Wednesday, April 27, 2005
And so it goes on... and on, and on and on and....I'm not a happy chappy. Positively depressed, even.
I went back to see the MK specialist today and he told me the internal inflamation is not reduced at all. I'm back on a higher dosage of steroids again, to be gradually reduced over 2 weeks. I go back to see him after those 2 weeks, and if there's no improvement, I'll need more injections.
I could cry.
Steve 3:26 PM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
I'm very relieved to report that the injection worked, and I didnt't go through all of that for nothing. My iris is no longer fused to the lens.Tell you what though, it's not a pretty sight. The lower part of my eye is smeared in blood. I'll ring the eye clinic later and ask if I should bathe that, or just leave it to clean itself up. Don't wanna be getting any infections in there.
When I see the specialist tomorrow, I'm gonna tell him I think it was the ointment I used at night that caused the reinflamation, as it was all flared up each morning, with a very red and sore inner eyelid, and tended to clear up over the day.
I'll tell you something... Stoke Mandeville is a vastly better hospital than Milton Keynes hospital, in every respect.
24 hour eye casualty facilities, more space, cleaner, more staff, more competent staff, freindlier staff.
I've come to the conclusion that Milton Keynes hospital is a disgrace. All of this should never have happened, and wouldn't have, if I hadn't had to wait for 5 hours in A and E on sunday, with no treatement, and then been seen by a casualty doctor who didn't even bother to look at my eye, and simply phoned another doctor at another hospital.
Even I know what needed to be done (an atropine drop and increase the steroid dosage for a day or so)
Anyway... I mentioned this in not such strong terms to the doctor at Stoke Mandeville, and he told me if I have any more problems, I should phone them directly, and they'd see me as an emergency case. This is expensive, as a round trip there and back by taxi cost £60, but it's well worth it, considering what's at stake.
I plan to write to my MP when all this is over, and after the general election, and complain about the service at MK hospital.
As a final note, I guess I just wanna say, if you plan to get sick, don't do it in Milton Keynes.... and if you have the misfortune to do just that, get yourself taken to Stoke Mandeville 20 miles away, and not MK General.
Steve 6:51 AM [+] (0) comments
Monday, April 25, 2005
Jesus Christ, that was horrible.The iris had indeed fused to the lense, and after trying various different things they resorted to an injection of steroids and atropine, direct into the eyyball. I wont know if that's freed up the iris till I take this eye patch off tonight. If it hasn't, then chances are it's permenantly fused. I dont know what the consequences of that will be, but I'm seeing the MK specialist again on wednesay, so I guess I'll find out then.
Take it from me though, if you ever have a painful and/or inflamed eye, dont mess around with A and E or Casualty... get yourself admitted as an emergency case to the eye clinic of whatever hosputal will see you soonest. You really *don't* wanna go through what I went through today.
Steve 6:16 PM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Things are going badly.The inflamation in my eye has returned, and the iris is no longer dilating correctly, suggesting it may be partly fused.
I've been to A and E already, and now have to go to Stoke Mandeville Hospital tomorrow.
To say I'm worried is an understatement.
Steve 3:44 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Progress report.Inflamation is reduced. Soreness is reduced. Internal pain is reduced and infrequent, vision is still cloudy and blurred.
I'm keeping a very close watch on my good eye.
Still full of 'what ifs' and such, and I doubt I'll stop worrying till everything's back to normal, but I'm no longer in a panic.
Steve 10:11 AM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
The steroid drops seem to be reducing the inflamation, and the other drops are keeping my pupil suitably dilated, which is reassuring.The cloudyness remains, though it's hard to say if it's better or worse.
Last night I got myself into quite a state, having a pounding headache, and possibly a temperature. I was pretty sure this was merely brought on by stress and tension, but I wasn't sure how safe it was to take paracetamol with these drops, so phoned the NHS Direct helpline.
I was rather puzzled at some of the questions the woman was asking me, before telling me it was safe to take paracetamol. On talking to Andrea about it later, turns out all of those questions were to check that I didn't have meningitus.
Needless to say, I don't, or I wouldn't be sitting here typing this now.
So as I sit here now, after all the people I've talked to, and all the things I've read, I'm feeling somewhere between reassured that it's going to work out okay, and scared that it isn't... that the infection might spread to my other eye, that I might go blind, that there's some serious underlying cause.
All those "what ifs".
Steve 9:35 AM [+] (0) comments
Monday, April 18, 2005
This morning my vision was even more cloudy, so with only a little hesitation, I got myself down to the A and E department at the local hospital.After they'd taken a look at it I was referred as an emergency case to the specialist eye clinic.
Turns out I have iritis and my iris was very close to fusing to the lense. If this had happened, it would have been irreversible. As it is, putting drops in to dilate the pupil freed it up, which was a huge relief to me, as the next step would have been an injection directly into the eye. To say I was a little freaked is a serious understatement.
So now I'm having to put steroid drops in once an hour, some other drops 3 times a day to keep the pupil dilated, and ointment for when I go to bed.
All of this *should* fix it, but reading that page I linked to leaves me feeling more than a little uneasy... not just because it can be a recurring problem, but also because I'm already suffering from some loss of vision.
