A Funny Wet Week
I’ve had a funny few days as regards my health.
Tursday morning, my INR was 2.1.
On Friday night, I wasn’t sleeping very well and got up at three on Saturday morning. But after a couple of mugs of tea, I was feeling a lot better.
I had my usual Saturday morning breakfast in Leon on Moorgate, but I did get slightly confused with my shopping in Marks & Spencer. I put this down to my eyesight having an off day. Is that normal after two cataract operations?
I slept better on Saturday night! But was this because I went to bed before instead of after Match of the Day and then watched it on Sunday morning.
On Sunday morning, I went out to do a bit of shopping, but it was really just to get out and then it was walking in the pouring rain.
Monday was a quiet day, after breakfast in Leon on Moorgate, I wrote for most of the day. My INR was a bit low at 2.2.
Tuesday morning, it was a repeat of Friday night and I got up at four and had a couple of mugs of tea. It was another breakfast in Leon on Moorgate and a visit to M & S. After I returned, I wrote for most of the day, as it was too wet to go outside.
In the afternoon, I started to get a bit unsteady on my feet and even thought about calling 999. But after two mugs of tea and a can of Adnams, I regained my balance and never fell. My blood pressure was fine and the only unusual thing, was that my left food was quite red. But it does this sometimes.
Wednesday was uneventful and I had lunch with a friend at Cote in Sloane Square.
Today, Thursday my INR is down to 2.
I feel OK, but it does seem, that for some reason my INR has tended to slump during the week.
I just wonder if my leaky skin, just lets water out, which surely must lower the INR.
Does my foot go red, as the red blood corpuscles are too big to get through my skin?
Possible Coeliacs Should Get Tested
I was diagnosed as a coeliac by both the quick genetic test and the gold standard of endoscopy.
The genetic test is no more painful than any other blood test, but many people are afraid of endoscopy.
I have had four endoscopies.
- Two to check I had coeliac disease.
- One to investigate a problem in my gut with an ultrasound probe, which turned out to be gallstones.
- One to remove the gallstones, by punching a hold in my gut and then inserting and inflating a balloon to force them out.
Only for the last procedure, did I have any form of sedative. I was game, but the surgeon wasn’t!
Note that gallstones are often associated with coeliacs! As are cataracts, which I’ve also had removed from both eyes.
Yesterday in Liverpool, I had chats with two possible coeliacs, one of whom actually had a coeliac mother and the other a gluten-intolerant daughter.
This page on the NHS web site is an overview about Coeliac Disease.
Under Diagnosis Of Coeliac Disease, this is said.
First-degree relatives of people with coeliac disease should be tested.
My three sons didn’t get tested, despite both my late wife and myself insisting after my diagnosis.
Conclusion
If it’s ever suggested you be tested for coeliac disease, you should get tested.
It’s not a big deal these days.
A Tale Of Two Cataract Operations
I have now had two cataract operations.
There was a few weeks between the operations and in the interval they changed the machines.
- The first was a Leica and the second was a Zeiss.
There were no problems with either operation, but there were differences, particular in how I felt afterwards.
- With the first, I was slightly more uncomfortable and had a slight amount of pain in my left eye. But the pain was nothing that a few ginger biscuits couldn’t cure.
- With the second, I’ve had no pain at all and the eye looks less red. I was able to take the dressing off in the evening and go out the next day, which I couldn’t do after the first.
Now fifty-four hours after the operation, my eyes are back to normal. I can even type this without putting on my glasses.
Conclusion
I would suggest that before you have a cataract operation, you make sure the surgeon will be using the latest machines.
My Second Cataract Operation
I had my second cataract operation today and the procedure was little different to my first, that I talked about in My Cataract Operation.
But there is one big difference.
- My tight eye was and may still be my master eye.
- So I decided to have the first operation on my weaker left eye.
- This meant that after the first operation, I was able to use my stronger right eye backed up by my improved left eye. It has been a combination that has served me well for several weeks.
