What else can go wrong....

[steve.h]

So, our holiday is booked for 3 weeks time, had a bit of a blurey patch at the bottom of my eye, just appeared overnight, So made an appointment for sat afternoon for an eye test, I spent 2 hours being poked, inspected abdphotos taken left right and centre. I was told I had a tear in my retina, the optician was great, she rang the hospital and I was told to get there asap as they were waiting for me, but not our local hospita as they didnt have out of hours for what I needed....
So, the consultant had a good look, he said that I had a retina detachment as well as a tear,he also told me that I had had a detached retina previously in the other eye and that also needs monitoring, so anywat I was told to get home and lay down and do NOTHING until monday, I went there this morning and the drip there mad the retina detach even more, so it turns out I had to have surgery on the eye, they took out some of the jelly in my eye ball and replaced it with a gas ball to fix the retina back in place, they also sealed up the tear with a laser jobbie.
Fantastic stuff they do, but after a massive heart attack and cardiac arrest 5 years ago, a bypass 3 years ago and now this, what else am I going to get, I am supposed to be having the snip and 5 weeks, will they chop them off by mistake, should I cancel now...
So now I am not sure if we are going on holiday in 3 weeks, I was told the gas they used should be gone in 2 weeks, so it really will be the 11th hour as to wether we go or not, if there is any gas left it will expand in the eye due to the pressurised cabin of the plane.... It is the first overseas holiday since the heart attack se were are all really looking forward to it.
On the upside my 4 year old lad now thinks I am a pirate... Oh what fun.

 

[cumbriasteve]

Well I broke my favourite screwdriver today so you are not the only one having bad luck

Seriously... good luck with it all and enjoy the holiday..and don't worry about the snip..if they do chop off more than expected then it will basically have the same end result...just the distance to the end will be a fair bit less.

 

[the snooper]

youve had all that wrong with you, how old are you ?

 

[steve.h]

Sorry to hear about the screwdriver Steve, hope you can find a good replacement.... Hi Snooper, I am a wrinkley 41, so 37 whe I had the heart attack... The downside of the eye surgery is cataracts in the next few years, but that is a really straight forard operation no needles andother general tools through the whites of your eyes and the consultant said that on a plus note when I do have the cararacts removed my eyesight will be normal, never need glasses again he said which is great as my eye sight is terrible. So in a daft and should I feel like this way I am looking forward to not having to shell out on glasses all the time...

 

[cumbriasteve]

I can confirm the simplicity of the cataract op:

Took my Mother to get hers done, according to her no discomfort at all during the op, followed by a week of taking a little bit of care with movement and covering whilst sleeping and resulting in a whole new bright world of vision.

 

[W.olly]

Hi Steve, sorry to hear aboput the eye problem but in a way can sympathise, i have found out 12 month ago i have Prolifative Diabetic retinopathy, had diabetes for 19 years, and i am the same age as you, i need check ups evey 6 mon ths after i had surgery, like hell i want that again, all i can say its was like chinese torture, 25 mins of needles in the eyes
And then they say i need to watch out for hemerages ( black spots ) as if i get them i will loose my eye site to that extent of the hemerage, unless i get to hospital within the hour. And it highly likey i will loose a good part of my vision within 10 years, oh thing s to look forward to hey.

Scary init mate when it comes to loss of eye sight.


Hope all goes well kida and you get away on your hols, and chin up, allways look on the bright side......where ever that is.


PS

no puns intended mate

 

[Hitch]

Making me wince just reading this.
Sounds nasty, is it something that has just happened, or caused by some form of trauma to the eyes? What they can do is pretty incredible isn't it!



I had loads of opps to correct an eye problem when I was a toddler, Popping the eye ball out and messing with the connections. Left me with good vision in my right eye, but only partial sight in my left. Generally speaking it has no effect on me, bar needing glasses. Long distance coordination is a bit dodgy, tend to see very slightly to one side when catching a ball. Oh, and I can't see 3D, good excuse not to pay more at the cinema!

