Reasons To Be Cheerful

I love to moan as much as the next under appreciated, under paid, mis understood, worker bee but I will allow little rays of sunshine into my life every now and then.

Yesterday afternoon was just the time for a faint glimmer of a smile in the face of Arctic winds and the whipped, stinging cold rain. I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but for some time now I have been having trouble with my ears, especially the left one, almost constant tinnitus, frequent ear aches, not being able to hear people properly and then having other sounds, that were no louder then the people I couldn't hear go through me like warm pneumatic drill through butter. And then there were the dizzy spells, not often, but over the course of the last year there have been times when I've not been able to keep my head up because everything felt like it was moving.

Anyway as part of the investigation into these problems I had two hearing tests last year both of which showed some hearing loss in the left ear. For the consultant's appointment on Friday I had yet another test on Tuesday. The cow of an audiologist would not let me know what the results were, so I had to wait until yesterday afternoon to get some surprising but good news.

My hearing is back to normal, there is no sign of damage to the ears and they look all OK. The consultant thought that I had probably had something called labyrinthintitus which like most viruses has over the months finally got better of its own accord. Except for I am still having earache and tinnitus which he said was probably because it can take a lot of time for the ears to get back to normal so I'm gonna have a scan to see if the wonders of modern technology can show if there is anything untoward.

It's not a complete sign off but it is such a relief that my hearing has returned to normal, even if it doesn't feel like it at the moment, as I don't think I could stand loosing the ability to enjoy music and the world about me aurally.

And So

I was off work today, first day of my holidays, Si wasn't so the day was mine. So I went into Lynn bimbled around and decided that I really needed to go to the opticians. I needed to go as I hadn't had my eyes checked for over two years, I need new contact lenses and the lens of my spectacles are scratched. Three very good reasons for anyone.

The chap who received me did the puff test which made my eyes water, then I had to place my chin on the edge of a box which had an array of bulbs that would glow green at his command. I had to tell the chap how many of the bulbs were glowing. He did my right eye first, it seem to take an age, he kept stopping to ask me in which quadrants I had seen the lights. The left eye we sailed through, not a question was asked.

Next I was ushered through to the care of the optician - first she asked me the usual questions seeing as I was a new patient I assumed. Were any members of my family diabetic? - Yes my mother; did any members of my family have high blood pressure? - Yep my mother; Does anyone in the family have glaucoma? - No, no one does. She cracked on, looked at my retinas very carefully, asked me if the letters looked clearer with "either 1 or 2.... a or b.... 3 or 4?"

Then, once she had finished with the eye test she started to talk, she told me about how my prescription had changed from when I had my glasses made up, she told me how she was very concerned and would be writing a letter to my doctors telling them to refer me to the Ophthalmologist at the hospital because I showed all the signs of the early stages of glaucoma in my right eye. There were three tests she could do as an optician, the puff test, the grid test and looking closely at the retina for all three I showed the typical indications of glaucoma - the pressure was too high, I had an arc where I was not perceiving the lights and my retina looked wrong. The good news - it looked like it was the very early stages, the disease is very treatable, the bad news I'm a bit too young to be a typical glaucoma patient, it usually manifests itself in people over 40.

They redid the puff and grid tests because the hospital likes consistency - they'll be pleased with me.

It's not been confirmed I might not have glaucoma but as far as I can tell it's quaking like a duck, it's walking like a duck and it sure as looks like a duck so I'm not really expecting any other diagnosis when I do see the consultant.

How do I feel? I feel very dropped on, I wasn't expecting this, I have no obvious symptoms, it doesn't hurt. But I now face a lifetime of eye drops to stave off the risk of going partially sighted or blind. However that is far better then a prognosis of blindness or permanent disability, I don't have that and if it means that from the age 40 my brother will get free eye test I'm sure that I should get a freebie or two myself.