7580/20519
My spectacles are all falling apart and it's been two years since I had my eyes checked, so I went to get an ocular test and order some new glasses in Welwyn Garden City - the home of poor vision. Having had cancer (have I mentioned that?) there's the added concern that the optometrist might find something unwelcome. It's strange how I largely got through the actual crisis of 2021 without too much fear or worry, but since then, doing something like this can be a little bit traumatic. The assistant I had was new to the job and a bit nervous and when she blew air into my left eye she clearly had some kind of concern and I heard her talking to the optometrist. But the medical professional was not too concerned and we retook that test after all the other ones and all was actually OK.
Once I got into the hands of the expert, things went a bit more smoothly, but I sensed again that she was testing me quite rigorously at one point. My suspicions were correct and she said there was a freckle in my eye, which they'd never noticed before, but that it was almost certainly nothing, only visible with infrared and they had a new and better machine which is probably why they'd never spotted it before. I was just surprised that it was possible to get freckles on your actual eye. She said it was something to keep an eye on (they'd keep an eye on my eye), but almost certainly nothing to worry about. Still the ball trauma made this a little more unsettling. Did I sign up for losing one of every type of ball I had? Will the ball of my foot be next?
It turned out my prescription for reading glasses has shifted up a notch, but otherwise all is good. My long sight remains excellent. But that's not much comfort as most of the things I like looking at are near to me.
I spent lots of money on new specs (and the nervous new assistant messed up my order and had to ring me back to take even more money off me - hopefully I'll end up with glasses and not some pork or a light shade. I might have to wait a few weeks, so I bought a cheap pair of reading glasses to my prescription from Boots and wondered why I had spent so much on fancy ones. But the cheap ones got stuck in my hair when I lifted them above my eyes. So I guess it's worth the expense to stop the tangle. And also to get your balls checked.
Anyway all my remaining balls seem to be OK, though I have a cyst on one and a freckle on another and the skin is very hard on the other two (but which is which?), but a freckly ball is better than an absent ball. That's my motto.
