A favourite quote and a way by which to approach life.

Today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday.

Friday 5 November 2010

Take two

I'm home. I got home early evening on Monday. I'm going to try to stay at home for longer than a week this time. So far the signs are good :o) I'm tired, and I get tired easily, but that's only to be expected given how poorly I've been and that I've spent the best part of six weeks in bed in hospital. Of course, being me, I've tried to jump straight back into life, albeit at a slightly slower pace.

After my cataract surgery my glasses prescription has changed quite significantly so that my current glasses are fairly useless. They're better than nothing, I suppose, but not terribly helpful, so the first thing I wanted to upon my escape from hospital was go to the optician for a sight test and to order new glasses. I went on Tuesday. While I was there I thought I'd ask the optician why the ophthalmologist had decided to make me short sighted in the left eye but keep me long sighted in the right eye - why not try to make my vision 20/20 (6/6)? The optician didn't know and couldn't explain. In fact, she seemed a little puzzled. She seemed even more puzzled that the ophthalmologist has not only made me short sighted in my left eye, but has made my overall vision worse with the lens implants he's put in. On the upside, as I no longer have natural lenses in my eyes then my glasses prescription is unlikely to change very much over the years, unless I develop fibrosis, which apparently is very likely because of the cataract surgery, although I was reassured that this is easily rectified with laser treatment. Anyway, I digress. Having had the sight test then began the awful process of having to choose new frames. I like having new glasses, but I hate the choosing of frames, partly because when you're trying the display frames on you can hardly see what it is you're trying on as they don't have prescription lenses in (of course!); partly because there's so much choice, yet often it's a case of finding what's nice amongst what I wouldn't be seen dead in; partly because whatever I choose is going to become part of my everyday appearance for at least the next year and probably longer; and partly because I'm often not very good at decision anyway. Dispensing opticians can be helpful in the decision making process, but they don't know you, and sometimes steer you towards frames they'd wear themselves rather than what you'd wear. Take the last time I was choosing glasses: I ended up having to gently ask if there was anyone else who could help me as the woman I had was 'suggesting' frames that were pink diamante things, which anyone who knows me will tell you is just not me - I don't 'do' pink, for starters - and most likely anyone who takes a minute to glance at me could probably tell as well. Thankfully, there were no such problems on this occasion, but it can be luck of the draw. So last time it took me two whole hours to choose frames! This time only an hour and a half ;o) I went for the two for one offer so that I can get one pair with reactor light lenses for driving, and also have two completely different styles to wear. The first pair I've chosen are these (in brown, not purple), and the second pair are these (in brown/green, not black/pink). Having bought them, I've now realised that one of my friends has the second pair in the black/pink combination, so that might be a bit odd, but I've warned her and we'll just have to live with it now. R, I'm not cloning you, honest ;oP I can't wait to get my new glasses because I soooo want to be able to see properly, and it won't be until I get the glasses that I'll realise the full benefit of the cataract surgery. I'm collecting them at 11.30 on Tuesday morning. The opticians can do single vision distance lenses in an hour, but I have varifocals, which take at least a week, usually ten days. I asked them if they could priorities my prescription given how useless my current glasses are to me, and they agreed to have them done by Tuesday - exactly a week :o)

The next thing I did was to test-drive a car! I have a motability car (no adaptations though), which means that I get a new car every three years. I can hardly believe that it'll be three years in January since I got my current car, but it will be so it's time to be looking for a new one and deciding if I want to stick with the same that I've had or go for a change. I've decided to go for a change. I've enjoyed the Nissan Note that I've got at the moment, but one thing that would be useful is a bigger boot as I can't actually fit my either wheelchair in the boot of this car. I can't afford a car that's big enough to take my electric wheelchair, but at the moment, even my manual/attendant assisted is having to go in the back behind the passenger seat.

I'm the kind of person who likes to do a lot of research into all the affordable possibilities before making a decision on a substantial purchase, often checking things out with Which? or their equivalent - in this case What Car? After a fair amount of deliberation and assessment of finances I decided that I'd like to have a closer look at the Vauxhall New Meriva so I booked a test-drive. I liked it. I liked it a lot. I ended up putting an order in. I've gone for the SE model 1.4litre 120bhp in Pepper Dust, with the 'sight and light' package (automatic lights and windscreen wipers). I'm also paying extra for a spare wheel because they don't come as standard (it comes with a tyre self-inflation kit instead) and after the tyre pop I had earlier this year I'm a little wary of not having a spare wheel. Those costs add up, but it's worth it. I won't get my new car until the end of January/beginning of February as that's when the lease on my current car runs out, but when the guy at the dealership looked at the computer he saw that there weren't actually any cars already built to my specifications so one is going to be built especially for me! How cool is that?! So now I have three months to get ridiculously excited about getting a new car, and I'll probably bore you silly with excitement between now and the end of January ;o)

Right-e-o, I'd better be off as W has just arrived and my step-mum is bringing my dad round imminently so that the three of us can go to a fireworks display at Segedunum. I like fireworks and didn't get to a display last year because I was in hospital, although W and I did our own display on the town moor earlier this year, which we'd postponed from last bonfire night. We had so much fun on the moor that we're actually going to do the same thing again, probably on 8th December after we've been to 'Wind in the Willows' at Northern Stage. It should be a fun day.

5 comments:

Dawn said...

Glad that you're home!
I love your glasses choices, especially the second pair :) It usually takes me several trips to the opticians before I can make a decision on which glasses to pick - it's a big decision!
Enjoy the fireworks, I hope the weather holds out for you, it's not great this end of the country!
Dawn x

Joy said...

Welcome home, Becky!

J x

Wendy said...

Glad you got home at last Becky!

xx

ginge said...

sorry not to see you at fireworks....

Love how you blogged you can't see brilliantly at mo so took car for test drive!! Tickeld me and assume you and everyone else on road made it home safely!!

Gx

Anonymous said...

Hi Becky, I'm so glad you're home. I hope you stay there!

I got my new spex at a place in Ncle in Oct, where (because I was going back to France next day) they did my complex varifocals the same day. I'll get the address from Sally - complicated because she's in Turks & Caicos islands for the next 4 months! It was somewhere in an out-of-town shopping centre, with wonderful helpers and huge choice of frames (too huge). The trick is to match the shape of the frames to the shape of your eyebrows. Not much use telling you now, but next time...
Love
ViV xox