Jenni

Just wanted to fill you in on yesterday’s procedure…….
 
Arrived at Moorfields Eye Hospital in good time for proceedings to begin.  The pre-op nurse clearly deduced that I was a tad nervous and offered me valium – to be quite honest I would have opted for a general anaesthetic or an induced coma at this point but accepted the valium with open arms.  Thank God she asked me the usual “war and peace” questions before this fabulous drug kicked in as I was reduced to a jabbering smiley person without a care in the world.  (Amazon don’t sell this stuff – I’ve looked!). Could even have listened to Bryan banging on about his final “Elgar” music assignment to be honest.  Bryan made notes of the aftercare cocktail of drops that needed to be administered – quite a procedure I can tell you with some needing to be put in every 15 minutes post op and others every half hour, progressing to every hour – this was now “his department” which was carefully administered throughout the rest of the day with precision.
 
I was called into a darkened room, donned with j-cloth hat and blue plastic slippers??  (would have preferred purple but there didn’t seem to be a choice), then asked to lie down between two enormous machines.  With head firmly in place Professor Gartry then proceeded to explain everything.  I had momentarily slipped off to my favourite place with the help of the valium (Florida of course), but he brought me back down to earth stating that he was going to “clamp” my eyelids open.  I felt nothing but could see everything.  A large telescopic device then came towards my eye and within seconds everything went black – this was the point that they had removed my cornea.  I could see absolutely nothing which was of concern to say the least.  On to the next machine which was positioned over the eye (apparently),  but this time, I did see a series of blue lights – this was the actual laser treatment – followed by a smell of bbq’d meat, which was a little disconcerting to say the least.  Machine removed, masses of solution poured over my eye, running down my face, into my ear and over the hair – was the fire brigade called in to put out the bbq??  Professor Gartry talked to me throughout, and with reassurance and he stated all “went well”.
 
I was guided (a necessity as my blue feet seemed to be walking ahead of my legs and I was trying to catch them up), (valium again, great stuff!) to another room and Bryan was waiting, looking pensive.  A nurse gave post op instructions whilst I slipped back to Florida – Bryan wrote everything down, even though she gave him a sheet of paper with it already typed out.  What a rock my husband is!
 
Half way home on the train I burst into tears, I was completely overwhelmed by the fact that my peripheral vision was back in tact – that in itself is a bonus.  Couldn’t wait for it to get dark to test the “halo/sparks” effect I had been suffering for the past 10 months.  Around 11.00 p.m. I went outside and looked straight at the solar lamps on the patio – nothing!!!  Just a regular light, no sparks, halo’s – whaaaaa, nothing short of a miracle!  I can vaguely see the outline of a lens, could be the protective lens put in place to aid healing, but not sure and really don’t care.  Prof. Gartry said he may have to do a bit of “fine tuning” at some point in the future so will mention that Monday but……not bothered about it.  In the grand scheme of things he has put right everything I was suffering so, job done.
 
Today, the paperwork states, that I may feel a “foreign body effect”, no kidding Sherlock – a more apt description would be that it feels like “ the Brazil team scurrying around my eyeball trying not to let any more goals in).  Red blotches, errr without a doubt – I’ve signed up as an extra in the Twilight Zone.  Classic one though is “The two eyes may feel different” – well of course they do, I’ve only had treatment on one!  Finally, there’s a list of Do’s and Don’ts which has cheered me up no end.  No. 8 states that I can play Rugby in a month’s time which is fabulous as I’ve never played rugby in my life so really looking forward to that!
 
Final visit to Moorfields tomorrow where I get the protective lens removed and get signed off.  All in all, nowhere near the drama of the cataract surgery and thus far, thrilled with the result!  Hoorah for Gartry that’s all I can say!
 
Jenni