The eyes have it...

Last weekend got a bit traumatic...

This is largely taken from my Live Journal, as I just can't rewrite it.

We had a great weekend planned. I was going up to London with sewing
partner Su on Friday so we could set off from there at a reasonably
early hour to get up to Leicester for the visit to the Symington
collection... Then we were going to spend the rest of the weekend and
most of Monday decluttering and doing a spot of cupboard triage in
preparation for getting her house properly on the market.


The Friday bit went ok. Had a nice leisurely evening and nice wine, and
went to bed fairly early so we could make a timely start on Saturday.


Saturday's plan was to go up to Leicester via Cambridge, dropping Su's
partner Roger off at New Hall for a day of role playing convention. We
were traveling in his car, thus avoiding paying for parking for it while
he wasn't there to use it... But at 8:00am when we went out to get into
the vehicle, the polis were cordoning off the top end of the street.
OK, so turn the car round... Long car, narrow road, trees. There was a
tree/rear windsceen interface issue. And a rear windscreen then turned
into stuff like sugar crystals when the tree poked it. So rather than
setting off at that point, we spent the next hour sweeping up broken
glass and taping black plastic over the gap, and talking to the lovely
people at Autoglass.


There was no suitable screen in London. One could not be obtained until
Monday, by which time our man needed to be in Swindon. Oops.


I had an idea... Could they fix the screen in Leicester rather than
here in London? Ho yuss! No probs. So we set off to Cambridge,
conducting discussions with insurers, and drop the penguin off at New
College. He just had to chase the insurance policy and the deed could
be done. And he did, to great effect.



Su then drove us up to Leicester. Yes, we were later than we wanted to
be, but the visit was fab, and we met lots of nice peeps, and I'll do a
separate post about that later... Corsets to die for, and interesting
uses of quilting.


Afterwards, we went and camped at LJ friend Jane's and met with LJ
friend Suey again for tea and cake while the Autoglass mens did the
thing with the rear windscreen. Su then drove us back to Cambridge.
The M1 is always nasty and the A14 can be challenging, but we arrived
safely and in good time, considering. We went off to an Indian
restaurant for dinner as there was no hope of getting home before we
starved. It was good. Very yummy. Roger then did the hero stuff and
drove us home to Walthamstow. All was good. I went to bed feeling as
if there was a small something in my eye. Couldn't see anything.
Bathed it and went to sleep.


On Sunday morning we got up. My left eye felt... odd. Well, you don't
normally feel yer eyeballs, but I could this one. Left one... And it
had floaters. I am short sighted. I often see floaters. I don't
suppose I have more than anyone else really, it's just that I get looked
at regularly with my biannual eye test, and they always check for things
like glaucoma and stuff, and I'm conscious of them. I had my test about
a month ago, and there was no problem then. This time there were bigger
floaters, with a sort of corona effect round them, and a sort of
background like the pepper effect you get in French vanilla ice cream
with the ground up vanilla pod, only brownish red.


I cleaned out a cupboard and thought about it, but it wasn't getting any
better, and a brief talk with NHS Direct ment that Roger ran me down to
the local hospital (University College Hospital at Whipps Cross), where
there is supposed to be an emergency eye clinic. Well, there is, but
not on Sunday, so they sent me straight to the Moorfield.


A case of hurry up and wait, there. I got booked in and triaged, and
then waited... And then I got seen by the nurse and waited again...
And then got seen by the doc, who proclaimed a tear in the retina that
they wanted to fix before it turned into a detatched retina.
Non-urgent, come back tomorrow morning at 9:30 am! And I had their
loverly drops in my eyes, so the fine evening sun dazzled me mightily as
I came out of the hospital.


We went back to Walthamstow. By this time Su was exhausted with
clearing and cleaning and worrying (though we had been keeping her up to
date with progress and diagnosis), and we had a Chinese take-away rather
than try and roast the chicken. And then we turned in for the night.


We were up again the next morning bright and early. Roger set off for
Swindon and I went back to the Moorfield.


I have to say that I would, on the whole, rather have root canal work
than laser eye surgery. It's not painful, exactly, and the lovely eye
surgeon did put numbing drops in, but it is far from pleasant. And you
have to keep still and try not to blink. Urgle! Your eyes get filled
with drops that give you Mutant Alien Eyes with giant pupils. They make
it hard to focus and every bit of light dazzles.


