Today we went on the longest journey in the car we have made since before lockdown. Surprisingly Benenden hospital contacted me last week to reschedule the appointment that they had had to cancel at the start of our lockdown. The problem with my right eye that started back on 31 January is unfortunately still there.
Normally when we have visited Benenden in the past, we have a nice lunch at a lovely cafe in a nearby town, however as most places are still closed we took our lunch from Marks and Spencer. Colin could not come in this time due to the PPE restrictions I had to wear my mask and had my temperature taken on entry to the hospital I passed with 36.5 degrees! Once inside everything was very efficient spaced out in 2 m intervals and the seating area had been reduced to just three seats with spaces in between them. First I saw a nurse who gave me the rather painful dilation drops and a straightforward eye test which I passed. I then had to return to the waiting area to give the drops time to work. When I eventually saw the consultant it turned out to be the excellent surgeon that had done both of the cataract procedures on Colin last year. We had a good chat with her in full PPE mask and shield and she took great care and time to look carefully at my eye.
She could see straight away what the problem was which I already knew is a large floater caused by vitreous detachment - it's an age thing! What I didn't know is the reason that it is in the centre of my field of vision is because it is tethered to the back of my eye - it's not going anywhere quickly! Unfortunately the treatment that I thought would be able to help is apparently not very safe at all and she does not advise it. The alternative treatment is very invasive and has its own fairly high risks so with this in mind we have decided not to do anything at this stage. I am kicking myself as I was concentrating so much on my own face mask I forgot to ask if this is a problem that could get better with time so now I will have to write to her once I've received her letter to find out.
When I eventually came out I was quite peckish so we finished our picnic in the car park and as there was nowhere else open we decided to head back, stopping via a small open-air farm shop that Colin had spotted when I drove to the hospital. Unfortunately it has gone quite grey and was chilly so not really the weather for sitting out but that did not stop us enjoying two of their home made ice creams - I had salted caramel and Colin went for honeycomb - excellent!
This evening I had a night off cooking as we decided to take our custom to our excellent local Chinese takeaway which reopened a couple of weeks ago. I tried to restrict the extent of my ordering this time and we enjoyed our usual choices watching the Repair Shop in the evening.
