Tests

So, I return to the hospital on the Tuesday morning for tests, the first one involved having a cannula put into my hand and a dye injected through it, then I was hooked up to a machine that takes lots of photographs of my eyes, again all the staff were so lovely, they talked me through the procedure so I knew what was coming, bear in mind, I have already had my eyes dilated and cannot see a thing, so putting my trust into a group of people I don't know made me feel very uncomfortable. I remembered someone telling me that the die might make me feel sick, holy crap! they weren't wrong, once the dye was in my system I had to stick my head into this machine, all the while my brain is arguing with my stomach, you know that feeling, cold sweats, mouth watering, I felt dizzy, the nurse touched my arm, telling me to take deep breaths when all I wanted to do was throw up all over the expensive machine, when the machine had finished, the nurse took me back to sit with Mum to rest and let me stomach settle, as ever Mum was straight in with "Lynda, can you see those red chairs over there?","....No Mum", "WELL, I've been sitting here watching and there's this line of about 10 red chairs over on the other side of the waiting room!","......Yes, and.....", "well. no one sits on them!!!" I felt the dull sick feeling in my stomach lift and I begin to smile, I know I am going to start giggling over a line of bloody red chairs, we must have sat there like a pair of 6 year olds, with Mum saying "ohhhh, here comes someone!...no,no, they're not sitting on the red chairs". Then I was whisked away again to have lights shone in and out of my eyes, special lenses put into my eyes and more different coloured lights shone in and out...all the while all I could think about was who was sitting on the red chairs! Actually, thinking back now, Mum and I did a lot of distracting each other from what was happening, and at no point did I really think it was serious or that there would ever be a very strong possibility that I would loose my sight, after all, I was 38 years old, all the other people in the waiting room seemed to come and go, but we didn't, THEN I met Dr Andrews!
I was in a very small room with a young sounding Dr and My nurse Tina, when you cant see it is so hard to with hold information, they were talking to me, but it just wasn't sinking in, they were saying they thought I had MCN but the retina had become so thin that there was a very real risk it could detach..what's going round in my head? RED CHAIRS, RED CHAIRS....you will need to come and attend Dr Andrews clinic...red chairs red chairs...he will be along in a minute...red chairs, red chairs...Then I hear this booming voice getting louder, nahh that voice is not coming in my small space...more red chairs.....oh shit, he IS in my space, the red chairs vanished...I have never met someone so so, I can only describe him as a big friendly giant, with a massive personality, a man who is top of his game and knows it, he shouts move and everyone moves. With a booming matter of fact manner he tells me that I will be attending his clinic, he will be sending a letter to my doctor, with a click of his fingers I can hear the other Dr frantically tapping on his computer, I need to start a course of injections (at this point I didn't understand that the injections were going in my eye) BUT as I am too young the hospital will not pay for them and they will be £2000 each and I will need about 6....HAHAHAHAHA bloody red chairs!! BUT Dr Andrews himself has taken a look at all my results today and I need to start the injections asap as I already have a large build up of blood and fluid behind the retina, so I will be sent a letter with a appointment and he will inject me! Great, where the hell am I going to find £12,000...in his next breath he says something about speaking to someone higher up and my case going to some kind of panel, he is sure the hospital will give the go ahead so don't worry...oh and he grabs my hand shakes it, ruffles my hair and is gone......why the hell can't I get the Red Chairs to come back, at some point Mum had been brought into the room and says don't worry if we have to pay, we have to pay. The trip home that day was a long solemn one. And little did I know my turn on the red chairs would come soon enough.....