Almost A Black Eye

This morning I had an appointment with my GP to review the ambulatory blood pressure test that I had a few weeks back. When he greeted me he commented on my hospital appointment and I related the story of only finding out about it by chance, and then the letter giving details of the appointment arriving a couple of hours after I got home after the appointment.

He asked me how long the plaster had to stay on and I said that I had been told that it could come off today so he decided that then would be a good time for its removal; I'm sure that the only reason that he said this was so that he could have a look at the wound. After a quick inspection we got on with the real reason for my appointment this morning.

It seems that I may have started to suffer from 'white coat syndrome' because being hooked up to the monitor for 24 hours showed that for much of the time my blood pressure was normal, or a little below normal, although there were some quite high spikes at times. Anyway it averaged out at 123/84 and he decided that a change in medication was not necessary. I then said that I thought that I was due for a blood test, and on checking my records it turned out that I was right so I now have an appointment for a fasting bloods test in a few days time.

One of the problems of having had the plaster removed from my nose is that my glasses are causing me some problems on the wound. I suppose that this was only to be expected considering where it was, but I need my glasses to see to do just about anything other than walking along the street so I knew that I was going to have some difficulties.

I was first taken to see an optician when I was about five years old. I have no idea why I was taken, but I do vaguely remember going and some aspects of the tests that were carried out. The optician didn't find anything to be worried about so I carried on without glasses until I was about 13. My mother decided that another trip to the optician was required when she found me trying to thread a needle with the thread and needle both being held at arm's length and my still not being able to get either object close to the other. Being somewhat older than I was on my first visit, I could answer the questions posed of me a little better and it was found that I was extremely long sighted; in fact, so long sighted that it would be more usual for someone in their 70s or 80s to have eyesight like mine. So glasses were necessary for me to perform any function near at hand such as reading, knitting and embroidery.

Like many youngsters, and particularly teenage girls, I didn't like wearing glasses and I was constantly being told off for not wearing them, but I continued to go to the optician regularly and invariably a change of prescription was necessary. About six months after my husband died, I went for an appointment and said that one of the things that I had noticed recently was that I was having difficulty reading road signs when I was driving. As a result of this examination it was found that my near sight was starting to become a problem. I was going to need to wear glasses when I was driving but if I had a separate pair for driving the lenses in them would mean that I would no longer be able to read the instruments in the car. The only solution was going to be either bifocals or varifocals. I decided to opt for varifocals and that is what I have had ever since.

One of the problems with wearing varifocals and having a wound on your nose at the exact spot where your glasses should sit is that unlike single vision glasses you cannot slip them down your nose a little. Varifocal lenses are ground so that perfect vision will only be possible when the glasses are positioned correctly in relation to your eyes and this means that at the moment I am having a few problems. I can't wear my glasses in the correct position because of the wound, but without them I am unable to do just about anything, so I have compromised a little and I'm wearing them a little further down my nose than I should and accepting that things are not quite as in focus as normal. Hopefully this state of affairs shouldn't last for too long.

So what about the black eye? Well, I rarely look at myself in the mirror (I generally don't particularly like what I see) but I wanted to have a look at the wound for myself. This proved to be a little difficult because without my glasses everything was out of focus but with them on the wound was not visible. I found a magnifying mirror (I use it when I attempt to put eye make-up on because I can't see otherwise) and tried for a view. Have you ever tried to look at something on the side of your nose with a mirror when your eyes don't actually move round far enough to allow you to see the object you want to examine? I struggled, but all I could see was a huge area of bruising on my nose and extending up towards my eye. It's taking aspirin daily that does it. Bruises are more common and are usually larger than would normally occur and the problem is that they get larger over the first few days rather than receding as would be the norm. My 'almost a black eye' could very well turn out to be the real thing tomorrow so I think that I will steer clear of mirrors for a few days until the bruising starts to dissipate.