New Eyes - £1000 Each.

It cost a lot but I'm glad I had my eyes done.
Before ...... ........... immediately afterwards.

The whole procedure went well. I'd had a phone call a couple of days ago form the clinic saying that they wanted to change the procedure from LASEK to LASIK. LASEK is the basic procedure which has a longer recovery time and LASIK is the next grade up . I was a bit concerned because I felt rather a spendthrift having the procedure at all and I wasn't sure about an extra £200 -£300 per eye. Luckily the clinic said there would be no extra charge. The surgeon explained to me that he doesn't like to do LASEK on patients over 40 which is why he changed it. The whole procedure was pain free, hardly even uncomfortable. First, after having gone through the possible things that could go wrong, (scary), and signing the consent forms, the nurse went through the aftercare,2 kinds of eye drops every 2 hours for the first 2 days and then 4 times a day for the next week. No swimming, scuba diving or contact sports for the next 4 weeks and eyes shields to be worn at night to stop me rubbing my eyes inadvertently. I kept having anaesthetic drops put into my eyes at intervals. Then the area around my eyes was painted with an iodine solution, not surprisingly there are no mirrors at this point and I didn't have the nerve to take a photo. Then it's into the treatment room onto a swivelling bed for the actual procedure. The surgeon had explained that even though my head would be supported and he would have his hands on my head it was vitally important that I didn't move my eyes. If I moved my eyeball while the first laser was cutting a flap in the cornea of my eye it could result in the whole procedure having to be abandoned. There was a little pushing on my eye as a cone thing was place on it first but then the only difficulty was really concentrating while the laser did the flap. It was also important to keep the eye still while the second laser reshaped the eye. (Your eye lids are kept open with a thingy so you don't have to worry about that.) The surgeon kept telling me to look at the flashing red light which was difficult as I could see 2 lights. Anyway all went well and it was over in 5 mins. I then had my eyes checked by the surgeon , sat with a coffee for 10 mins and that was it. My sight was a little unclear, not blurry, at first but by the check up today my eyesight is better than 20/20 vision and I am clear to drive. I was warned that once the anasthetic drops wore off my eyes would feel very gritty and would probably stream with tears. I did have some grittiness but not much watering and by this morning there was just a little grittiness in one eye. I still need reading glasses but I can work at the pc with or without glasses. Peter is already very keen to have his eyes done especially as he found out that you can pay off the cost in instalments without any extra charge.

We arrived in Bristol a couple of hours early so that we could have a bit of a look around the area. When we parked by the clinic we were surprised to see the pavement covered with a long queue of people. At first we though it might be something to do with the university which was across the road but then we realised it was the queue to get into the museum to see the Banksy (a street artist now establishment,) exhibition. I have planned to visit the museum when I go up for my check up in 10 days time. It shouldn't be so crowded mid-week.

This is only part of the queue, it stretched all along the street where the clinic was and also for about a 100 yds down the main road.This mural a little further down the street is one of Banksy's works.

Peter and I walked down the hill in the warmth of the sunshine to have a look around Bristol Cathedral.

The cathredral is surrounded by some other lovely old buildings.

Inside the cathedral it was so peaceful but very grand with all the stone arches beautifully carved. Some parts of the cathedral are 800 yrs old while other parts are less than 200 years old.

This little dog was carved 700 years ago for the statue of his master (dressed in chain mail) to rest his feet on. It is a very welcoming cathedral with few restrictions for visitors and I couldn't resist giving this pug dog a little stroke on the nose.

There were lots of interesting memorials on the walls and floors and I liked this one in particular. How nice to be remembered for your beautiful character.

We went through this lovely old door down a twisting stone staircase to the old cloisters.

And eventually found ourselves in this beautiful garden. There were plenty of benches to sit to enjoy this peaceful oasis in the middle of a city. There is a tea room there as well but we didn't have too long as we needed to go back up the hill to the clinic. While we sat in the sunshine music floated out from the rooms above the cloisters which house the choir school. We were treated to a superb rendition of Pie Jesu sung by a chorister.

After having my eyes done we drove up to Cribbs Causeway, an enormous out of town shopping area. We went into Asda which was at least 4 times the size of the biggest supermarket in Barnstaple. I had to get a hairband to keep my fringe out of my hours and we had a little explore of the aisles finding a better range of Indian spices and extras as well as some good sauerkraut and dill cucumbers. I had a good wander around the clothing section while Peter kept himself amused by finding cheap dvds which he just had to have. After a coffee and a snack in the cafe we drove up to Tewkesbury to stay the night with our friends. It was so nice to be looked after for once. Today we went back to the clinc for a quick check and then back up to Cribbs Causeway where we finally found the main shopping mall. I had fun trying on clothes but didn't buy anything. A very wet journey home, and I don't like being driven at 90mph in heavy motorway traffic. It got wetter as we got nearer home !

Finally, I had to include this moth, a Large Emerald, that I found on the stair window.