The surgeon was super, and did what he had to do as fast and as well as
he could, but it was a substantial tear, and fixing it was complicated
by my left eye having a delaminated sheath round the optic nerve. This
is not that uncommon, I know, but mine is particularly well developed
and has been photgraphed on several occasions. It also refracts any
light shone into the eye, and makes it harder to see the retina. It
took over an hour and in excess of 400 pops of the laser. But it was
done at last, and I donned dark glasses and ventured back to Walthamstow
after a rather fine slice of ginger cake and a pleasant cup off coffee
in the hospital friends cafe. I have to go back in a couple of weeks to
have it checked.


After lunch I managed to help with some storage shopping and sorting, a
bit of gentle boxing of stuff into the storage, and the roasting of the
chook and some veggies for dinner. I was still having problems focusing
because of the drops, and was knacked. It's amazing how tiring sitting
in a comfy chair can be after an hour.


We came home to Kent on Tuesday morning rather than the planned Monday
evening. It meant Su could get more washing done and fire off a
much-needed email. We left at nine and were home in plenty of time to
unload, have a cuppa, and see the client about her new frock. Yum!
Black satin for a posh frock do.


I am still not fully back to normal eye function. My pupils were still
dilated on Tuesday, and focusing is slow. But the floaters are fading
and the post-op discomfort from being prodded and holding unnatural eye
positions while having lasers fired at me is dying down, so I dare say
I'll be fine by and by.


How do I feel? ****ed off, mostly. But infinitely glad that it
happened where and when it did, rather than somewhere and some when less
convenient. And very VERY grateful that Su and Roger were there to pick
up the bits and sort me out and keep me grounded. But it was all more
stress and a lot less fun than we wanted.


Apparantly I have taken over 300 pix of the Symington collection! There
will be a HUGE LJ entry on that, and I'll make sure you get to see the
quilted bits.

Oh, and I met the Great Niece (adorable!), and her quilt is progressing
well.
--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Sorry for your trials but glad everything worked out. Thank you for
posting. I was sitting here very upset about several things in my life
not going as I had planned but your post reminded me that my problems
with the landscapers, although expensive, are still not life
threatening.

Susan

On Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:28:03 +0100, Kate XXXXXX
wrote:

Last weekend got a bit traumatic...

This is largely taken from my Live Journal, as I just can't rewrite it.

We had a great weekend planned. I was going up to London with sewing
partner Su on Friday so we could set off from there at a reasonably
early hour to get up to Leicester for the visit to the Symington
collection... Then we were going to spend the rest of the weekend and
most of Monday decluttering and doing a spot of cupboard triage in
preparation for getting her house properly on the market.


The Friday bit went ok. Had a nice leisurely evening and nice wine, and
went to bed fairly early so we could make a timely start on Saturday.


Saturday's plan was to go up to Leicester via Cambridge, dropping Su's
partner Roger off at New Hall for a day of role playing convention. We
were traveling in his car, thus avoiding paying for parking for it while
he wasn't there to use it... But at 8:00am when we went out to get into
the vehicle, the polis were cordoning off the top end of the street.
OK, so turn the car round... Long car, narrow road, trees. There was a
tree/rear windsceen interface issue. And a rear windscreen then turned
into stuff like sugar crystals when the tree poked it. So rather than
setting off at that point, we spent the next hour sweeping up broken
glass and taping black plastic over the gap, and talking to the lovely
people at Autoglass.


There was no suitable screen in London. One could not be obtained until
Monday, by which time our man needed to be in Swindon. Oops.


I had an idea... Could they fix the screen in Leicester rather than
here in London? Ho yuss! No probs. So we set off to Cambridge,
conducting discussions with insurers, and drop the penguin off at New
College. He just had to chase the insurance policy and the deed could
be done. And he did, to great effect.



Su then drove us up to Leicester. Yes, we were later than we wanted to
be, but the visit was fab, and we met lots of nice peeps, and I'll do a
separate post about that later... Corsets to die for, and interesting
uses of quilting.


Afterwards, we went and camped at LJ friend Jane's and met with LJ
friend Suey again for tea and cake while the Autoglass mens did the
thing with the rear windscreen. Su then drove us back to Cambridge.
The M1 is always nasty and the A14 can be challenging, but we arrived
safely and in good time, considering. We went off to an Indian
restaurant for dinner as there was no hope of getting home before we
starved. It was good. Very yummy. Roger then did the hero stuff and
drove us home to Walthamstow. All was good. I went to bed feeling as
if there was a small something in my eye. Couldn't see anything.
Bathed it and went to sleep.


