Monday, August 21, 2006

Eyes on the NHS

After a busy (and non-blogging) weekend of church clear-ups, a wedding, more church and a good walk, I found myself this morning sampling the NHS at its speedy best. Having developed what I considered to be alarming symptoms in one eye on Sunday evening (why is it that everything happens on Sunday evenings, or on Easter Monday ..?) I felt an urgent need for medical reassurance this morning. A phonecall to the surgery had me with the GP before 9am; an hour later I was on the ferry to the other side and by 11am I had been subjected to a thorough examination involving three lots of eye drops (one yellow!) and several bright lights and - final horror - a lens put up against my eye all the better to see it with.

For the hypochondriac and the merely curious: not a detached retina, but rather the gloop inside the eyeball becoming detached from the retina. Means that if I move my head quickly I can see the edge of it as it catches up - and several gigantic (or so they seem) floaters which at the moment are driving me bonkers but to which I will, apparently, become accustomed. We'll see.

But I thought that was jolly good for a much-maligned service. Everyone was charming and reassuring, and I was out in time for a wonderful espresso in a cafe in Gourock before coming home. Now I just need to get rid of the headache .....

And I'm off to Edinburgh tomorrow. A meeting about Lay Learning in the SEC, followed by some Festival: a concert in the Usher Hall on Wednesday evening. If Edublogger lets me use his computer, I may get a blog in edgeways. If not, I'll be back ........

5 comments:

  1. For any sake! Never a dull moment, eh? So was the problem fixed or is it one of these long-term things you just have to battle - like braces ;-)

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  2. More a long-term thing you have to live with....

    :-(

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  3. I had that yellow stuff in my eye a few years ago. I remember it having a slightly bizarre side-effect that it is probably better not to mention in a family blog. :-)

    Hope it all settles down and/or you get used to it soon.

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  4. Oh Hell! I've had the yellow stuff when I took a paper cut to the eye - remember that? Felt like an alien at the end of it all. I'm sorry you have to live with it. Is it a vision problem?

    I still think we should open another blog purely for our rants about failing body-parts. ;-)

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  5. Duffy, you must not encourage further hypochondria on this blog!

    I find it less annoying if I stare fixedly at people. It could be interesting .....

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