Two tentative dates for surgery

We had a good meeting with Prof Shah and Imran Masood on Friday night and two dates for surgery have been proposed - 16 or 23 June. I cannot remember what the deciding factor would be, but we are going for an appointment tomorrow at 10am and will find out which date it's to be.

In our last appointment with Pete Shah he set David a challenge - to use a patch over his right eye, so he could experience what the effect would be if the proposed operation went catastrophically wrong, or if infection set in after it and the eye had to be removed. So on our way back from that appointment, David purchased a patch in Northampton (next to the Waitrose while I went and did some retail therapy in the food line ...) and then wore it as I drove back to Gayton. Sensibly, he removed it for the walk down the long jetty to the boat - one thing we were both clear on was that if David loses sight in the right eye, boating would be a thing of the past. (He wouldn't be able to do locks safely, and I couldn't steer and do locks as well.) So it went back on once we were in the boat, and his task was to experience no sight in the right eye. He added a black cloth under the patch to ensure no light was getting in and then proceeded to work very effectively with his left eye only. He accomplished eating lunch, washing, drying and putting away dishes, going to the toilet and moving around the boat quite happily.

David was able to articulate to Pete and Imran on Friday that he would feel grief if he lost the eye, but he wouldn't regret having had the operation. And given the chances of success are 99.9% it would be silly not to go ahead.

So, on Friday, one of the things that really excited both Pete and Imran was the fact that David reported how he owed his left eye an apology for all the years of denigrating it as useless. He had even tried it with the monocular, and was stunned at how much he could see. Amazing what the brain adjusts to, in extremis.

Pete and Imran are very keen to sort out the left eye as well before we head home to NZ. We are thinking quite hard about whether to do that or leave it till we get home. They are both of the opinion it should not wait until next year. So lots of thinking going on...