On Sunday morning we got up. My left eye felt... odd. Well, you don't
normally feel yer eyeballs, but I could this one. Left one... And it
had floaters. I am short sighted. I often see floaters. I don't
suppose I have more than anyone else really, it's just that I get looked
at regularly with my biannual eye test, and they always check for things
like glaucoma and stuff, and I'm conscious of them. I had my test about
a month ago, and there was no problem then. This time there were bigger
floaters, with a sort of corona effect round them, and a sort of
background like the pepper effect you get in French vanilla ice cream
with the ground up vanilla pod, only brownish red.


I cleaned out a cupboard and thought about it, but it wasn't getting any
better, and a brief talk with NHS Direct ment that Roger ran me down to
the local hospital (University College Hospital at Whipps Cross), where
there is supposed to be an emergency eye clinic. Well, there is, but
not on Sunday, so they sent me straight to the Moorfield.


A case of hurry up and wait, there. I got booked in and triaged, and
then waited... And then I got seen by the nurse and waited again...
And then got seen by the doc, who proclaimed a tear in the retina that
they wanted to fix before it turned into a detatched retina.
Non-urgent, come back tomorrow morning at 9:30 am! And I had their
loverly drops in my eyes, so the fine evening sun dazzled me mightily as
I came out of the hospital.


We went back to Walthamstow. By this time Su was exhausted with
clearing and cleaning and worrying (though we had been keeping her up to
date with progress and diagnosis), and we had a Chinese take-away rather
than try and roast the chicken. And then we turned in for the night.


We were up again the next morning bright and early. Roger set off for
Swindon and I went back to the Moorfield.


I have to say that I would, on the whole, rather have root canal work
than laser eye surgery. It's not painful, exactly, and the lovely eye
surgeon did put numbing drops in, but it is far from pleasant. And you
have to keep still and try not to blink. Urgle! Your eyes get filled
with drops that give you Mutant Alien Eyes with giant pupils. They make
it hard to focus and every bit of light dazzles.


The surgeon was super, and did what he had to do as fast and as well as
he could, but it was a substantial tear, and fixing it was complicated
by my left eye having a delaminated sheath round the optic nerve. This
is not that uncommon, I know, but mine is particularly well developed
and has been photgraphed on several occasions. It also refracts any
light shone into the eye, and makes it harder to see the retina. It
took over an hour and in excess of 400 pops of the laser. But it was
done at last, and I donned dark glasses and ventured back to Walthamstow
after a rather fine slice of ginger cake and a pleasant cup off coffee
in the hospital friends cafe. I have to go back in a couple of weeks to
have it checked.


After lunch I managed to help with some storage shopping and sorting, a
bit of gentle boxing of stuff into the storage, and the roasting of the
chook and some veggies for dinner. I was still having problems focusing
because of the drops, and was knacked. It's amazing how tiring sitting
in a comfy chair can be after an hour.


We came home to Kent on Tuesday morning rather than the planned Monday
evening. It meant Su could get more washing done and fire off a
much-needed email. We left at nine and were home in plenty of time to
unload, have a cuppa, and see the client about her new frock. Yum!
Black satin for a posh frock do.


I am still not fully back to normal eye function. My pupils were still
dilated on Tuesday, and focusing is slow. But the floaters are fading
and the post-op discomfort from being prodded and holding unnatural eye
positions while having lasers fired at me is dying down, so I dare say
I'll be fine by and by.


How do I feel? ****ed off, mostly. But infinitely glad that it
happened where and when it did, rather than somewhere and some when less
convenient. And very VERY grateful that Su and Roger were there to pick
up the bits and sort me out and keep me grounded. But it was all more
stress and a lot less fun than we wanted.


Apparantly I have taken over 300 pix of the Symington collection! There
will be a HUGE LJ entry on that, and I'll make sure you get to see the
quilted bits.

Oh, and I met the Great Niece (adorable!), and her quilt is progressing
well.

Yikes! So glad everything turned out well. Sounds just horrible and I don't even want to think about lying still for that long, my eye hurting, not blinking while someone shoots lasers into it. You are my hero of the day.

Sunny

Kate,

So glad you're recovering! What causes such a problem?

