in his opticians room for more than an hour and a half, there was no clock in there. It was hard work for me, because I had to keep asking him to repeat or rephrase his instructions. Not once did he show any impatience with me as most people do when I am in a situation like that, I'm so I did not get flustered and I was able to keep trying to hear what he said (but when I get home, I completely crashed out for the rest of the day).

He encouraged me to think carefully about whether to accept St Paul’s offer to operate on the left eye - reminding me that NHS Wales won’t touch it unless it gets significantly worse, to the point of being blind. St Paul's in England apparently can over ride the NHS. He said it’s okay to wait and see how I feel when my St Paul’s appointment comes around in four months. For now, I’ll follow his advice and keep an eye on any changes.

He also strongly advised wearing sunglasses and a wide-brimmed sun hat, so I’ll be shopping for those soon!

I don’t need glasses for driving, but I do need them for reading. He also offered a prescription to slightly improve my long-distance vision (not needed for DVLA), especially for night driving — things like spotting kerbs better — and I’ve taken that prescription too.

Here is a drawing of me in a wide brim sun hat and dark glasses!

Heatwave here... my icemaker is having problems making ice because it's too hot in the kitchen and my freezer is having a job keeping cool.. So I've had to put fans in there....

Have a good day....