Barmy Blue's Bland Blog

Mum's going in to hospital for an eye operation. I'm not too worried about it. Although the last time she went into hospital was to give birth 23 years ago. I'm not used to her being ill or having problems requiring treatment. She gets the normal complaints of course, back ache, leg pains, swollen ankles, unsightly veins. All to be expected in a woman her age and size. She goes in at 7:30 but Napoleon plans to get her at 6. It's nearly 4 now, am that is. I see no point in sleeping now. Things still aren't ready.
On Friday she noticed a problem with one eye. there was a red patch under the iris and her eyes were quite bloodshot (again, not uncommon for her) that wasn't the problem though. She described it as a finger print on her eye or a contact lenses that's slipped out of place (she's never worn contacts, neither have I so she guessing what it's like). I tested her eyes (I've been subjected to eye tests for about 18 years now, I know the drill). I even made a little alphabet chart. She couldn't see it through one eye (the other eye was fine though). She had a little peripheral vision in the bad eye but that's about it. This concerned me. I looked up the symptoms, however any sight loss, partial or not requires urgent medical attention. She'd checked our doctor's opening times and he wouldn't be open today so she decided to go to A&E. She was told there'd be a 4 hour wait and was advised to go to the eye hospital (A&E was closer but the eye hospital specialises in eyes). So she did. They tested her eyes and told her that her Retina's come loose. It happens in older people. She's going in for surgery tomorrow morning (even though it's 4 am I don't normally class it as tomorrow until I've gone to bed, or the sun comes up, it's just easier for me that way). I would be in bed now but I'm waiting for things to dry. I made her a card while waiting for some of her over night things to dry so now I have to wait for that to dry. She won't be happy that I'm up so late but it shouldn't be a big deal. I sleep too much anyway. You know, if I could drive we needn't factor Napoleon into this at all but unfortunately I can't so he'll have to drive her. I called him and asked him if he was busy and if he wouldn't mind taking her. He started going on about the parking in that area. Where would he park which spawned my you don't have to park, you can just pull over and let her out. You see, one of the reason's I hate calling Napoleon is because he will go on and on about the same thing even though you've already told him about it. On and on and on and on and on. When mum got home we discussed it in more detail so I filled Napoleon in. He started that debate again and once he got around that he had it in his head that I was going too. Mum and I had already talked about this. There's no point me going too. I'd like to go for support but it's not practical. Mum could be in there until Monday or so and what exactly could I do there anyway? Besides, someone needs to look after the dog. Well, when I mentioned that Napoleon got pissy and hung up on me. We tried to call him to confirm what was going on (whether he would take her and at what time) but he hung up on us without answering. What the hell! He called a couple of hours later to talk to mum. Seems he was pissed off because he thought I was using the dog as an excuse. Bloody hell. LISTEN TO ME WHEN I TALK TO YOU old git. Sometimes it's like he refuses to see reason. Anyway, he said he'd get her at 6. Her overnight bag is nearly ready, like I said, things still need to dry. I'll probably be up when Napoleon get's here. They'll be annoyed about that. Ah well. I'll see if I can take a nap down here. If I go up now she'll know. Getting pretty tired. Been knitting a bunny suit all day. I've made one leg and I'm half way through the other. I'm making Chi-chan a bunny suit for Christmas. I think I'll make 2 perhaps. We found out about the baby. I now have a niece as well, born in May. Born in may and I'm told in September. Gotta love my family huh? We didn't give anyone the congratulations card I made, Chi's mother, predictably, wasn't there and his grandparents were on holiday in Sri Lanka I believe. Again, typical or my family. So there was no one to give the card too. Chi's great grandmother (my aunt) has only seen the new baby once or twice. Seems the mother is mainly using facebook as a means of communication. I don't much like facebook. It's just not the same as being there. Does that make any sense? I'll elaborate on that later. I've things to do still.
Tired. Will do more later and stuff.


---------Update---------

I'm working on the bunny suit again. I went up to bed shortly after writing this entry. I cut up a plastic bag and put it on top of the card so it wouldn't stick to the envelope and ensured that there was at least one pair of dry underwear for the overnight bag (this is what happens when you put off doing the laundry, nothing's dry when you need it) The rest were just a little damp but should be dry by tomorrow when she needs them. I made sure everything was ready. I put in money for things like vending machines and pay phones and travel expenses. She has my oyster card (I topped it up recently when we went into London to buy boots (I'll write about that later perhaps)). After that I crept up to bed with a torch (didn't want to turn the light on in case she woke up). It was nearly 5am at this point. I doubted I'd get to sleep before Napoleon arrived. Surprisingly I did. Don't think I was asleep for long though. Mum came to say bye to me (she always does it when she goes to work since I'm always asleep at that time). I meant to make sure she had her phone but I forgot. She left it charging and left it behind so it's harder for her to contact me. She doesn't know my phone number. She knows the house number though. Only trouble is the house phone doesn't tell you when you've had a missed call.

So. The operation. I've seen a lot of Bizarre ER and Embarrassing Bodies where they show operations and treatments, so I know that with eye surgery they don't tend to knock you out because you need to be conscious as the eye is a difficult thing to work on. You have a local anaesthetic but not a general. I'm guessing this means you get to watch as they cut open your eye. Can you imagine a greater torture? Well, doing it without anaesthetic would surely be worse. She had to put in eye drops at 7am to dilate her pupils for the operation. She came home with dilated pupils yesterday and it was freaky. There was no guarantee that they'd be able to operate today. They stacked numerous eye operations for the day and aimed to get through as many as possible. She'll be in until tomorrow at least. She's also not supposed to go back to work for 2 weeks either. She's just had a week off. They won't be happy at work. I don't like that she can't call me if she needs to. Well, she could but it's different when she can't call my mobile. I'm actually not freaking out about it too much though. In regards to the operation the worst that should happen is that she goes blind in one eye. The human body would adjust to cope with that. And there shouldn't be too much trouble with a local anaesthetic.
Anyway. That's it.