--
Alice in PA
http://community.webshots.com/user/twosonsatpsu
"Sunny" wrote in message
...
Yikes! So glad everything turned out well. Sounds just horrible and I
don't even want to think about lying still for that long, my eye hurting,
not blinking while someone shoots lasers into it. You are my hero of the
day.

Sunny

On 25/08/2011 16:23, Susan Laity Price wrote:
Sorry for your trials but glad everything worked out. Thank you for
posting. I was sitting here very upset about several things in my life
not going as I had planned but your post reminded me that my problems
with the landscapers, although expensive, are still not life
threatening.

Expensive and landscaping problems are stressful enough. I'd wish them
away for you if I could.

Thank you for the kind wishes, they are much appreciated.


--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Glad to hear all is well in the end. Sounds amazingly traumatic in the
whole. My bro lost vision in one eye because he didn't act in a timely
way. Glad you did and things will be good. Here are some of the
symptoms everyone should be aware of:
Flashes of light
Showering effect of floaters (small flecks or threads) in the visual field.
Darkening of the peripheral visual field.
You take care, heal and be well.
Sending hugs your way,
Taria


"Kate XXXXXX" wrote in message
news
Last weekend got a bit traumatic...

This is largely taken from my Live Journal, as I just can't rewrite it.

We had a great weekend planned. I was going up to London with sewing
partner Su on Friday so we could set off from there at a reasonably
early hour to get up to Leicester for the visit to the Symington
collection... Then we were going to spend the rest of the weekend and
most of Monday decluttering and doing a spot of cupboard triage in
preparation for getting her house properly on the market.


The Friday bit went ok. Had a nice leisurely evening and nice wine, and
went to bed fairly early so we could make a timely start on Saturday.


Saturday's plan was to go up to Leicester via Cambridge, dropping Su's
partner Roger off at New Hall for a day of role playing convention. We
were traveling in his car, thus avoiding paying for parking for it while
he wasn't there to use it... But at 8:00am when we went out to get into
the vehicle, the polis were cordoning off the top end of the street.
OK, so turn the car round... Long car, narrow road, trees. There was a
tree/rear windsceen interface issue. And a rear windscreen then turned
into stuff like sugar crystals when the tree poked it. So rather than
setting off at that point, we spent the next hour sweeping up broken
glass and taping black plastic over the gap, and talking to the lovely
people at Autoglass.


There was no suitable screen in London. One could not be obtained until
Monday, by which time our man needed to be in Swindon. Oops.


I had an idea... Could they fix the screen in Leicester rather than
here in London? Ho yuss! No probs. So we set off to Cambridge,
conducting discussions with insurers, and drop the penguin off at New
College. He just had to chase the insurance policy and the deed could
be done. And he did, to great effect.



Su then drove us up to Leicester. Yes, we were later than we wanted to
be, but the visit was fab, and we met lots of nice peeps, and I'll do a
separate post about that later... Corsets to die for, and interesting
uses of quilting.


Afterwards, we went and camped at LJ friend Jane's and met with LJ
friend Suey again for tea and cake while the Autoglass mens did the
thing with the rear windscreen. Su then drove us back to Cambridge.
The M1 is always nasty and the A14 can be challenging, but we arrived
safely and in good time, considering. We went off to an Indian
restaurant for dinner as there was no hope of getting home before we
starved. It was good. Very yummy. Roger then did the hero stuff and
drove us home to Walthamstow. All was good. I went to bed feeling as
if there was a small something in my eye. Couldn't see anything.
Bathed it and went to sleep.


On Sunday morning we got up. My left eye felt... odd. Well, you don't
normally feel yer eyeballs, but I could this one. Left one... And it
had floaters. I am short sighted. I often see floaters. I don't
suppose I have more than anyone else really, it's just that I get looked
at regularly with my biannual eye test, and they always check for things
like glaucoma and stuff, and I'm conscious of them. I had my test about
a month ago, and there was no problem then. This time there were bigger
floaters, with a sort of corona effect round them, and a sort of
background like the pepper effect you get in French vanilla ice cream
with the ground up vanilla pod, only brownish red.


I cleaned out a cupboard and thought about it, but it wasn't getting any
better, and a brief talk with NHS Direct ment that Roger ran me down to
the local hospital (University College Hospital at Whipps Cross), where
there is supposed to be an emergency eye clinic. Well, there is, but
not on Sunday, so they sent me straight to the Moorfield.


