Tuesday, December 14, 2010

An American Girlfriend In London, Pt 6: The New London Eye?


About two weeks ago the vision in my right eye went cloudy. Not the eyeball itself, just the way things looked. There was no injury, no signs, no redness, no itching, no irritation, no scratch, no makeup or moisturizer in my eye, nada, zip, zero, zilch. I assumed at the time that it was my contact lens, and so I took them out. The following morning I put on my nerd glasses and the eye was still cloudy. I washed my face, put drops in my eyes… no change. Days went by… no change.
After about four days I was up walking on the high street near here and saw a Boots eyewear shop. I figured there'd be an eye Dr. in there since people need to get prescriptions for glasses, right? They had to have some equipment that could see past the obvious, right?  Wrong. Other than wasting about £40 to be told to put a warm washcloth over my eyes for 10 minutes a day, I got nothin'. NO answers.

A week later, after being told by the BF that I should just go to the local hospital down the road and not bother with the "private practice" people… I went. Though I should say "I spent"… not money… but 5 hours. Yes, FIVE FUCKING HOURS in the waiting room. Well. more like 4 hrs. 15 minutes since the first 45 min were spent going from desk to desk to desk at the hospital since no one seemed to know much of anything.

One office: They ask me if I am diabetic, I tell them no, they then tell me they can't see me since they only deal with diabetics. In my frustration I offer to head back to the high street and eat a couple dozen cupcakes to give myself diabetes. While the other patients in the waiting room found this hysterical, the receptionist did not… and sent me to yet another office.

(insert 3 other offices/desks here, none of them helpful AT ALL)

Another office: Since I didn't have a primary care physician, nor did I have any obvious medical emergencies (i.e an axe sticking out of my cranium), I was told I needed to go to the ER section and see someone there…

 
ER: they took my info, told me to have a seat… and for 4 hours and 45 minutes my ass sat there in silence. Wish the same could be said for the family with two small children that didn't shut up for more than 10 seconds during those 4 hours and 45 minutes. They weren't speaking english, so I have no idea what was so important that the husband and wife couldn't shut up. They weren't even fighting… just non-stop (VERY LOUD) jibber jab. It was getting on my every last nerve.. but still I sat… waiting, quietly, hands in my lap, in silence… for 4 HOURS AND 45 MINUTES!

When a Dr. finally came out and called my name I almost cried tears of joy… but held back for fear of screwing up whatever tests they were hopefully about to run. Know what they did? The very nice (& decidedly hot) Dr looked in my eyes with a small light, put some iodine drops in my eyes, looked at them again, flushed the iodine out... and said "what would you like first? The good news, or the bad news?" … I gotta admit, I was actually excited for the bad news at this point because in my head it meant he knew what was wrong.

"Both, in one sentence" I told him. So he says "well, good news is that I didn't see anything wrong, because the bad news is that the equipment here is not any good for this sort of thing and you'll have to go see a private care physician." He gave me a print out of the place he recommended, oddly enough it was the place I had originally wanted to go that the BF told me not to bother with. So… the next day I emailed them, and asked for info about an appointment. When I finally heard back two or three days later the email told me that a consultation, not even a fucking exam, would be £200 to £250… yeah, that's almost $400… so guess whose eye miraculously cleared up a day later? (It totally didn't, I'm just faking it till I get back to the states and can go see a Dr that won't cost me an arm and a leg… almost $400 is downright retarded)

So, yeah, I'm walking around these days with a really cloudy eye that makes seeing things at night a royal pain in the ass. On sunny days I am stupid enough to put my contacts in because I can not see in bright sunlight without sunglasses on, and wearing my glasses makes wearing sunglasses impossible (…or just plain awkward, 'cause I don't think glasses of any sort were meant to be layered- even in the 80'.) Yeah, wearing my glasses sucks- especially in the winter when they fog up every time I walk through a door where the temperature changes. Makes me want to invent a wee wiper blade that swishes across the lenses, how cool would THAT be?!

14 comments:

  1. I feel really bad for you, both for waiting so long in the waiting room and especially for your eye problem.
    I won't start writing about my experiences with doctors and people in the waiting rooms (I could write a VERY long blog post about it...).

    I hope you'll get better soon and if your problems get worse you should see a doctor no matter what it costs, you only have two eyes and you can't get new ones back in the states.

    *hug*

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  2. Aww, thanks ♥

    as for new eyes... I am gonna start googling "bionic eyes"... imagine that?! So bad ass! I could see for miles!... & through stuff! ;p

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  3. $400 is a RIDICULOUS amount of money to spend, but how long is it going to be before you get back to the states? I'm always worried about anyone with eye problems because if something is seriously wrong letting too much time pass could be really bad. No one wants to be a cyclops. I had a friend that was having weird vision problems and just thought they'd go away and when he FINALLY went to the doctor he found out his retina was tearing away from his eye or something crazy like that and he basically was going to lose vision in his eye. Scary!!