My optician calls thes black spots 'floaters'
All I can think of is Kevin and Perry!

Anyway, hope you get sorted and get on your holidays!

 

[steve.h]

Yeah floaters is a bit of a random namefor it really I think. I had a new floater the day before in my peripheral vision, looked like a spider sat on the sofa next to me, next day it had broken up into LOADS of little dots, looking at the sky it looked like a flock of birds in the distance, I then noticed a patch at the bottom of my vision, the best way to describe it was as if I had water in my eye like you would if you were swimming, it started coming up into my vision quite quickly. by the trip down to cheltenham on monday the patch had come up and I couldnt actually see the object I was looking at with my good eye when I closed the good eyeif that makes sense.
I was told if it had got any worse I might well of lost my central vision in my left eye. as it is now I cant see anything out of it, it is like having frosted glass in my eye (slightly yellow like someone has peed in my eye !!! it is the gas bubbles colour that is doing that), so I am now waiting for it all to settle down and see what vision I am left with after a few weeks. It will be about 2 days before we are due to fly that I will be told if I can fly or not !!! The mrs rang the insurance company and explained what had happened, we had to add it as a new condition, so we were expecting them to double the premium (I have the heart attack, stents and bypass and she is waiting to have her gall bladder removed so the premium was already £105), they wanted and extra £6.25 for the detached retina eye surgery, so we were really pleased with that, for once we didnt feel ripped off....
I will keep looking on the bright side as my livingroom window is on the right side of me, my good side, no messing around in the shed for a week or two though, so thats a bit pants.

 

[Wedg1e]

I had loads of opps to correct an eye problem when I was a toddler, Popping the eye ball out and messing with the connections.

Me too! Well, three ops, not loads... one of my earliest memories is of watching hospital ceiling lights going past as I was wheeled along on a trolley...

 

[rtbcomp]

Popping the eye ball out and messing with the connections

Do they give you an anesthetic for that then?

 

[captain-destructo]

On the upside my 4 year old lad now thinks I am a pirate... Oh what fun.

thats great

just think in 5 weeks after the 2 house bricks, he will think your a cowboy



sorry couldnt resist

good job your eye is sorted because the quack may ask you if you want to sit up and watch


have a good holiday
dont do anything we wouldnt do

 

[brewdexta]

if your having the snip then the process to clear the tubes of wigglers isn't going to do your eye sight any good

Works wonders for your physique though, 3 weeks after the snip and I look like a fiddler crab

Have a good holiday and conserve your strength!

 

[t'rusty duck]

steve,
17 years since my operation for a detached retina ( courtesy of a roller shutter door being dropped on my head by one of the clowns I was working with at the time )
That eye is still fine, but old age (and those pesky genes) have done their usual, so Specsavers have told me it's high time a cataract in the other eye was addressed.

Quite strange asking my mother (90 last year) for advice about what to expect, as she had cataract surgery on both eyes in 2012.
She said that the biggest problem was having to use eye drops for a few weeks after the op...

Ken

 

[steve.h]

An update on my situation, I had a follow up with the consultant yesterday, I was told that I will not be able to fly in 10 days as the gas bubble will not have disipated in time, so holiday cancelled, happy days NOT.
Feel like ivve been kickedin the nuts, really dissapointed and its going to cost £60 each to cancel plus the cost of the insurance, money was tight before, not sure we can afford to go at all this year now.

