Cataract update

At least with private medicine you don't have to wait.
Oh yes? Think again.  Thelma did the phone calls,  first contacting the private hospital outside Carmarthen in mid December. Then the surgeon went on holiday and they couldn't find my notes. Eventually in the first week of January we got some sense out of them. "Ah yes Mr. Turner, Mr. Jones has a spot free in mid February. He's very popular you know."

Clearly not only was the NHS in a bad state in Wales but there had been a knock on effect on the private providers. Feeling a bit like a traitor to my adopted country I started looking for clinics in England and a google search threw up Optical Express in Bristol. As I was looking at their details a pop-up screen appeared: "How can I help you?" Within twenty minutes of typed exchanges I had a rough price and understood their way of working which necessitated a free consultation as the first step.
"OK, I'll go for that, when can you see me?"
I waited about half a minute for the reply
"We have a space tomorrow"
"Thel - can we go to Bristol tomorrow?" "Yes"
"Yes, we'll be there."
They even had a surgery spot available four days later. The consultation was very thorough, and they offered to do both eyes, one a week after the other, for £3000. This was a saving of £1000 on the individual eye cost and cheaper than most I had looked at so I agreed. However, when they found I was taking flomax tablets to mitigate the effects of an enlarged prostate they said I would have stop taking them now and wait for 2 weeks before they could do the first operation.

To help the time pass I worked away at the panelling, fitted desk and fitted bookcase I was making for our small study room. It was hard going trying to read measurements with the tiny strip of relatively clear vision I could get at the very top of my spectacles. I kept away from other people as much as possible to reduce the risk of getting a cold. Two days before the op I had to start with a regime of eye drops to keep the eye as healthy as possible. I had a sore throat which worried me.

At last the day before the op arrived. The sore throat was still there but no signs of a cold so we set off in the afternoon to stay at Hannah's place for two nights. The first operation was at 9.30 in the morning and we got there far too early. It was a cold day and the clinic was barely warm enough as I waited between a series of tests and brief chats with the optometrist, the surgeon, the nurse and the anaesthetist. At least the sore throat seemed to have gone.

Just get me that pre-op tranquilizer please! At last I was on the trolley with a drip in my arm and all became peaceful and still. Anaesthetic drops were put in my eye and a cover was put over me and stuck to the face. I felt hands moving around my face, various dim lights, a buzzing noise and something wet tricking down my face. After about ten minutes the cover was stripped off and a dressing applied. I was taken back to the chair I had been sitting in a few minutes before and offered a cup of tea and a biscuit, both of which were very welcome.

Somewhat unsteadily I walked with Thelma back to the car and when we got to Hannah's took a painkiller and went to bed.

I had my first glimpse of the new world when the dressing was taken off briefly to apply eye drops later that afternoon.  There in front of me was Hannah's little painted dresser looking indescribably beautiful - clear rich colours, pale blue and red, and fine detail; brass handles which shone - an image which I knew would stay with me. Then the dressing went back and I had to struggle through the evening with just the one bad eye.

I went to bed early and managed to sleep until a reasonable hour when I finally got to the pay-off moment - the dressing came off and stayed off.

We are warned that it usually takes a few days for the eye to adjust so I was not expecting the astonishing vista which was laid out before me. It was as if what I was looking at was an old painting which had just been cleaned. All the dirty varnish had been removed and there was the original in all its sparkling colours - colours so rich and vibrant that I could not believe I had seen them like this before. Houses, ordinary streets, small back gardens, rain, dark clouds, black wet streets - they all looked wonderful.

As we were driving home I experimented with closing one eye and then the other. By some extraordinary bit of brain magic the left eye, which was almost completely clouded, could provide a semblance of stereoscopic vision when both eyes were open, and the clouding was just a faint shadow. I kept gazing round in wonder - a seagull flying overhead, distant hills, people's faces inside cars.

The only downside was that everyone, including me, looked older; with every wrinkle and blemish clearly visible.