A close encounter with the NHS

Photo- alpacas grazing in a nearby field.


“Why am I here?” I ask the nurse as I sit in front of yet another machine in the local Eye hospital.
“I don’t know you will have to ask the doctor”. This is the third nurse I have asked this afternoon only to get the same reply except this one adds:
“This is a macular degeneration clinic.”

I am gobsmacked. Stunned. Never in my worst moments as a hypochondriac  had I ever foreseen that I might have macular degeneration.

All this started with a letter from NHS Forth Valley asking me to come in. Well, you don’t ignore such letters. I did ring up to try and find out why only to be told: “I send out the letters. You will have to ask the doctor.”

Meanwhile I get to join the long row of people waiting to be called in.
The woman next to me looks as if she might be chatty.
“What are you in for?”
She replies:“I don’t know. I got a letter telling me to come in.”
“This is a macular degeneration and glaucoma clinic,” I tell her glad to be able to impart some information.
“ I know ,” she says and ,lowering  her voice , asks:” are you going blind?”
 
An hour later I get to see the eye doctor.  
She is laid back, casual.
“Do I have macular degeneration?” I try to keep the terror out of my voice.
“No…. you should have been in the laser clinic, but I had a vacancy in this. It’s just a check-up after your laser surgery.”
Phew!
 
Let’s just say I needed a stiff drink when I got home.
P.S. Sometimes after a cataract operation a film grows over the artificial lens and it is removed by loser surgery, something I had done several months ago.