Just sitting here working on the Siderfin Book and need a break from the constant reading of documents online. I wonder if all the work that I do is good or bad for my eyes. Since I take regular breaks and there is no redness in my eyes I always assume it is not a problem. The exercise of reading is good for one's eyes but I am working on a screen so light is coming in to my eyes constantly from the screen.
I am looking at four years apparently since I should have been referred, the doctor decided my husband needed to be done first which was fine actually because our daughter is here for extended periods in the summer and around Christmas doing research so could easily have been done. But the doctor didn't mention that I could also have been referred at that time. Does one actually share all the events of ones life with everyone who looks after us? It never occurred to me that he needed to know we had help some of the year! Then last year he said that he would refer me this coming January because he thought I needed time to think about it; I said I didn't and could be referred right away as they tend to do cataracts earlier now than they used to.
So that happened and when I went to that appointment almost six months ago now I told the physician that I needed to have this surgery after the middle of December and could do right up until Christmas thinking other people wouldn't want those times anyway or I could do from after mid May to mid July (she didn't comment). I said especially as doing my good eye would entail my having to use my weaker eye to see so I would need 100% help; I can not drive or do much else with that eye alone (the people who tested my eyes when I went for my driver's test said that my eye was insufficient to pass (actually they said it was legally blind) and my depth of vision was non-existent but let me do the driving test anyway (probably because I had had eleven lessons from a driving instructor who was there with me as I was using his car) and I passed. Long ago I figured out how to correct for my lack of depth of vision as a child running across the roads and the like! So I got my license and I have been driving for fifty eight years without a speeding ticket (one parking ticket only). I can knit though and sew with my one eye and a lot of other things. Reading large print for a long time perhaps a challenge; haven't tried it.
Anyway I also ensured that my message about when I could do these surgeries also went to the secretary, I had to phone anyway to let them know which lens and I told the secretary that I could only do these surgeries at particular times and gave her the times as well. I said it was very important because I needed to have somebody 100% of the time when my good eye was operated on. Then the times were given to me a couple of days ago the 2nd of December and the 14th of December (after I left two messages about not hearing back yet as I was told I would hear long before November). I said I could not do these dates as I had mentioned earlier I need to have 100% help (she said didn't I have a friend that I could stay with; why would I want to be in a strange house when I can not see well; I do not live in other people's houses!) I did say it would have been a lot easier if I had been referred elsewhere right at the beginning since this particular doctor apparently doesn't do after the middle of December. I asked to be referred to another physician and gave them the name and already the optometrist has sent a re-referral. But I worked in the hospital and this is an urgent thing for me and I know that that doesn't always happen immediately (re-referrals are not exactly the most desired as it means something didn't go well!). So how to ensure that this physician also sends in a referral to the new doctor so that he realizes I do not have some sort of a dreadful condition, that I have already done all the testing, paid my $265 (reimbursed for one of the tests) and the technicians who did the tests (and he was excellent by the way as was she - two different tests) have already discussed the results with the first doctor (which is problematic). I can just redo the tests and pay for them out of pocket since they are repeats and I can claim them on my income tax so not worried about that but tests take time to book! The clock is ticking. Plus the tests involve stuff in your eyes so that it is blurry for a bit and I have to get there and return home. Anyway just putting my thoughts down as I take a break. I can not believe how complicated this is.
What could I have done differently? I really do wonder that. The colonoscopy involved just three phone calls - one with the doctor, one to say I wanted to go ahead to the secretary and one to book the procedure. All done, finished. I do not use the system if I can avoid it; I dislike hospitals very much even if I did work in one in my younger days and then for twelve years before I retired. Working in one is fine; being a patient is my least desired place to ever be. They do great work; first to say that. The doctors, nurses and helpers work very hard for us. I just do not want to be there on the receiving end if I can possibly avoid it. Interestingly this was at the smallest hospital, the Montfort. There were never any untoward happenings when I worked with patients but I did not work with them that often but I am a knit-picker especially if a patient tells me something has to be done in an exact way.
When I worked with patients or received any information that was important I added it to the chart underlined and in red so that it would not be missed. I do not blame anyone but I do need my cataracts done sooner rather than later.
So where to go from here. Hopefully the new physician has some spots available (if he looks at the re-referral) but it would have been much more likely if I had gone to him six months ago since he doesn't take half a month off in December apparently. I definitely need to go to someone else and the sooner the better.
I may yet go private but I am a great believer in our current medical system and do not want to support the idea of a private system. It causes deterioration of the main system (we do not have private hospitals like say in England so the private care has to be ongoing with the public care). When the Canada Health Act first came in I was somewhat negative in my thoughts about socialized medicine but I just happened to be walking home from working at the hospital one day and saw a child obviously in need of medical care on their foot. It was truly a mind changing event for me. You could tell money would have been the problem for this child not having proper medical care and I became a supporter in that moment. No child should ever have to go through life with an impediment like that ever. The little boy (maybe six years or so old) smiled at me and I must admit my heart was stolen in that moment and I became an advocate for our current medical system way back in the 1960s. (I even told the mother (her English was poor but she spoke of all things German which I had a smattering of from my university days) so told her to take him to the hospital and they would get a doctor to fix his foot ( never shared that before).)
On the other hand I did love learning braille if worse comes to worse and I can just keep doing my exercises since I know my house well and watch/listen to TV. Being a hermit is great actually; love it; highly recommend it. Dealing with people can be a nightmare! or really great like the colonoscopy. I am a touch typist so can type up my grocery lists and get everything delivered at fixed times so that I know who is at the door. I don't answer the door either; I am a true hermit except when my daughter is here; she is getting to be a lot like her dad dragging me out - shopping etc.
Back to work but first lunch; I appear to have forgotten to eat!
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