One of the doctors I saw said the cloudyness was caused by puss or similar discharge within the eye, and would clear up over time... but I can't help worrying.
Steve 1:28 PM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Two noteworthy things for this post.First the bad stuff.
I'm having serious problems with my right eye.
I dunno if there's something in it, or if it has an infection, but it's been rather painful for about a week, and then friday eveing it flared up and became extremely bloodshot and sore. There's a very gritty feeling, so it could be that there's something in it.
This morning it watered like an absolute bitch, and I found some grit in the fluid, so that may be it, but I can't be sure. Right now it still feels gritty and the vision in it is extremely cloudy, though it's not hurting so bad.
I'll give it a couple more hours to see how it goes, and if there's no improvement, I'll have to go to A and E at the hospital, to get it looked at.
Truth is, I almost certainly should have done that 2 days ago, but I have an incredible fear of having my eyes poked at, or anything going near them, stemming back from an experience I've blanked all memory of, when I was a child.
Now the good stuff.
In town yesterday we happened to look in the retro gaming shop, and I had half a mind to pick up a Sega Game Gear. That being a rather unremarkable piece of gaming history, I wasn't really too fussed about it, but since they have one going very cheap, I figured what the heck.
However, in the window they also happened to have one of these...
That's a PC Engine GT handheld... and I absolute*had* to have it.
Why so excited about something that looks like an oversized black gameboy?
The PC Engine GT is the handheld version of the NEC PC Engine... a very successful console in Japan, later released into the US as the GT Express, where it had only very limited success, and never officially imported into the UK or Europe.
To say they're rare in the UK is a major understatement.
The retro gaming magazine I have prices them between £100 and £200, and the only one I found when looking on ebay (uk) yesterday was in spain, selling for the equiv of £160. I picked this one up for £105, with 2 games... one of which is R-Type, *the* game to play on PC Engine.
Very chuffed.
Labels: consoles, iritis, medical, photos
Steve 9:02 AM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
I recieved my first item purchased from ebay today.It's a clone of a 4 in 1 action replay cartridge for the Sega Saturn. It features expanded system memory, expanded game save storage, access to game cheats and cheat codes, and removes region restrictions, allowing me to play japanese and american copies of games.
What that means is, I can now start looking for a copy of the japanese only, and completely legendary Radiant Silvergun.
I've seen 3 copies of this for sale in the last week, all of which had bids of over £60, still with 3 days to go before bidding closed. I'm expecting to have to pay big money to get this game, but I'm very determined to have it.
Labels: consoles
Steve 9:39 AM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, April 10, 2005
It's been a very game related week.Andrea brought me some old consoles from her place which were just sitting unused, to add to my collection.
A Mega Drive (Genesis) with Mega CD, A Nintendo 64, and a SNES. We couldn't tell if the Mega CD was working or not, as it was lacking a psu, but shortly after, I picked up a Mark 2 Mega Drive and Mega CD with all the PSUs and stuff, so we were able to test everything, and it all works. The SNES doesn't appear to work, but again, it may just be a PSU issue. We'll see.
A few days later we went on a game buying spree, picking up 2nd hand stuff for various consoles, including the PS2... mostly head to head stuff, and proceeded to beat, shoot, and crash the hell out of each other.
I've been looking at old computers and consoles on ebay, and found some absolute gems, real collectables, and stuff which people have simply forgotten all about.... so once I've got my paypal account sorted out with the details of my new debit card, I plan to go on a bit of a buying spree.
What I really need though is some shelving units to go in this room, as I'm all out of display space, and that's with half of my collection crammed up in the loft.
All of this has given me an idea for a new website,
Once I get hosting sorted out, I figure I should make a website featuring (among other things) photos and details regarding all of the computers and consoles in my collection.
There's masses of info on the subject already out there, but it'd be nice to draw all of this together and apply it to everything in my collection.
Labels: consoles
Steve 10:10 AM [+] (0) comments
Monday, April 04, 2005
A while ago I commented on reading a book about the philosopher Nietzshe, and concluded that basicaly, he was full of crap.Tonight, I started reading about the life and works of Plato. I have to say, I find his ideas vastly more agreeable, and very close to many of my own ideas.
I'm definitely gonna have to read the rest of this series of books.
Additional:
Okay... having read a bit more, I need to make an ammendment. Plato's philisophical ideas match my own in many ways, but his political ideas are nothing more than totalitarianism, featuring the very worst aspects of communism and fascism.
Oh well.
Steve 5:34 AM [+] (0) comments
Friday, April 01, 2005
It's been an incredibly enjoyable week.Andrea's got a couple of weeks off work, so among other things we've been on a bit of a moviefest.
I guess I should really review the movies we've watched, but since Virgin had one of their 5 DVDs for £30 deals, we've watched rather a lot, having bought 5 each.
A quick mention really does have to go to Dreamcatcher though. Being written by Steven King, it was predictably terrible... buit in this case, it was SO ridiculous, as to be absolutely hysterical.
We've also taken to playing each other at chess.
It's been years since either of us played, and neither are what you'd call proficient, but we're both tactically minded, and both intelligent, and so playing at pretty much the same level, we're finding it extremely enjoyable.
The score so far is one game a piece.
Much fun :-)
Labels: movies
Steve 3:54 AM [+] (0) comments
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