Nurse Present

We spent six hours today in our local hospital, where my lovely husband had a cataract operation. At the outpatients clinic a couple of weeks ago the consultant explained that it’s almost always a simple and swift procedure, but he did mention, as they are obliged to do, that in about one in a hundred cases things don’t go so smoothly and it could take a lot longer.

I can now confirm that Smithers is one of those ‘one in a hundred’ people. (Actually, he’s one in a million to me.) He was in theatre for nearly an hour and a half, and came back without having had a replacement lens fitted. It took a long time for the surgeon to remove the cataract, and he was then unable to complete the procedure and fit a new lens.

This means that Smithers now can’t see anything out of that eye, and has only poor vision in the other one. This state of affairs will continue until he can have the second part of the procedure done on the first eye, which he was assured would give him a good outcome. We will find out when that will happen at his outpatients appointment next Monday.

Despite his chronic anxiety he coped really well today, but the thought of having to go through a second procedure on this first eye, and then have the other eye done after that, has shaken Smithers’ confidence. He is utterly  exhausted and it’s sad to see him looking quite down tonight. Nurse will of course make sure she’s present at all times for the patient.