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Monday 14 April 2014

A visit to Marylebone

Stoke Mandeville is hopeless. I don't know how good they are at medical stuff, because I didn't get that far.

They didn't call on Saturday. Apparently, they said that they did, and we checked the number, they had the right phone number, but they say no-one answered the phone. We were in all day, waiting for this call, and it definitely didn't happen.

So I called today, and plunged into a nightmare. I got through the automated system, eventually spoke to a lady, who told me that they couldn't see me for 8 to 12 weeks, "more likely 12," she said. Then as an afterthought, she asked if it was urgent? Well, the opthalmologist seemed to think it was, so I told her "yes", so she gave me the number for their Eye Casualty. When I phoned that, it gave a sound as of a number that doesn't work.

So  I called their operator, and asked for Eye Casualty. She put me through, and I got silence. I tried again, this time I got hold music for a few minutes... followed by silence. And the third time - just silence.

So I called their IT department to report a fault. But they don't handle telephone problems, and didn't know who did.

At that point, I gave up on Stoke Mandeville, and called the Western Eye Hospital, which is in Marylebone, a couple of minutes walk from the station. I got through immediately, the lady in reception said I should just walk in. So ladysolly and I hopped on the train and went in to London.

I had to wait for about an hour, which was no big deal, I had a book, and there were a couple of people who were obviously more urgent than me. And ladysolly popped out and got me a pizza to eat while I was waiting, yum! Then I was seen by a very good doctor (I mean, he seemed to know exactly what he was doing). He measured my eye pressure, it was 39 on my left eye, which is far too high, and agreed with all the other tests I've had. He prescribed eye drops, to be taken each evening for a few weeks, and then I have to go back so they can see how I'm doing. He also got me to put a drop in immediately, I waited an hour, and then he measured again - 30. A good number is 20 or 22 or so. But it meant that the eye drops were starting to do their job.

I think we've discovered this problem before any damage was caused, so that's all good!

But.

While I was at Marylebone, I noticed that a small fraction of filling has come out of a tooth. Sigh. So I'm back to my dentist next week for a bit of Araldite.

I cheered myself up with a Latte and biscuit at an Amersham coffee shop while ladysolly got the groceries, and when I got home, I cheered myself up some more on Ebay - I bought a helmet cam.

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