a view through my own eyes

Yes there is more. Different department at the K&C this time.

Some of you may know that I am a bit deaf, so I have the pleasure using hearing aids.

Anyway back in January I had a followup appointment to see how I was getting on with the retuned aids. I commented that there are some slight issues (mainly sibilance causing a slight crackle) and was advised that some of them should be sorted with the new lot of aids due in late February and so would I mind being a training guinea pig. I said that of course I would be delighted and so a note was put onto my record on the computer that I was to be contacted in February and if I wasn’t could I give them a shout in early March.

Come early March I am at the K&C anyway (having the pre op for the cornea) so I wandered into Audiology and asked about the appointment. Only to be told that there was nothing on the computer for me and no I couldn’t have an appointment – get my GP to book it. I pointed out that that was ridiculous since the audiologist had told me to just ask for an appointment directly in early March if I hadn’t heard anything (pun intended). So eventually the receptionist decided that she would book me in for an appointment and I should get details in writing in the next few days.

With all the running round with decorating and getting things straightened out around the house whilst I could do so before the operation, and then since the operation; to be honest I forgot about it. I think I have just got used to the slight crackling effect that I get.

A week ago a letter shows arrives with an appointment for me in May.

I wonder now – is this the appointment that the receptionist was going to book “that I should get in writing in a few days”, is it an appointment that the computer has triggered because I am due in anyway or has the audiologist realised that I hadn’t been in?

No idea – will report back when I know.

Well having seen the consultant last thursday and been advised to come back in two months, after the last appointments fiasco I wondered how long to give things until I started prodding.

Anyway a letter arrived on Monday of this week with an appointment for two months time.

I wonder if I rattled any cages last week.

Something that was only a vague desire before has become something that I would really like.

A telephone.

What? I hear you cry.

Yes I know I have already ranted and raved about the goings on with my mobile phone tarif.

What I would really like would be to combine my mobile telephone with the landline.

Why?

Well because I get 100 free mins a month on my mobile I make outgoing calls on that. But because I am at home rather more than is usual most people when they phone use the land line. I appreciate why people phone the landline particularly when from other landlines – because its cheaper and that to be honest is fair enough.

What it means for me though is that I usually wander round the house with two telephones – one in each pocket – perhaps I should get holsters – but that would look silly.

Anyway what I would like is a combined phone, that would do both landline and mobile and when I have credit or free calls available on the mobile use that before dialling out on the landline.

But I only want it to do landline stuff when its in range of the base station.

It can’t after all be too hard to do. Our landline hand sets already have a programmable address book (which gets automagically shared round the handsets), alarms and ability to send SMS messages. What I cannot do with the landline is syncronise the address book with a computer or pda – that would be really neat for when I do want to make outgoing calls – or just want to know who is calling me rather than just having a number to display.

So how hard can it be to make them dual purpose to use the mobile signal as well and then allow the owner to set preferances as to which telco to use for outgoing calls when both are available?

As per the consultants instructions I went to see my GP.

I filled the GP in on how the appointment went, how I would be allowed moderate exercise in two weeks time and about the reduction of eye drops.

I explained that the eye merely aches slightly now and that I can’t feel the stitches as much as I could before.

Then I sneezed.

“Hayfever?”

“Yes, the grass is being cut outside the surgery, I only get it mildly.”

“I don’t care, sneezing from hayfever could seriously affect the graft. You are to start taking daily anti hystamines, I am not prescribing them get the supermarket own brand non drowsy ones as its cheaper that way.”

“OK I will get a load on the way home.”

“Also you are to rest at home for the next two weeks. This cornea transplant is a gift probably the most valuable gift you will receive. These next few weeks are critical as to how well your body accepts it, if you overdo anything now and lose it it won’t bear thinking about. I want you to rest. Here is an appointment for two weeks time, come back and see me and will discuss things again.”

“Yes Dr XYZ.”

So I have been told.

As much as I want to return to work (I do – really) I know I have to rest. I really am quite frankly amazed that this procedure has been able to take place and am so gratefull to the skill of the consultant and the donor. It would be bloody stupid to do something dumb now and either lose the cornea or affect it adversely in any way.

I have noticed that the vision with it is changing from day to day. For instance at the moment I can just about read this screen as I type with my grafted eye. To be honest I find that absolutely staggering. This is far better than I ever hoped that it would be.

Went back to see the consultant today.

As I checked in I queried the apointment booking procedure, to be honest I expected a snotty “its not my fault”. Instead the receptionist would not stop apologising and said that the situation will be looked at as the situation should not have happened, as when the consultant says that you have an appointment you should just get it.

This was at 4:30ish in time for an allegedly 4:50 appointment. I had learnt from the previous time and took a magazine.

