Eye Laser Surgery - Next Morning

Woke up... no scrabbling to find my glasses. I just take the eye covers off and...

It has worked!!!! Like the most accurate prescription glasses for distance I've ever had. Still a bit hazy and with halos around bright lights, and close-up vision is rubbish. But otherwise amazing!

We head off to Cambridge again for my day-after check-up. The optician sits me down. There is a chart displayed. "Oh no, that's much too challenging", he says and changes it to the previous one. "Can you read any of that?", he asks. I read the bottom line.

"Oh", he says and changes to the next chart. I read the top line, then struggle with the next line a little. "That's astounding", he says. Apparently with the amount of correction I've had to have I wasn't supposed to be able to see that well for some time.

He checks me over and pronounces everything OK. "I must tell Chris - he will be pleased". I say "I presume my sight is good enough to drive, then. Is it?". "Good enough to drive? It's good enough to fly a plane!"

Wooooo.

Eye Laser Surgery - Treatment Day

So here is how it was for me...

7:30 a.m. Shower and wash my hair for the last time for a while (I will have to avoid getting water in my eyes for 2 weeks). I soak my eyelids and clean my eyelashes with diluted baby shampoo. The mild blepharitis I was diagnosed with at my first consultation is surely completely gone now after doing this twice a day for the last couple of weeks - they look clean to me.

8:35 a.m. Leave home to drive the the Cambridge Ultralase clinic, Missus alongside chattering about school. I think she was more nervous than I was. "Had I got my dark glasses?". Yes I had.

9:30 a.m. Arrived in good time for the 9:40 appointment. We're sat comfortably in reception and the Missus gets a coffee as I sip some water. I'm feeling a bit apprehensive now, but I'm determined to go through with it as long as the surgeon can answer my remaining questions. He might even turn me down for treatment. I would be quite disappointed by that.

9:40 a.m. My surgeon comes out of the consulting room and introduces himself. He is Chris Stephenson who created the Cambridge clinic in 2002. It was bought by Ultralase last year. We go into the consulting room for him to give me a final eye test, answer my questions and get me to sign the consent form. We talk about the possible outcomes of the operations and I ask him to quantify some of the risks for me. He is very reassuring and gives me straightforward answers to my questions. He explains that at my level of short-sightedness (nearly -8.0 in one eye and -6.0) and astigmatism, the technique is not quite as accurate as at lower levels of correction. So, as for the risks:

There's < 0.1% chance of getting an infection in the eye - the most serious risk of the procedure.

About 10% of people operated on have prescriptions before surgery that are higher than mine.

There's about a 5% chance that after surgery I will still need glasses for distance vision.

I ought to be able to see well enough to drive after 2-3 days, but it could take a week or more.

Yes I could have further surgery if necessary (under the lifetime guarantee) if the outcome is not accurate enough, but the amount of tissue that will be burned away will leave me close to the safe limit of thickness left so it may not be possible to operate further.

I ask him to tell me a bit about himself and his experience, although I had already read up his biography on the website. He modestly reassured me that he had done more of these operations than he could count (the website says "more than 9000"). I was confident I was in the care of someone who knew exactly what he was doing. I sign the form and go and sit back in reception while he goes and gets the laser ready. The Missus looks puzzled. I explain that no I haven't had the treatment yet, just the pre-surgery checks.

9:55 a.m. An assistant dressed in blue surgical gown comes and collects me from reception. She asks if I'm OK to go ahead. Here we go!

It felt a bit like being in a science-fiction movie. I lie on the contoured couch between the 2 lasers and have anaesthetic drops put in my eyes. The first bit is the most uncomfortable. Eyelids are propped open and then it's under the first laser with the right eye. A cup and ring of pretty lights come down and press around the eye. The pressure is maintained for about a minute as the laser cuts the flap in the cornea. This is it - there's no point trying to say stop" now! I'm given a countdown of the seconds to go and reassured as we go that I am in an excellent position and it's going well. The surgeon carefully moves aside the flap and then it's under the second laser... There's no feeling associated with this at all. Just a pretty red pattern that goes all jiggly as the laser fires for 4 or 5 seconds at a time. As I had been told, I can smell a faint whiff like singed hair. 4 bursts of the laser and it's done and the surgeon carefully replaces the corneal flap and puts some drops in the eye. And then it's the same again for the left eye. I get protective transparent covers placed over the eyes and get up... just a little wobbly. And, even through the covers I can see!

I wave at the missus on my way back to the consultation room. The protective covers are taken off and already I can see way better than I could without glasses before. Chris inspects my eyes with quiet satisfaction at a good job done. He gives me my set of drops and covers and explains what I need to do - anti-biotic and anti-inflammatory drops need only be used every 4 hours (although the protocol says every 2 hours). A top up of anaesthetic drops and I'm done!

