My magic eyes

remember last time I went to the opticians? He told me I was "special" as my eyes had completely healed from the laser surgery I had years ago:)



Well, I went back to the opticians today - a different one from last time, and he told me that I had "lovely" eyes. Of course, from an opticians point of view that meant that I had good strong veins at the back of my eye, crystal clear lenses and a fluid pressure of 14, which is, apparently, just right! But more interestingly my astigmatism has improved somewhat over the past year or so! So I am one of the few people whose eyes get better as they get older and spend more time on the computer! Weird huh?!

Also talking about eyes, Mstr A is off to try colour therapy on Monday. That's the thing when they give people tinted glasses and it magically cures various things. Of course, only some things, and only some people, but..... When my kids can swim two full lengths of the pool without stopping, I let them have goggles. Mstr A got there a while ago, and said that he can see much better through his blue goggles than without them or even with his glasses. So we looked into it, and there is some evidence it MIGHT help some people with some autistic spectrum disorders. there are not many qualified colour therapy optomitrists in the UK, but fortunately one of them is just a few miles away, and for £28 for the appointment, what can it hurt?

Although we might be going back to her in the not too distant future, as apparently the school are getting LMB checked out for dyslexia, or similar. I'm not convinced myself - whereas I knew Mstr A had issues long before anyone else would admit it (or do anything about it), I don't get that feeling with LMB. She does still write a number of letters and numbers back to front (but she is only 5!), and she is not the most literate of 5 year olds (but she is only 5!), but she can read, and she can spell words out, recognise letters, numbers, shapes, use a computer....... Still, I'm not going to stop them testing her - even if all it does is stop them telling me how she doesn't have much self confidence! What they mean is she doesn't push herself forwards all the time, she doesn't insist on being the one picked first/most, and doesn't vie for attention all the time. But that doesn't mean she lacks self confidence - she happily chats to everyone she meets, she tries new things without batting an eyelid, and goes to new places and makes new friends easily. She agrees with me that she is big, clever, beautiful and brilliant at everything she tries:) she happily shows her friends (and others) how to do things, and regularly performs her "shows" and concert for lucky members of the family! I'm at a bit of a loss as to what else I can do to encourage her self confidence! Or how to explain tot he school that she does have it!

I don't think we'll have the same problem with LMD - she can't bear to let anyone else speak/do anything/get attention if she is there:) She soooooo wants to be at school - she insists on wearing school uniform every now and then to go to nursery. It does look extraordinarily cute:) But I'm sure she's planning just to sneak next door into the reception class when no-one is looking! Although in fact, she's more concerned about trying new things than LMB is - she worries that she won't be able to do it properly! But I don't think the teachers will be telling me she lacks self confidence!

It's half term next week, so it's going to be a busy week. Hopefully the weather will stay dry - it's a shame the snow didn't turn up a couple of weeks later really.

I'm "special" me!

I went to the opticians today. I haven't been for seven or eight years, pretty much just because I'm too lazy/disorganised to get check ups when it aint broke in the first place! I had my eyes lasered about 10 years ago, which was fantastic - I would recommend it to anyone - and went back fairly regularly for a couple of years to make sure there were no problems. there weren't, and I had other pressures on my time, and it just sort of fell to the back of my priorities.

But a few weeks ago I noticed that I was getting more headaches - and they were coming after hard days at work staring at a computer screen. Once I thought about it, I started to notice that things weren't as clear as they used to be. Everything was starting to look a little fuzzy round the edges - which while it was a bonus in some ways as we all get older:-), was obviously something that needed to be checked out. So on Friday I popped into a local opticians, and made an appointment for lunch time today.

My optician was quite lovely - if only dentists could learn that kind of bedside manner! He checked through my history, didn't complain that io hadn't been for a decade or so, and had a good look in my eyes. "hmmmmm" he said thoughtfully, "that's strange."

he explained that there was no sign of either the laser traetment or my previous (severe) short sightedness. he would normally expect to see something of both. Also my optic nerve was totally round, and most people have a dip in it. Which makes me quite unusual. Add into that the fact that the optic nerve had "blurred bounderies" when it should be very defined (I have no idea what he was on about tbh) and he decided that it bore further checking out. So I got the full kit and kaboodle of eye tests, from puffy air to computer game flashing lights, and in the end he was happy that everything checked out fine - I was just "special".

Oh yes, and I have a really bad astigmatism in one eye and am very slightly short-sighted again. This is probably not a terrible thing as most people lose their near sight from their early 40's, which isn't amazingly far away. He asked whether i would be wanting laser surgery again, as he doubted that anyone would be willing to do it a second time. I pointed out that actually it would be a third time as they got it a bit wrong the first time and had to correct one eye with a second blast, but no, life was different now, my eyesight was not that bad and glasses would be fine for work & driving. Before I could not see my hand when held at arms length, whereas now it takes a millisecond to focus on small print at a distance - not quite the same!

He even came out and helped me chose a suitable frame - without immediately trying to flog me "designer" frames at silly prices. They should be ready in a week or so. Whooppee. he also tried to tell me that I ought to get my employer to pay for the test. I knew that, but said I didn't think it was worth fighting over for £18. I'm busy trying to persuade them to do bigger things at the moment, so I'm making a tactical decision to be one of those awful people who do not fight for their rights, and paid for it myself. tut tut, I am very unimpressed with myself, but the practicalities of a miserly small firm are that you can only fight one battle at a time...

Oh and Aggie has gone and got pleurisy - stupid boy! So he's not able to do a lot at the moment, what with having problems breathing and all. Just another excuse not to do the DIY if you ask me.... Still the doc has given him some antibiotics, so hopefully it will clear up in a week or so. THEN I'll have a nice list of things ready for him:-)