Now I see you
I was up at the crack of dawn this morning.
And please don’t make any jokes about Dawn being a slapper – she’s tired of that old joke.
Anyhows, I had an appointment with the optalm opthalmgolist ophthalmolologist eye doctor as a follow up to a previous visit.
The best thing I can say about the clinic is that it’s the Beacon but isn’t in the Beacon which you would understand if you knew how mesmerising and complex that place is. Because it’s not in the Beacon I get free and very easy parking and the ability to get lost in an office/apartment complex instead of a hospital/hotel complex.
The worst thing is… well there are a couple, but particularly annoying is their habit of putting me in a corridor staring at a blank wall opposite while I wait for my turn
I had to wait quite a while before being tested. They got me to read of the old chart [no problem, right down to the small print]. They poked me in the eyeballs a few times, repeatedly shone extremely bright lights in my eyes and then told me to wait in the fucking corridor again.
After a while another girl called me into her little cubicle [they all have tiny windowless rooms] and repeatedly photographed the inside of my eyeballs. I was then told to sit in the fucking corridor again.
Eventually the first girl called me into her box and shone more lights at me. She then moved over to a bank of monitors [I gather she was the Head Honcho] and started muttering.
Apparently I don’t have Macular Degeneration which is a happy thought.
Apparently I do have Glaucoma which isn’t so happy.
Fuck!
She wanted to send me in for an MRI scan but frankly I had had enough at that stage and went home.
So I may lose my sight at some point in the future. Tomorrow? Next year? Twenty years? Who knows. Maybe never. I’d miss reading but there’s always audio books. I wouldn’t miss television at all. Driving won’t be too bad as I know where all the controls are by feel now.
Scribbling here will be a pain in the arse though as I would have to rely on speech recognition.
That should be fun?
You are lucky, I have Glaucoma and have been unable to see my Ophthalmologist for two years. Had a very good check at Specsavers, pressure is ok but definitely a deterioration of vision in one area of right eye. The Opthamologist was talking about laser but who knows when I will see him again! Definitely better than Macular though.
Im just lucky I can afford it [just about]. I could go free and wait God knows how long. Naturally my health insurance [which takes a very large chunk of my pension] doesn’t cover it – though I am covered for Pregnancy and Maternity Care.
We’re running with eyedrops at the moment and will check progress in a few months.
I could afford to go private but it does annoy me that I will be paying to see my usual ophthalmologist as he is the consultant at the nearest private hospital! I thought you had stopped the drops? I also had very successful cataract surgery.
You’re a resourceful old fart. You will be grand. And if it get’s to a stage where you need adaptations, there are supports. Hopefully you won’t ever need them. But if you do, give me a shout. I’ll stand pointing and laughing. But eventually I’ll help. 🙂
seriously. if it gets to a stage where you need something, you have my Email address. Use it.
I don’t care what they say about you Darragh, you are a scholar and a gentleman. The general consensus seems to be that it will be a long term degeneration and it certainly doesn’t affect me at the moment. I haven’t started training Penny just yet anyway.
Any signs of diabetes? That’s often lurking behind glaucoma – if that’s under control, it can help limit such eye damage. Worth a check.
No. Doc checks that fairly regularly and that’s one worry less.
Should you be unfortunate and lose some sight, the speech method could create many funny misspellings, such as Their, There, They’re etc. I’m looking forward to it!
Which proves indeed that every cloud has a silver lining?
I had the glaucoma diagnosis when I went in for cataract surgery. Iâve lost some vision, but with daily drops and half yearly checkups, so far so good.
So far I have escaped cataract problems [Herself had a cataract operation a while back and it was a great success]. Daily drops and half yearly checkups it is!
I also have glaucoma. Did the doctor put you on any eye drops to bring the pressure down? I started with a drop each eye at bedtime. 6 months later not much improvement so he added another drop (new one) that I use twice a day along with the bedtime drop. Went back one month later to see if helped. It had considerably! That as last week. Huge relief that itâs helping. Going to these ophthalmologists is a real test of patience isnât it? Sit and wait, next test, more sit and wait. Takes for fu*king ever.
You’ve changed your name, Lainey! [nothing escapes me..] I was on drops before but I’m now on some extra powerful [or something] ones that contain beta-blockers [which I’m already on in tablet form]. Things are getting complicated.
Iâm on the same one you take at night that have to be refrigerated. Hope it helps you. Nah, just a nickname some people use with me. Not that Elaine is a difficult name ââï¸
Have a wee look at the software “Dragon Naturally Speaking” – I’ve used it for a while a long time ago, and even then was impressed because it was definitely better than I had expected. That being years ago, it maybe is even better today …
I played around with that once and probably still have a copy somewhere. Sadly it’s Windows only. If I remember correctly my screen of text just consisted of “The cat sat on the mat new line delete delete erase delete I said fucking delete why won’t you delete” or something along those lines.
:-)))
I’m happy to take back every bad word I’ve said about Darragh.
Quite right too. He’s the salt of the earth.