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  5. ok.. that IS scary. My original plan was to stick it out here till April... but I have a feeling I will be headed back to the states by the first week or so of February. I should have known... I have a horrible track record of shitty Valentine's Days. For real.. can't remember a good one... EVER. Why start now? There is something to be said for consistency, right? RIGHT? (please tell me I'm right...)

    Yeah, things here aren't as awesome as I'd like them to be, and some of that is my own fault (it almost always takes two, and I will be the first to admit my role in things when something isn't right... & something here isn't right... not right now at least.

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  6. What's wrong with the Valentine's day? Except that it's a shitty commercialized holiday?
    (I don't practice Valentine's day! I show Mr. Starlight that I love him every day and I don't need a shitty holiday to give him a present if I want to...)

    Is there something wrong between you and your boyfriend? I hope everything's going to be ok with you. Hang on Hun :*

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  7. You are correct in the crappy Hallmark Holiday sense... so every year I take the opportunity to tell all the people I love that I love them. Usually it's with a silly homemade card or some cookies I'll bake. I think of it as a day to spread love and flip off all the people who think it's just a romantic holiday.... BUT... seeing as how every year, either just before, on, or directly after Valentines Day something pretty fucking horrible has happened to me... I've been waiting for that one year when I wake to a smile, and fall asleep with one as well... and for once maybe didn't have to be the sole provider of the smile. There is something to be said for doing things yourself, but this time around I'm fed up with it.
    As for me & the BF... things are hard right now (& I don't mean in the happy way) ... long hours at work for him, little to no time for us, we're both dead broke, and his housemates are making it really hard on us both (various components to that). Luckily we are taking off this weekend to go stay in a lovely home closer to the city through the holidays, and it looks like things might be a bit better. Who knows... there might be a blog post in that :)
    I'm still going to leave the UK sooner than originally planned, but the reasons will have changed for the better.
    Thank you for caring enough to ask. You're a true sweetheart ♥

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  8. *hug*

    I really hope you and BF will spend quality time together alone. I know how hard it is if you're busy and don't have time to spend quality time with your boyfriend. And it gets worse if you have a bunch of people around all the time. And financial problems can be a big problem...
    I live with Mr. Starlight but we're both so busy with our studying that we rarely find time for each other. So I suggested that we should take an evening off at least once per 14 days and be alone.

    I'm worried about you, because I really like you and it might sound strange, but I would like to hug you and try to comfort you...
    You're welcome to send me an e-mail if you would like to "talk" about anything. I would really like to help you and I hope that my advices make you feel better.

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  9. Not for nothing, but you look pretty good in those glasses...

    Really.

    Come to think of it, I'm sure SBW has remarked likewise, as we have similar tastes in the finest of thing.

    Best Regards,
    Albert “Afghanus” Rasch
    Albert Rasch In Afghanistan: She had Beautiful Green Eyes…

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  10. Oh! Dang it! Forgot why I was posting in the first place. Have you seen bright light, or sparks from that eye? Did you fall or get struck (especially on the noggin)during that ice capades instance a couple of posts back? Does your neck hurt anywhere? (Excluding SBW.)

    Albert

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  11. Albert- funny you should mention the "sparks" thing since for a few nights now I have noticed that once all the lights are out and I turn off my phone (I tend to play a wee card game on it -"40 Thieves"- before sleep to make myself drowsy if the BF has gone to bed already and I need to be extra tired to fall asleep through epic snoring on his part) I see these little sparkly bits of light... like a quick burst of not so bright white fireworks. I assumed that it was just from concentrating on the bright screen of my phone in the dark and suddenly adjusting to the lack of light.... am I wrong in assuming this? ... and... after you asked.... I do remember hitting my head, but it was along the hairline at the top of my forehead. A renegade soap dish in the BF's bathroom caught me unawares as I was picking something up off the floor a few weeks back... Do you think/know if there is a correlation between any of these things and my vision going wonky?

    PS. I think I hate my glasses a little less now, thank you ♥

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  12. Ummm, in a word, maybe.

    usually you would have to crack your head a pretty good one to affect your vision, or take a few well placed punches to the eye to detach a retina. Either of which could cause post injury cloudiness.

    Now, is it blurred, or cloudy?

    Get my email from SBW and email me. I have a link or two for you.

    Best Regards,
    Albert “Afghanus” Rasch
    The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles: Dealing With Muslim Extremism "Chronicles" Style

    PS: I am not a Doctor. Though I did play one in college...

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  13. Wow, I somehow just stumbled across your blog, I had no idea you had one! Just added it to my Reader, so I'm looking forward to now reading all your previous entries haha! I hope your eye gets better, that sounds like such an annoyance.

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  14. I just have to ask...was the hot doctor married? lol...and yes agreed about the snuggie comment.

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