Thanks for all the lovely comments on my post yesterday and the emails, tweets, and text messages. I’m completely fine today. I was just over-reacting which is not so unusual for me. I’m pretty sure the vision loss was migraine-related. I was just confused because it was unlike any kind of vision impairment I’ve had before in that it was only in one eye and it was loss of 50% of my vision in that one eye. Usually I get an arc of moving geometric shapes when I get a migraine. They start off slowly in the centre of my vision and move gradually to the periphery over a period of about 20 minutes. I can still see during this time but not very well. By contrast, the episode yesterday was very sudden and a complete curtain of grey covering the entire top half of my field of view in just one eye. I was chatting live with WordPress.com users at the time and had to shut that eye completely so that I could still see.
I’ve sort of given up on trying to see a GP now. This is actually a very good strategy the NHS has for saving money on health care: make patients jump through hoops and wait weeks to see a doctor – all the hypochondriacs will realise they’re not sick and everyone else will just give up or die. We’ll try to register somewhere though of course – I’d like to at least be able to take my children to a doctor if they get sick – and I think we’ve found a practice that is much more accommodating and friendlier than the one yesterday. All that is required at this new place is that we copy encyclopaedia Britannica word-for-word with pen and paper :). Then we should be all set to see a doctor in about a week after having done that. The receptionist at this new place was very friendly too and much nicer than the [Mod: redacted] at the last place. I would pay to see a GP but I’m not sure how. I searched for private doctors but all that comes up are private hospitals for patients needing surgery. We actually have travel insurance at the moment too which would probably cover this.
A few people suggested I make an appointment with an optician and I thought I may as well do that and I have an appointment for tomorrow. I’m almost 100% sure I don’t have a retinal detachment – as the symptoms have completely gone and there aren’t any more “floaters” than usual – but it can’t hurt to rule this out. I wouldn’t want to go blind for the sake of £50.
Daniel says so many funny things all the time that I have trouble writing them all down. The other day we were walking through town and we passed a woman smoking. Daniel asked, “Do women smoke?”. He’s obviously never seen a woman smoke before and thought it was just something men did.
Then yesterday he asked out of the blue, “What would happen if Mummy stuck her bottom out of the window and a policeman saw?”.
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