Medical support role day

[oursin]

I think it was actually in comments elsewhere I mentioned that Partner was coming up for a cataract operation.

Following a certain amount of angsting, having this done privately as NHS waiting times are massive.

My Old Time impression of cataract operations was that they involved lying with head held rigidly still and eyes totally covered for a significant period (or maybe this was some other ophthalmic operation?), but these days it's done as a day operation, in and out. And also, one eye at a time, the other eye is next week.

It was being done at Moorfields, flagship teaching hospital, f. 1805 as the London Dispensary for curing diseases of the Eye and Ear, and involved getting up at an ungodly hour, even though the actual op was scheduled for mid-morning.

Anyway, my contributions included working out how to set the alarm on his phone, and going over to collect him some hours after the operation was concluded.

Fortunately it is well-signposted from the nearest Tube station (Tranport for London as usual wanted to involve buses as well, YOY, there is a direct Tube line), and fairly easy to find relevant part of hospital.

Also, a taxi waiting in the adjacent rank when we came out, so I didn't have to see whether the taxi app on my phone actually works.

To be repeated next week.

Comments

[arkessian]

I fear I may have to go private as well, for the same reason. A year ago, the optician told me a referral was 2-5 years away, and my eyesight has deteriorated significantly since then (massive doses of steroids will do that). My next eyetest is due next month, and I have already established with the heart transplant team that there is no undue risk in going private if it becomes necessary. All I have to do is convince myself that I'm not betraying the principles of a lifetime...

[oursin]

It's not just that you don't have to wait so long - it's also less of a wait between the two ops, which is also a consideration.

[arkessian]

Yes, especially as I suspect I shall have to organise company in the house, at least for a few days until I see how I'm going on.

[bibliofile]

Yes, back in the '70s recovery involved a hospital stay with one's head anchored by sandbags, IIRC (a teacher in my school was out for weeks, after). Yay for living in the future, with laser surgery.

Glad it went okay. I gather that quality of life improves with better vision (said the wearer of glasses).

[nineveh_uk]

I'm glad it went well and hope full recovery does so. I have been well-disposed towards the contemporary cataract experience since I had day surgery on my sinuses a decade ago, and there were cataract patients on the same ward. Quite a lot of them came and went while we sinus patients were still recovering, and they all seemed to be feeling pretty well.

It is absolutely infuriating to have to pay, though. But I completely understand why people are at the moment. I would.

[ethelmay]

Everyone I know who has had cataract operations said it was much easier than they feared, and most have had some degree of vision correction that delights them. I hope his experience is the same.

Being required to lie in a specific position still occurs with some eye operations, but not to the extent seen in Call the Midwife (Sister Monica Joan had the sandbag business), and not for cataract.

[lexin]

My best wishes to your partner.

[oursin]

Thank you.

[ranunculus]

Hope both operations are a success. M had both eyes done three (?) years ago. Went very well and he is very pleased with the results. I think he had both eyes done at once.
Looking forward to my surgery!

[pameladean]

I hope recovery and the second operation go as smoothly, best wishes!

My mother got cataract surgery some years ago now, and the main restriction I remember is that she couldn't pick up her cat for a week or so. I forget if the restriction was for eight pounds or ten, but she could basically lift almost nothing aside from a can of soup.

P.

[kindkit]

I'm glad round 1 went well!

When I had mine done a couple of years ago (in the US, so procedures might be different), it was a very quick outpatient process, done with mild (conscious, but relaxed) sedation and a local anaesthetic. There were no restrictions afterwards except to wear very dark sunglasses when outdoors for a few days, and to use antibiotic eye drops to prevent infection.

I had delayed and delayed because of fear, and didn't even go in for a consult until a coworker who'd also had the surgery reassured me. And now I've made it my mission to encourage others not to delay, because it's so easy and the results are so good. I was pretty seriously disabled by my cataracts--couldn't drive, had trouble reading books, etc.--and afterwards it was like getting my life back. And colors! I was so happy to get colors back, after years of everything being sort of overlaid by a yellow filter.

[oursin]

It is very quick and sounds v similar, ditto re eyedrops.

[snippy]

I hope the recovery continues to be easy and quick.

[oursin]

Thank you.

[egret]

Good luck with this. I've promised to drive an elderly neighbor for her 2nd eye in January. She's gone months between eyes and I don't know how she stands seeing two different ways! She was waiting on a MAN of her acquaintance to squire her there but as he has proved useless she is finally settling for me LOL. (Maybe if she gets a clear look at him the spell with be broken!)

[oursin]

I don't think it was quite that bad on NHS - but several weeks, anyway.

[sartorias]

I hope partner has it as easy and painless as I did. Over here, they make you wait a month between eyes (which was disorienting with one eye clear and lensed, and the other with cockbottle glasses lens sagging on my face from the uneven weight of my glasses).

[oursin]

Thank you. Partner has just returned from the opticians getting his glasses temporarily sorted.

[mrissa]

Indeed the progress on this front has been astonishing throughout my lifetime. The following story is actually relevant, though it will not start out sounding so:

When I was in high school, my Gran [great-grandmother] had two surgeries. One was a double radical mastectomy for breast cancer; my gran, like me, was what lingerie departments call a "petite full," which means that you are not a very large woman but your tits did not receive this memo. So a double radical mastectomy meant a considerable percentage of Gran gone. ("How do you feel, Gran?" asked my mother. "Oh, honey, I feel so FREE," said Gran.)

The second surgery was cataract surgery. And at the time, they were not yet blasting the cataracts to bits with lasers, they were carefully excising them. So they showed them to her in a little jar, and Gran, fascinated, asked if she could keep them to show us. She was fascinated that she had been attempting to see through something that opaque. So when we got there to visit her, she pulled the little jar out of the fridge to show us, and we duly marveled, and then I, the smartass teenager said, "Hey Gran, why didn't they give you the results of your previous surgery as well?" And Gran, not missing a beat, said, "Oh yes, honey, I could have had them bronzed and hung them in the living room!"

So if you ever wonder where I come from: that's where I come from. But also I think of that when people get their cataracts done. It really was like--like a vitamin E tablet perhaps? One of those yellowy semi-clear ones, I don't know if you sell them like that over there. It was very cool that they were willing to let her take them home, because it really did educate us on what it had done to her vision. (But also it tells you about her personality that she was willing to ask.)

[oursin]

Giving people bits from their ops apparently used to be a thing - gallstones, e.g. (did I come across someone having them made up as jewellery??). In Decca Mitford's autobiography she recounts that after having her appendix out on the kitchen table, the surgeon (or maybe it was the local GP) gave it to her in a little bottle. She then sold it to one of her sisters (?Debo) for the benefit of her Running Away Fund. And of course having one's extracted teeth to put out for the Tooth Fairy...

[ethelmay]

I think they get all sniffy about biohazards or something now. Not teeth so much, but organs.

[clanwilliam]

Moorfields are excellent. G had George the brain tumour removed there as a day patient and insisted on walking home after. Not too bad, as we did live ten minutes away. And it’s the sort of place where you learn afterwards that your consultant has been shortlisted twice for a Nobel.

In addition to the signposts, there’s also a painted line on the pavement, which is a thoughtful touch.

[oursin]

Given the amount of works going on around Old St tube station, the line on the pavement is a very necessary thing!