Suprisingly I was seen at 5:30 which threw me a bit.

I did the eye test again, and this time managed 5 lines off the snellen chart with pinhole glasses (what the works out in number terms I have no idea). Consultant was pleased with that.

I mentioned that I am getting a little bit of ghosting (imagine a dot in the middle of the circle – well it almost looks like a Y rather than a dot), consultant said not to worry at present. The main thing at the moment is to ensure that the grafted cornea binds properly with the eye – the vision being good at the moment is a bonus.

In the meantime I have to rest for another two weeks and can then start doing moderate exercise and go and see my GP.

As for the eye drops – well I am now off of the antiobiotics – which is a shame as they were refrigerated and felt soooo good when they went in. The Maxidex is now down to 3 times a day for two weeks and after that down to twice a day.

I have to see the consultant in two months time, in the meantime if there are any problems either phone his secretary to get a place on the cornea clinic for that week, otherwise its off to the eye casualty unit at Ashford.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with the consultant – I do really.

Today at SWMBOs insistence I phoned the K&C to check on the appointment as I had not had written confirmation.

So I phoned and was told that there was no appointment booked for me.

!

So I pointed out that the consultant said: “come back in three weeks” and that I had dropped the appointment booking form from the consultant in the pile of others on my way out of the clinic.

At this point I was told that no appointment had been booked and there was no form.

Grrr

So again I repeated that the consultant wanted to see me tomorrow three weeks after the last appointment as it was a follow up to a cornea transplant.

At this point they decided that perhaps I should come in, but I will have the last appointment, the clinic is overbooked and that I will have to wait.

I don’t care if I have to wait – I know that the consultant will take as long as he needs for each patient and that appointments can over run.

What does brown me off is that someone somewhere buggered up and my appointment was not booked. If I hadn’t been assertive I would have had to wait for the normal appointments to come up – which is of no use when you have had a transplant that needs to be checked up on.

I do have an appointment – so I am happy. But I should not have needed to be assertive about it.

If you have ever had an eye operation do not catch a cold unless you can absolutely avoid it.

Every time you sneeze, cough or blow your nose; it bloody well hurts.

The bizarre thing was that in the weeks running up to the op I was sneezing like mad every morning right up until operation day. Since then I have been sneeze free until I had this cold.

The pain seems to be easing slowly which can only be a good thing haven’t yet managed to correlate pain to environmental conditions or activities, but will admit that it hurts more when I am tired. So at last I am no longer continually on the ibuprofen.

Still very light sensitive, but at least the curtains are open in the house now a bit more often. Need sunglasses when I venture out most of the time. Overcast and cloudy is bearable and light is more of an irritant, though its much easier with sunglasses.

Have started driving again now I don’t feel drowsy or in continual pain and thats quite a novelty as I can now see more than before – its only now I realise how much I couldn’t actually see. Amazingly I can just about read a number plate at twenty feet with the grafted eye – before I would not have even seen the plate…

Other than that I still can’t look at any thing that needs close attention (ie TV /computer screens or read a book) for too long, can now manage around an hour before things get uncomfortable.

So how do I feel?

Very very happy about how things are going and the vision I am getting, particularly considering the vision that I now have is far better than I was led to expect. Though I have to concede that I have been advised that the vision will change over time and stitches will need to be removed to adjust and counter any astigmatism.

Very very frustrated that I am unable to actually do much, can’t read for too long, can’t do anything round the house as I am not allowed to lift anything that weighs much more than this laptop. Not allowed to raise my blood pressure too much so gentle walks are OK but thats about it. I would love to be able to go for some longer well paced walks and get some reasonable exercise. Most frustrating is that I can’t really do anything around the house and that SWMBO is having to do everything. As to why I can’t do much: raised blood pressure puts pressure in the eyes and that in turn could could damage the cornea. and so is not something thats worth the risk.

Well here is this weeks picture:

Having now taken a look at O2s website at their Pay and Go tarifs, I think I have solved the problem.

It appears that the tarif that I was on:
£10 a month and get free: 100 txt messages and 1MB of GPRS data
no longer exists, so now I am on:

£10 a month and get free: 100 minutes any network any time, 100 free txt messages, 33 multimedia messages and 1MB of GPRS data and of course £10 credit for the above services once the free allowance has been used.

So at present phone usage (see previous post) I am not even using half my allowance of calls, txt messages (or much else come to think of it) that I get for “free”, let alone using what I have paid for (ie £10 of credit).

This means of course that the landline is just not going to get used at this rate except for incoming calls and the broadband connection.

Stil I am not going to grumble as going on the above rates I cannot see any reason why I would now want a contract connection.