A wee cuppa coffee!

That's what we had to celebrate after today's visit to the eye specialist.

The past week has been hell. When I got back from the UK last week J was in a bit of a state following her shingles attack. Her right eye was half shut, virulent red, and seemingly bruised and swollen all around. Her forehead was a mass of leaking pustules. I hurried her immediately to the doctor again, and we were told she had to see an opthomologist immediately. We drove that afternoon to see an eye expert at Puerto Banus. He was extremely alarmed by what he saw and told us that the virus had gone deep into the eye and that J was in serious danger of losing the sight in it.

He prescribed a radical course of medication that involved anti-viral pills, ointment and three different types of eye drop (including steroids and deadly nightshade) to be administered around the clock. Alarms roused us from our sleep and I put the drops in, since J was unable to see and judge distance.

But it was imperative to maintain the regime - the doctor told us that if the medication did not work J would have to be hospitalised to try to save her sight.

Across the week I watched a steady improvement in J's appearance, and she found she was able to see better, although her vision was still blurred. Today the specialist confirmed that most of the inflammation had gone, and he has reduced the medication for the next week. He did warn, however, that there was a real danger of relapse and that it was important to maintain the medication.

However, it did feel as if we had emerged from a very dark hole into something approaching daylight. Hence the coffee to celebrate - J is not allowed alcohol while on the medication. As luck would have it the sun was shining across the port and as we sat back with our coffees and took in the view J said it felt almost as if we were on holiday.

Unfortunately, the annual accounts remain to be completed, the proofs of the 5th Enzo await my scrutiny, final revisions are due on my stage musical project, then it is headlong into the new book. So, no rest for the wicked just yet.