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OK - here's the full story!

I was at my Dad’s on Sunday as usual, and we’d just been out for lunch. I came in, sat down and my eyes “went funny” – i thought a lens had dropped out of my glasses, because that’s what it felt like, but when i looked at them I could see that hadn’t happened. I just saw… double. It was hugely scary.

Dad took me to the A&E – after half an hour, while we waited to see if it was temporary – but that was a mistake, the nearest hosp with an eye doctor on call was 30 miles away from Dad, and he got stressed driving there, because he couldn’t remember where we were going and why. And when we got there – we were seen by the triage nurse in about half an hour, but in that time, Dad had harassed the receptionists three times. The triage nurse said that it would be 3-4 hours wait and I said that we couldn’t possibly wait. My GP consequently complained to me about that, but it would have been impossible. If it had been just me there, the wait would have been a pain, but doable, but having Dad with me made it utterly UNdoable. So we drove home – all the while Dad getting stressed because he didn’t know where we’d been and why… And I pretended to Dad that all was well, put a patch over my eye and drove home. Yes, I know I shouldn’t but I had no choice.

Went to the GP on Monday, and was booked straight into the Admissions department at the James Paget Hospital. They were pretty good there, I have to admit. The assessment ward rocks- they don’t let you sleep much, because the assessments go on during the night – my examination was at 3.30 am!!! – but that means that can assess around the clock and subsequently see and move on more patients.

The GOOD news I had was that 1. My blood pressure is (amazingly) low and I closed at 122/80 which is ENTIRELY normal. This is caused (even though I am dangerously obese) because I have inherited LOW blood pressure from my father. 2. My blood sugar level was 6.4 (normal parameters are 5-7) so it looks like I don’t have diabetes despite having most of the symptoms!! Oh well. 3. I also had a CT scan which proved I had a brain. Who knew!? (That was “normal” too, which I disagree with)

Went for the eye exam on Tuesday and was tested pretty thoroughly in every way possible which proved I definitely had double vision. Strange that. I kind of guessed I had. :D. They tested me with “prisms” (a kind of very thin clear membrane that went over the lenses) but none of them entirely reduced the double vision and kept it away. However, they put a semi opaque “occlusion” over the left lens and that' helps much more. The double vision is forced away (because one eye is blocked) and I get a small amount of depth perception from what I can see out of the edges of the glasses.

Went back for another test of Wednesday and the doctor said that she was very pleased that there was a marked improvement in 24 hours. Then saw another consultant who said he wanted an MRI, and full blood tests including cholesterol. I may have to go to Newmarket to have the MRi. And no. Not to the hospital. I’ll let you guess where, but the location is key…And the reason I’m going to have to go elsewhere is directly related to Winnie the Pooh and a certain day when he got stuck in Rabbit’s hole. Oh God. Now I’ve squicked my slashy self.

Anyway – there was a lot more stuff, a rude orderly, blagging my way out for an hour to feed the cats – Mary who I met there, who is 84 and wants to be a published writer – but that’s just incidental things. Bottom line is that I’m housebound, can’t drive by law and will have to “wait and see". The eye clinic have written to my GP to get the bloodwork done, and they’ll be letting me know when I need to go back – around 2-3 weeks, they say. they will be monitoring the progress from now on.

The eyes seem to be getting better, yesterday morning they were certainly single vision for a few minutes and slipped to double after a few, so I’m not going to force it, just carry on wearing the occlusion and hope for the best. After all, I can do nothing more! It seems that the occlusion is working well enough for the PC, so tomorrow I’ll try and get back to the novel.

Thanks once again for the thoughts and the messages and the phone calls and the emails etc etc etc. Although I have no RL friends within visiting distance, the fact that there was such an outpouring of care made the whole experience so much easier to deal with.

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