10:25 a.m. I'm back in the car with my new wrap-around sunglasses on my Way home. A mere 45 minutes from meeting the surgeon. I could scarcely believe it! Yes my eyes felt a bit sore, but no worse than after a session swimming underwater in a chlorinated swimming-pool. I keep my eyes closed most of the time, but when I do peek I'm amazed - I can read the road-signs. A bit fuzzy, but it felt good.

11:10 a.m. Home. Even with my shades, it's feeling a bit bright for my eyes now. I go upstairs to the bedroom and lay on the bed with the curtains closed to start catching up with the podcasts on my iPod. The anaesthetic is starting to wear off now and my eyes have started watering.

12:00 noon 2 hours after the operation. "It will get worse before it gets better", Chris had said. He wasn't kidding. Eyes streaming now, and my nose running as well. "What a time to get a cold, I thought". Now I can barely see a thing and can hardly bear to stay still. I feel the urge to drink lots of water.

1:00 p.m. 3 hours after the operation. The Missus checks up on me and asks if I'm all right. No. It hurts like mad right now, but I send her off to school after getting her to txt and call my boss. "It will be pretty uncomfortable for the first 4-6 hours", they said. I crave more darkness - the curtains are not very thick. I go and sit in the downstairs toilet and close the door - the only room in the house without a window. I keep the sunglasses on, but have to clean them every now and then as they fill with tears.

2:00 p.m. 4 hours after the operation. It's starting to ease off a bit now. By putting my pyjamas over my eyes I can reduce the amount of light to a comfortable level. Eyes and nose still running, but not so bad now. And now it's time for my eye-drops. I see myself in the mirror for the first time. Hmm. Yes. I see now why the Missus said I looked a bit scary. I tried photographing myself with my phone...

Not a great photo, but you get the idea. I look out the window into the garden. Oo it's a bit bright, but everything looks sharp! I can see almost as well as I could with glasses before already! Still getting the urge to drink water and as I pass the vegetable rack, I spot the lovely juicy carrots. Surely psychological, but I got the urge to nibble on one, and then another. Well it's a sort of lunch. And maybe it's also just psychological, but as I move around, every now and then I'm sure I can smell that singed hair whiff again. And I'm a bit wobbly and keep bumping into things - it's weird not wearing glasses, but it feels like wearing a new prescription for the first time.

4:00 p.m. 6 hours after the operation. I managed a bit of a snooze. Keeping my eyes closed a lot seems to be a good move. They feel much better now - a bit like having a case of conjunctivitis. And I can see. Distance vision is brilliant! As sharp as it ever was with glasses, although there is a bit of a smearing halo around things. But close-up vision is rubbish! Yes I need those reading glasses I got from Superdrug for £9.99 in anticipation.

6:00 p.m. 8 hours after the operation. The Missus and kids have come home from school and after-school club. I keep the dark glasses on as they come in so as not to scare them. The Missus tells them "Dad's not feeling well - behave yourselves". I explain I feel fine now. Back to being no worse than a bad dose of swimming-pool water.

8:00 p.m. 10 hours after the operation. I've tried the reading glasses. 5 minutes at a time is enough as it tires the eyes, but they work fine. I go outside and look at the stars and can see them without glasses for the first time in nearly 40 years. But bright lights have quite a halo around them. That will take several weeks to fade, or so I'd been told.

The Missus is in the study as usual. "Answer Me This", I say to her (it's one of the podcasts I've been listening to) - "Why is it that a few minutes after I put my eyedrops in I can taste them at the back of my throat?". Well she is a science teacher. But she had to look it up. She showed my a picture of how tears work. Now i know why my nose was running earlier! Tears come down from the top of the eye and drain through the tear duct at the bottom corner into the nasal cavity. I didn't have a cold at all - just tears pouring down my nose!

9:00 p.m. I'm pretty tired now so head for bed. I get out an old airline cosmetics kit and tape my eye covers on, then put the airline eye cover sleeping mask over the top to help keep them in place. Wow! What a day!

Eye Laser Surgery Tomorrow...

...I hope.

Hmm. It's been a while. Must get those draft posts completed. Meanwhile, some personal news....

Looking forward to updating my profile picture soon with one of me not wearing glasses - I'm having eye laser surgery tomorrow to treat my short-sightedness. Woooo. A bit scary. I'm going the Cambridge Eye Clinic - to have Ultra Lasik Plus (Wavefront) treatment (subject to final tests and acceptance by the eye surgeon).

