After seeing the Doctor I made my way into Hitchin to meet my friend for a swim. While I stood in the carpark waiting for her, my feet were freezing cold despite three pairs of socks, the biting cold wind was whipping around my neck making my back feel cold and achy, every-one who walked past was hunched against the weather, and then there's me, standing there with my swimming bag, shivering. As the minutes ticked past I went into a bit of a daze thinking about the quickest way of getting from the pool side to the changing rooms without turning blue, and then there is the whole drying my hair business, if I don't dry it I will definitely be suffering from hypothermia before I get home, and if I dry it at the pool I run the risk of my classic Italian genes turning my hair from a tame straightened style to a mass of frizz and wild curls.
As my friend turned into the carpark I had already decided we were fecking mad, and as she got out of her car, we stood looking at each other saying nothing for a few seconds, I just knew she had been thinking the same, so we chucked our swimming gear in the back of the car and went for coffee and cake.
The weather got colder and colder Tuesday and Wednesday, and the sky was trying desperately to drop snow on us.
Wednesday night, I quite literally sat on the edge of my bed praying that the snow wouldn't stop me from going to Moorfields on Thursday morning, I don't go for the religious stuff, but I did thank god when I woke up that Moorfields was open as usual and, even more astoundingly, the trains were running. Not only were they running, they were on time!!
It felt really strange that London had more snow than we did.
I am very proud to tell you that I DID NOT at any point miss-lay my train ticket, mind you, this is largely because my partner took them from me and kept them in his wallet until we needed them, the man just doesn't trust me!!
The hospital was almost empty, with people choosing to stay home in the warm. Nurse Tina was on duty and as I haven't seen her for years I was hoping she would be doing my checks, but another nurse called me in saying, she would be my nurse for today, as frankly, she was bored to death as all her patients had cancelled so she thought she would step in and help Tina, she carried on telling me how she would attend her appointment even if she had broken her leg, and then proceeded to balance her leg on the chair and slap her thigh. I couldn't get a word in edgeways as she chatted along, laughing to herself. This nurse, dare I say it, was even better than Tina. When she gave me a sight test, she was astounded that my sight was so cranky and went into a high pitched rant about people getting on with their lives no matter what god dished out to them. All the while she was chattering, she would bark in a few orders...Look up, Look down...Right, now take out your contact lenses.... I got on with removing them while listening and making noises of agreement, the right one came out without a problem, the left one just wouldn't come out. With the nurse standing at my elbow, I felt a little pressured and tried harder to remove it, then 'ping' out it came, bounced off my hand and disappeared. I said 'shit' and the nurse said 'holy mother of god, how the hell are we going to find that little bugger' She immediately springs into action and starts, totally inoffensively, 'patting' me down and muttering under her breath that we were never going to find the little bugger. As she lifted my arm to start patting me more, I felt a tiny bit of wet on my arm under my jumper sleeve, so I shouted 'WAIT' its up my arm...sure enough, there was the little bugger, clinging onto the hairs on my arms. Well, anyone would have thought that my nurse had won the lottery, she jumped back, slapped her hands to her chest and began doing this over exaggerated breathing thing which was hilarious. After I had safely deposited the little bugger into my little pot, she gave me a hug and said she hadn't been that afraid for years....how on earth would I manage without my contact lenses..ahhhh yess a question I ask myself nearly every day.
The next moment I was off for some scans and then sat waiting to see Dr Andrews, the lack of patients meant I didn't wait long and when the Dr saw me he came over for a chat then disappeared up the corridor, I saw a different consultant that I haven't seen before, but was working with Dr Andrews, he carefully went through my scans and agreed that the floater hadn't moved, we confirmed that the shape of the floater that he could see on my scan was the same as I see when I look. He also agreed that not having the operation to remove the floater was indeed the correct decision, and after a final check of my scan and shinning some bright lights into my eyes he declared me 'stable', well the eyes are anyway.
So, I am happy to say I was discharged on the condition that I attend A&E immediately if anything changes and they of course will see me.
The reverse journey home was a little less smooth as our Peterborough train was delayed by 20 mins, which in the end was only 10, but with a platform change from 7 to 5 sending a flow of freezing cold people running down the platform to the stairs. me included as I tried to, quite literally, blindly keep up with the flow, my partner, linked arms with me and ordered me to slow down just as my foot completely missed the first step and very nearly send us both flying down two sets of steps, so I slowed down. The rest of Thursday was spent asleep and Friday morning I woke up to a sky heavy with snow and my meeting at school cancelled. My contact at RNIB was attending the meeting with me, but he has to come from Norfolk and was already snowed in, the first few flurries started here just after lunch and by 4pm we were also covered in a blanket of white. The thing with all this was, daughter number one was driving in the snow storm and was frightened, so I chatted to her (hands free of course) back into our village, then I wrapped up warm, grabbed Ralph and his lead and stomped down to meet her at her last dog walk of the day. I was concentrating on where I was going I didn't really notice how fast and thick the snow was falling until we were in the field and although I know its something I shouldn't do, I am so glad I did, it was beautiful and I didn't care if it hurt my eyes or gave me head ache, balls to snow blindness, this was well worth it. Ralph absolutely loved it, and spent a lot of time running out of my sight, which probably wasn't actually very far, and then running back and launching himself at me. After half an hour, my Daughters dog walk had finished and much to Ralphs disgust we left to walk back to drop the dog off and get her car. My village only has one road through it, and this was jammed with cars going no-where, so we abandoned the car and walked home. By the time we got home Ralph had ice stuck to his chin and the hair over his eyes, but was also sporting this stupid grin, which said, THANKS MUM THAT WAS BRILL. X
No comments:
Post a Comment