EYE EYE!

Tuesday 02/03/2010. When I last visited my optician about a month ago I was a little disturbed to learn that the pressure in, or on the lens of my eyeballs was well above the desired level. It was about 25% up on normal and this apparently puts me at risk of glaucoma! In consequence I have been referred to an eye-consultant to have it checked out. Today I have my appointment at the Darlington Memorial Hospital for these tests and an examination. Under our National Health Service "choose and book" scheme. Darlington Memorial is the hospital with the shortest waiting list, in my area, of approximately 15 days, which I guess is pretty good for something, serious enough, but hardly life threatening. By comparison choosing either James Cooke Hospital in Middlesbrough or the Stockton on Tees General Hospital would have involved waiting in excess of 70 days, so a bit of a no-brainer there.

I arrived over an hour early for my appointment but was seen straight-away, to top marks (to us both) for that. The waiting room had about eight or ten "waiters" all my age or older, respectably dressed folks with paid-off mortgates who appear unusually interested in toilet provisions and make groaning noises as they lever themselves out of their chairs when called. I was in and out of consulting rooms for nearly two hours in all and had five different, consutations, examinations, tests eye-photos etc., from members of staff so no complaints about the attention received. With the exception of the photographer the senior staff were Asian in origin sporting varying degrees of familiarity with the English language. The waiting areas and consulting rooms were clean but dowdy with a background noise consisting of a stream of musical low-volume laughter-cum-chatter from the nurses and staff who easily matched the patients in number. Had they lacked the benefit of uniforms they would still be easily identifyable as their monopoly of coffee cups clearly indicates superior status. The outcome of the tests is quite good, my pressures are still high they are not so high as to require intervention or treatment, so my consultatnt will, to coin a phrase, "keep an eye" on me. The treatment being to "come back in six months" for a further follow-up examination. As he set about dictating his notes I enquired whether I could do anything to combat the risk, his answer, nothing more than a peremptory negative. So I took my leave groaning quietly as I levered myself out of my chair and made my way to the toilet.

I took a few pictures of the hospital but have managed to lose them (pratt) so to illustrate the day's activity my picture is of a poster in the eye clinic. I suppose in six months time I will have another chance to get a picture of the hospital building. (Eyes willing)!