 

[steve.h]

Ok, so more of an update, I was told to cancel the holiday by two doctors yesterday. Today the gas bubbly in my eye has dispersed by a huge amount since yesterday, if it continues to disperse at this rate then the bubble will be long gone before the date we were due to travel.
My problem is I am on incapacity benefit due to heart problems so we are really skint, we have been waiting 5 years to be able to take this holiday it has now cost us £360 in the excess for 4 of us to cancel the holiday as well as the cost of the insurance and a hell of a lot of stress and upset to our whole family (we were going with other members of family and friends that cant cancel as we had our own insurance etc, so it has stuffed the whole holiday up for everyone).
What do you guys think, do I have a case to claim for my losses from the hospital/doctors that saw me and gave the wrong advice to cancel even after asking for a secon consultants advice??
As it is the bubble hasnt gone, but you know how it goes and no doubt the gas bubble will be long gone before the date we were supposed to travel. I am thinking it might be worth ringing one of the ambulance chasers, I have alway had good treatment and though ill of the chasers but if the advice was wrong and it has cost us and caused a lot of upset I dont see why we should have lost out because they didnt pay enough attention to me asking and asking for a second opinion... GRRR

 

[no idea]

Ok, so more of an update, I was told to cancel the holiday by two doctors yesterday. Today the gas bubbly in my eye has dispersed by a huge amount since yesterday, if it continues to disperse at this rate then the bubble will be long gone before the date we were due to travel.
My problem is I am on incapacity benefit due to heart problems so we are really skint, we have been waiting 5 years to be able to take this holiday it has now cost us £360 in the excess for 4 of us to cancel the holiday as well as the cost of the insurance and a hell of a lot of stress and upset to our whole family (we were going with other members of family and friends that cant cancel as we had our own insurance etc, so it has stuffed the whole holiday up for everyone).
What do you guys think, do I have a case to claim for my losses from the hospital/doctors that saw me and gave the wrong advice to cancel even after asking for a secon consultants advice??
As it is the bubble hasnt gone, but you know how it goes and no doubt the gas bubble will be long gone before the date we were supposed to travel. I am thinking it might be worth ringing one of the ambulance chasers, I have alway had good treatment and though ill of the chasers but if the advice was wrong and it has cost us and caused a lot of upset I dont see why we should have lost out because they didnt pay enough attention to me asking and asking for a second opinion... GRRR

I don't see what you can claim for - the consultants gave you their opinion, the time since you've had the op and your holiday is very short so it was always going to be hit and miss as to whether you could go, so do you really think the consultants would say it was ok to fly if there was a chance that they could get it wrong?

As you said, the rate at which the gas bubble is disappearing has changed but what if it slows down again and there is a tiny bubble still there on the day you fly? Would you sue the doctors for not being able to predict the exact day the bubble should have disappeared? That's effectively what you are asking them to do.

 

[rtbcomp]

To sue you've got to show negligence and if the doctors acted correctly on the evidence available you wouldn't win in court.

Personally I'd be grateful that I was getting better quicker than expected.

 

[steve.h]

I know you guys are right, and yes my eye sight is of most importance, I guess I just feel angry that we have lost out on the holiday and the fact that the money we have lost has now made it harder to re-book for a new holiday (it is like paying for an extra person) so it is very frustrating.
I got the impression that the 2 consultants I saw tuesday thought that the original consultant shouldnt of given us false hope, they were quite surprised that he said we might be able to go.
Just one of those things I guess... Just sems if something can go wrong it does, it feels like someone/something has it in for us.

 

[rtbcomp]

it feels like someone/something has it in for us.

You're not alone there!

 

[steve.h]

I think half the countryfeel like it these days, with only the mrs working full time and me on incapacity and 2 kids under five things are pretty tight, we havnt been abroad since my heart attact 4 1/2 years ago. It is the mrs I feel most for, she just feels like she is working so hard and had absolutly nothing to show for it, and she really does giver her all to her job. I can only manage so much in a day so it does mean things are tought, I just wish I could work, the most I can do is 2 or 3 hours a couple of times a week, I have been trying to make stuff to sell like hanging basket brackets, every time I feel like I am getting time to do some more work things seem to happen like the detached retina, the nurovirus for 3 weeks before christmas, chest infection and pnemonia for nearly 4 weeks after christmas, it is just never ending.
I try to keep posative as I suffer from depression quite badly so I always try to keep happy and posative but sometimes it just gets to you.... I feel guilty for feeling srry for myself as I know there are so many people is the same boat or worse off than us.