A case of hurry up and wait, there. I got booked in and triaged, and
then waited... And then I got seen by the nurse and waited again...
And then got seen by the doc, who proclaimed a tear in the retina that
they wanted to fix before it turned into a detatched retina.
Non-urgent, come back tomorrow morning at 9:30 am! And I had their
loverly drops in my eyes, so the fine evening sun dazzled me mightily as
I came out of the hospital.


We went back to Walthamstow. By this time Su was exhausted with
clearing and cleaning and worrying (though we had been keeping her up to
date with progress and diagnosis), and we had a Chinese take-away rather
than try and roast the chicken. And then we turned in for the night.


We were up again the next morning bright and early. Roger set off for
Swindon and I went back to the Moorfield.


I have to say that I would, on the whole, rather have root canal work
than laser eye surgery. It's not painful, exactly, and the lovely eye
surgeon did put numbing drops in, but it is far from pleasant. And you
have to keep still and try not to blink. Urgle! Your eyes get filled
with drops that give you Mutant Alien Eyes with giant pupils. They make
it hard to focus and every bit of light dazzles.


The surgeon was super, and did what he had to do as fast and as well as
he could, but it was a substantial tear, and fixing it was complicated
by my left eye having a delaminated sheath round the optic nerve. This
is not that uncommon, I know, but mine is particularly well developed
and has been photgraphed on several occasions. It also refracts any
light shone into the eye, and makes it harder to see the retina. It
took over an hour and in excess of 400 pops of the laser. But it was
done at last, and I donned dark glasses and ventured back to Walthamstow
after a rather fine slice of ginger cake and a pleasant cup off coffee
in the hospital friends cafe. I have to go back in a couple of weeks to
have it checked.


After lunch I managed to help with some storage shopping and sorting, a
bit of gentle boxing of stuff into the storage, and the roasting of the
chook and some veggies for dinner. I was still having problems focusing
because of the drops, and was knacked. It's amazing how tiring sitting
in a comfy chair can be after an hour.


We came home to Kent on Tuesday morning rather than the planned Monday
evening. It meant Su could get more washing done and fire off a
much-needed email. We left at nine and were home in plenty of time to
unload, have a cuppa, and see the client about her new frock. Yum!
Black satin for a posh frock do.


I am still not fully back to normal eye function. My pupils were still
dilated on Tuesday, and focusing is slow. But the floaters are fading
and the post-op discomfort from being prodded and holding unnatural eye
positions while having lasers fired at me is dying down, so I dare say
I'll be fine by and by.


How do I feel? ****ed off, mostly. But infinitely glad that it
happened where and when it did, rather than somewhere and some when less
convenient. And very VERY grateful that Su and Roger were there to pick
up the bits and sort me out and keep me grounded. But it was all more
stress and a lot less fun than we wanted.


Apparantly I have taken over 300 pix of the Symington collection! There
will be a HUGE LJ entry on that, and I'll make sure you get to see the
quilted bits.

Oh, and I met the Great Niece (adorable!), and her quilt is progressing
well.
--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Thanks for sharing your problems with us. Sure hope you recover real soon.
Barbara in SC

On 25/08/2011 17:26, Sunny wrote:
Yikes! So glad everything turned out well. Sounds just horrible and I don't even want to think about lying still for that long, my eye hurting, not blinking while someone shoots lasers into it. You are my hero of the day.

Sunny

Well, it's not continuous for the hour and a half... I did get breaks.

And thank you. It was all a bit scary and stressful, but at least it's
over. Back next Tuesday for a check up...

--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

On 25/08/2011 19:48, Sandy wrote:
Kate, I'm amazed at your resilience! That must be so nerve-racking to go
through, not to mention the discomfort.

Well, it's one of those things: you can either just get on with it, or
behave like a headless chicken. I prefer not to do the fowl deed...

We're a family of copers, I'm afraid. I was much more bothered and
upset by James's diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes.

--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

On 25/08/2011 21:11, Taria wrote:
Glad to hear all is well in the end. Sounds amazingly traumatic in the
whole. My bro lost vision in one eye because he didn't act in a timely
way. Glad you did and things will be good. Here are some of the
symptoms everyone should be aware of:
Flashes of light
Showering effect of floaters (small flecks or threads) in the visual field.
Darkening of the peripheral visual field.
You take care, heal and be well.
Sending hugs your way,
Taria

It was a bit. I was very worried for a while, but, aparantly, did all
the right things fast enough that they saved most of the sight. Phew!

Your list is excellent.

--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!