i am in excrutiating agony and no-one cares.

[wannaBe]

woke up at midnight last night with horrendous pain in my right eye - i mean excrutiating to the point that I have been awake since.

So went up to the hospital this morning where a lovely nurse took a look, said she was sure that there was nothing in the eye and that it looked very cloudy so could be indicative of glaucoma or something similar, so rang opthalmic clinic who said to go straight up there and they would fit me in.

so in I go, and the opthalmologist looks at my eyes and says I have a cateract in my right eye and the pressure is increased, possibly because of it. but there's really not much they can do so "take these drops and I'll see you in two weeks, and hopefully the pain will have decreased by then." and "really there would be no point removing the cateract because you can't see anyway so it would achieve nothing". er apart from to illeviate the pain perhaps? he was very specific about the cateract and the impact it has had on my eye.

Crimplene is right - you can walk into Moorfields A&E and they will see you without you needing to go private - same as if you were away from home in the UK and needed treatment at a local A&E. My doc at Moorfields recommended that I get a friend who was living in Amsterdam to just turn up at the A&E when she was having problems getting treated where she was. You really will get such better treatment.

How are you today wannaBe?

wannabe
I would get in the car and go to either Bristol Eye Hospital or Moorfields. Bristol will take you less than an hour.

My mate who is a consultant at moorfields is horrified at the care given in non specialist eye hospitals.

I don't know if Bristol do walk in clinics but their phone number is 0117 923 0060 so give them a ring and see

good luck!

wannabe
I would get in the car and go to either Bristol Eye Hospital or Moorfields. Bristol will take you less than an hour.

My mate who is a consultant at moorfields is horrified at the care given in non specialist hospitals.

I don't know if Bristol do walk in clinics but their phone number is 0117 923 0060 so give them a ring and see

good luck!

wannabe
I would get in the car and go to either Bristol Eye Hospital or Moorfields. Bristol will take you less than an hour.

My mate who is a consultant at moorfields is horrified at the care given in non specialist hospitals.

I don't know if Bristol do walk in clinics but their phone number is 0117 923 0060 so give them a ring and see

good luck!

wannabe
I would get in the car and go to either Bristol Eye Hospital or Moorfields. Bristol will take you less than an hour.

My mate who is a consultant at moorfields is horrified at the care given in non specialist hospitals.

I don't know if Bristol do walk in clinics but their phone number is 0117 923 0060 so give them a ring and see

good luck!

pain is much more bearable today. more an irritation than the agony I was in for the past two days, and have less need for constant painkillers.

I did however go and do some reading up on the net (who needs the nhs when we hae google and found some info about cateracts and their ability to cause glaucoma amongst lots of other unpleasant things, so I am going to print off the page and take it up to the hospital when i go back and demand surgery to remove the cateract. It matters not whether sight will be restored, the fact is that I have no desire to experience that kind of pain again, and if something can be done about it then it should be.

.

Good for you Wannabe. Theres no way you should have to put up with that. I'm glad its much more comfortable today.

wannabe ".....but even the nurse at the hospital pointed out "as your sight is not at risk they won't consider you as much of an emegency as someone whose sight is" ...."

That's terrible.

Just not fair.

Wannabe - I'm so glad you're feeling better.

My dad has very low vision but enjoys using the computer and is doing a touch typing course, combined with massive print on the screen.If you don't mind me asking, do you rely on big print on here or do you have some sort of voice activation system?