Category Archives: The Cats (well they had to have a heading didn’t they)

Christmas – or sort of

We were really looking forward to our Christmas break – taking some time to do a few of the bits and pieces we wanted to do for ourselves, and have fun seeing friends and going to the Ba’ and so forth.

So we decorated the tree – somewhat to Mark’s disgust it was invaded by polar bears but I liked them !

However … our Christmas holiday ended with a bit of a glitch as I went to our excellent optometrists, Clark’s in Kirkwall on Christmas Eve with a shadow seeming to cross my right eye. And a detached retina was diagnosed, with the worry of it being near the macula. Too near for comfort. Much.

There was no way of getting to the hospital at Inverness (no flights and we were too late for the ferries …) and actually no point with Christmas Day on top of us, so I was instructed to go home and lie on my right side as much as possible in order to minimise the damage. Then Mark was to drive me to the hospital in Inverness on Boxing Day (thank you for sailing that day Pentland Ferries) for admission and emergency surgery on the Thursday morning. Oh goody. So we postponed Christmas – neither of us felt like it – and decided to have it the following weekend instead.

As we don’t have a sofa, we grabbed cushions and made a “put you up” on the floor in the sitting room so I could watch television at least. And the moment I got off it to go to the loo … Nimbus grabbed the chance of comfort of course.

I guess I wasn’t too worried about the operation having had my cataracts done, and in truth it wasn’t too bad – quite long though, a good hour and then I had to lie still on my front for 2 hours. The staff at the Raigmore Hospital in Inverness were lovely and I was allowed out later that day, to stay with Mark at the hotel, as I had to see the specialist again for a check up the next morning, then Mark drove me back home. We had to use the car because I am not allowed to fly for at least 8 weeks after the operation

So started a fairly blind period in my life – fill a glass with water and look through it- that’s sort of what I could see. A bit like this picture of the living room! It was unfortunate that my other eye is awaiting laser surgery to clear the film that has developed over the lens that was replaced, so I couldn’t see much out of that one either.

Between us though we managed to cook our “Christmas lunch” on the Sunday and I was careful to hand over my sharp knives for Mark to look after any chopping or carving that needed doing!

Mark fixed my computer so it read my emails aloud to me, and luckily I was trained as a touch typist so I think my replies made sense (I hope! The bluring receded slowing and I am pretty much back to normal now thank goodness. Just a hefty backlog of work to catch up on.

And I thought I would tell you about it !