Progression with my glaucoma surgery

Hi there

I hate takng all my eyedrops.  I have a timer that I set between drops and I also have a chart listing all the times I take the drops, and I tick off that chart (oh no, have I taken the eye drop in question or did I just forget to tick it off?}. Thirteen drops a day.

I've got photophobia.  I can't stand light.  My eye is just closing automatically, and it's driving me crazy.  I can't read my Kindle White because, well, it's white.    So I got my Kindle Fire and listened to an audio book instead.

And all around my eye socket is painful.  Whinge-whinge-moan-moan-whimper.

Oh, goodness, somebody save me...

I've had my glaucoma surgery!

Hi there

21 June

Right up until the last minute, the hospital staff were examining me for the dreaded lurgy.  All through the previous night I'd put myself through an intensely long session of self hypnosis/meditation/positive thinking/call it what you will.  I kept telling myself that from the moment I walked into that hospital I wouldn't have a stuffy runny nose.  And when the time came,  I didn't! 

My blood pressure, heart, pulse were all good.  I padded into the operating room in my Wellington Hospital robe, pj' s, chiffon booties, sideless shirt and shower cap. But I felt so cheated because in movies the patients are always wheeled in on comfortable beds accompanied by gorgeous George Clooney-looking doctors whispering sweet nothings in their ear and a full orchestra somewhere on the sidelines playing the theme from Titanic.   Well, that's how it should have been, anyway.

Everything worked out ok.  But my eye felt like there was a load of grit in it for hours afterwards.  The after-care is going to be intensive.  I will be taking thirteen (count 'em, thirteen!) eye drops a day for goodness knows how many weeks, and there will be quite a few visits to the hospital.

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Shortest Day swim today, and I couldn't go. My swimming pal J went, and I was so jealous.

Raumati break

Hi there

Sunday, NZ time

Last week, I spent a few nights in Raumati, about 45 minutes "up the line" from Wellington.  I went for lots of lovely walks on Raumati Beach, visited several cafes, caught another cold....

I cannot believe that I was four days free of my last head cold and, then, I come down with another one!  I figured I was free of a cold for my glaucoma surgery on Wed19th, but now I'm in the fifth day of a stuffy nose, I'm beside myself with stress.   A decision by the hospital will have to be made over the next day or two.

As I was walking along Raumati Beach, passersby kept telling me about this weird tree stump that had recently washed up on the shore, with some sort of living shells on it.  One little boy said the tree stump was like a seal.  When he touched a shell, other shells sort of shrunk away.

below: view from my rented holiday home at Raumati Beach.  That's Kapiti Island.

What Age is Old?

Hi there

This morning I was reading a fiction book.  The main guy was congratulating himself for taking a chance and hiring a 50 year old woman as his secretary.  He hadn't thought she would be able to do the job well, because of her age.

What? 

Seriously ...  Whaaaaat??!!?!!

The end of the golden weather...

Hi there

Sunday morning 5 am, NZ time

I just looked into the weather temperature from Metservice - "7c,  but feels like 3c".  Oh dear, I hate it that the 1st June is officially winter.

And I still have a hacking cough and a blowing-nose.  I doubt my glaucoma operation will take place.  I think my head cold will be embedded inside me for life.  I will be still coughing my lungs out and hugging a large box of tissues to my bosom when I'm aged 102 (of course I'm going to live that long - what, you think I can't?).