Not Quite Back In The Swing Of Things

Sunday 27th April

I mentioned that I has an eye operation.  I discovered eighteen months ago that I had Glaucoma.  It is too high pressure in the eye itself, which causes irreparable damage to the optical nerve.  If left untreated I would have probably gone blind.  Luckily having my eyes tested my reading for eye pressure was off the scale so I was sent to Moorfields for treatment.  I have been having drops morning and evening and while there was some progress it wasn’t fast enough for my doctors, so an operation was recommended.  Not quite sure what they did but basically they have increased the drainage of the eye itself so that the pressure should drop faster.   It will be three months before we know for sure if it has worked.

The operation itself had filled me with trepidation.  Although fairly routine, any operation is a bit scary, and I had been warned that there might be some pain, some bruising and of course there was always the chance that I could be blinded as a direct result of the op itself.  Thankfully there has been no real pain, a dull ache at the back of the eye and a minor irritation at the front of the eye itself.  One of the worst aspects of the operation was that I was conscious and had to lay flat for over an hour.  My shoulder blades were really aching at the end of it.  Next day I went to have the bandage off and though my eyesight was pretty blurry I could see.  Double vision lasted another day but now my eyesight is almost the same in that eye as my ‘good’ one.

But I am not quite back in the swing of things yet.  I hve to keep putting eye-drops in, one sort every two hours and the other every four, and I feel quite tired most of the time, maybe an effect of the anaesthetic itself.   Of course if successful they will do the other eye.  But at least I will know what to expect this time.  I am of course incredibly thankful for the surgeons and all the staff at Moorfields who have been wonderful.  And thank goodness I had that eye test in the first place.