- Now, I’m typing this with my improved left eye, as I have a patch over my improved right eye, which makes it temporarily useless.
At least by using my browser at a higher scale, I can read it back with my improved left eye.
Conclusion
If you’re having two cataract operations, discuss the order properly with your surgeon or several people who’ve had a double-cataract operation.
The Operated On Left Eye Is Working Well
I have just completed The Times Deadly Killer Sudoku in forty minutes on the phone using only my left eye. It certainly works better than it did.
I’m actually doing most typing on my phone using the left eye as it is much better than the right.
The wonders of modern surgery. And all paid for by the NHS in a private hospital.
A Simple Solution To The Tricky Problem Of Eye Drops
Since the cataract in my left eye has been removed, I have supposed to be putting drops in my eyes seven times a day. It’s four of one and three of another.
But it has all changed since the District Nurse brought me a pair of these shields.
The bottle with the drops is poked through the bottom of the shield and the cut goes over the eye. To get one drop, you squeeze the bottle gently.
I find the best place to be drop the drops, is lying on my back on my Chinese carpet, with my head on a cushion that C embroidered.
My father would have liked this device.
In his printing business he specialised in creating special cards and forms for the office systems of the 1950s and 1960s. So he would create guides and spacers out of wood in his workshop, so that his staff could perform complex operations quickly and efficiently.
It has certainly made putting the drops in my eye a lot easier.
Conclusion
The hospital should have given me a shield with the drops. The wholesale price can’t be that expensive.
The District Nurse Takes Control
As I said earlier my only problem was putting in the drops.
I told my GP yesterday, and saw him send a message to the District Nurses.
Today one of the organisers phoned me and an hour later she turned up and gave me an assessment.
She also put drops in my eyes and came back later to repeat the dose.
She had all the attributes one associates with District Nurses. She was professional, competence and well-turned out. The only difference from the stereotype was that she was probably younger than thirty.
She or one of her colleagues will come back tomorrow and she is trying to source a device that will enable me to do my eyes myself.
It is good to see, that with the pandemic still raging, I can get good care like that from the NHS.
I Have Just One Problem With My Cataract Operation
I have no pain and I can see very well out of the operated left eye. In fact, it’s better than the right.
But I have one problem. I can’t put drops in my own eyes.
By the look of the GP’s face when I tried in front of him, I’m probably one of the worst he’s seen.
My Cataract Operation
It was all very simple and painless.
After the procedures, where they checked that they had the right patient and that everything else was in order, after some local anaesthetic was put in my left eye, I just laid on my back with my head in a rest.
A cloth shield was put over my face and my right eye and my left eye, from which the cataract would be removed was left looking through a hole in the shield.
I was asked to focus on a bright light and I held it there for what must have been about ten minutes.
I held my head and eye still and I felt nothing.
Then the shield was removed, I was told it was all over and I was led out of the operating theatre.
I was in no pain and the only difference in my appearance was the shield taped over my left eye.
How many people hold off their cataract operation because they think it will be painful?
I left the hospital within two-and-a-half hours of my arrival at nine o’clock this morning.
It is now over twelve hours since the operation and I can honestly say, I have had no serious pain. Although for some reason my right eye has developed an itch in sympathy.
Conclusion
If you are told you need a cataract operation, get it done sooner rather than later.
Back Home After The Operation
I’m back home and now wearing a fetching eye-shield.
But why are both eyes and my nose running so much?
I’m not in any pain, but the right eye seems to be the most uncomfortable and that wasn’t touched.
But then my left eye was always the most sensitive and every time, I get a fly in it, it is always a visit to A & E.
I seem to have calmed things down a bit, by drinking lots of tea and eating M & S gluten-free ginger biscuits dunked in the tea.
But then as a child, I was always dunking ginger biscuits in tea.
Whilst I was married I didn’t, as C thought it was a bad habit.
The Anonymous Widower 