More anon, but I'd be hard pushed to do a better description of what's involved than Elslin's Story. I'll describe here how it was for me (assuming it goes ahead), once I'm back using the computer.

Cosford RAF Museum

Continuing our flight theme, yesterday we visited the RAF Museum at Cosford. It's only a few miles from The Barn, and, even better, it's free. Here is the site map...

In the Test Flight hangar you will find the fun 'n flight interactive centre, with lots of hands-on things to try. Here is Little W flying a plane...

This is also where you find the flight simulator...

The kids loved doing the Red Arrows display flight, as they got tipped from side to side and forward and back.

My favourite displays were in the huge Cold War hangar...

As well as the planes they have displays of missiles and atomic bombs and a number of cinema booths covering the history of the era.

We finished in Hangar 1, where there is an intersting display of engines. Here is Little W next to a modern jet engine...

There's plenty to see and do - it was a full day out for us.

Enginuity and Rocket Making

With our second Family Passport got lat summer, we always visit at least one of the Ironbridge Museums when we're at The Barn. A big favourite for all of us, but especially for Little W, is Enginuity. As usual, he headed straight for Power Valley to play with the water and dams...

But we were there to take part in the special half-term activities...

Yes we were there to make and fire some rockets! They also had model aircraft on display, display flying, and a hand operated flight simulator...

Little W kept crashing, but Big Miss was a natural.

Then it was on to making the rockets. Firstly you decorate your paper, then wrap it round a tube, seal the edges and put a bung in the end. Here are the 4 rocketeers mid-construction...

Then you add fins to keep it flying in a straight line. Here is Little W ready to get his to fire.

It is done with compressed air. You have to pump it up yourself...

...then press the firing button...

Great rocket - right in the middle of the target!

King Charles Barn Tankard

It's half term so we've all come to The Barn for a few days. Now I recently stumbled across a Madeley Matters article which mentions The Barn and a silver plate and tankard that were given to Francis Wolfe by King Charles in gratitude for hiding him here as he fled after defeat at the Battle of Worcester.

The article mentioned that a replica of the tankard would be on display at the Coalport China Museum from September 2008. As it happens, I had met Sophie the curator at our team's Volunteering Day, so I emailed her to find out if the display was still there. She wrote back saying it will be there for 2 years, so off we went to find it.

I wont spoil it for you by saying where in the museum the display is, but if you can find this sign...

..you are getting close. The display is quite compact, but very informative and has a photo of the barn as it was before it was converted.

And here is the tankard itself...

The kids were well impressed to see the history of where I stay displayed for all to read.

Ring Quest at West Stow

It was on last year and we forgot to go, so this year we just had to get to Ring Quest at West Stow.

This year, there was the added bonus of attendance by the cast and crew of Band of Hope, who we had spied filming there last summer. They had an exhibition and short film running in the new exhibition centre. Here is Little W being dressed up as an orc...

As for the quest itself, you have to find the 9 rings of man in the Realm of Man and then the 7 dwarf and 3 eleven rings in the Realm of the Elves and Dwarves. Here's the map of the Realm of Man...

Yes. It's the Anglo-Saxon Village.

Each ring is a card with a rune on it and a clue as to where to find the next one.

You have to collect all the runes and translate them to modern letters to discover the two words of power. Great fun.

And that wasn't all. In the Anglo-Saxon Village you could have a go at archery, run by Bows & Arrows.

Little Miss and Little W had loads of goes both with modern bows and replicas of those used in films. Here is Little Miss in action...

A great morning out. Big Miss was really miffed when she heard about - she had stayed at home to do her homework.

Anglesey Abbey Winter Walk

It was time for our annual Winter's trip to Anglesey Abbey. But this time it was actually snowy...

Right from the start of the Winter Walk the snow set off the colours of the plants...

Here's a Christmas Rose looking very Christmasy...

We also got to see some wildlife in the snow. A muntjac deer...

and a pair of robins...

But, of course, best of all was seeing the snowdrops in their natural element...

...the snow. I took loads more pictures which you can find in this Flickr set.

Snowy Scenes

We love the snow. And when it started we went out for a walk in it even in the dark...

It was nice and thick in the back garden in the morning...

...and at the front...

But Sebert Wood School was open as usual even though nearly all the other schools in the area were closed. Fortunately the roads were not too bad by the time it came for my weekly trip to my Second Life in Shropshire. Mind you, when yesterday it looked like this at 'The Barn'...

...oh and if you are clever you can work out which flat is mine in this picture from the angles compared to the view from the bedroom above...

... my car had a bit of struggle getting m to the main road to get to the office. Time to get some new rear tyres with a bit more grip, I think!