Today I shall be Mainly...

[Stanley]

Ian, they tell me the op is twenty minutes and two hours recovery. You strip to the waist so they want me in a dressing gown while they wheel me down the corridor. Looking forward to getting home. Have cancelled hang gliding tomorrow.....
Good day yesterday, three articles added to stockpile. Will do more today. BET has enough to get them into 2014 now but no harm in that! Must get Barlick church out of my head..... (first of today's pieces is written in my head already, that's how I do them, wait till they're ready to pop out!)

[PanBiker]

Have cancelled hang gliding tomorrow.....

.... booked a Typhoon Fighter Jet instead?

[Sue]

I simply cut the stems plus leaves. Strip off the leaves of soft herbs like mint, chives basil and parsley . I then spread them on a tray in the freezer. When frozen ie overnight I loosen them from the tray and bag then up. I don' t wash the herbs before hand as they would be too wet to freeze. As I only use them for cooking they get washed then. I often grind the bergs down while still frozen if I want ground herbs. I have heard of some people chopping the herbs and packing them into ice cube holders. They then simply add a frozen cube or two to their cooking.

I leave woody herbs like rosemary on their twigs whilst I freeze them but often some leaves fall off in the process. I generally break them up into the smaller sprigs.

I just dry bay leaves. I spread them on a tray and put them in the airing cupboard till dry. I don't freeze thyme as it seems to grow most of the year.

[LizG]

Thanks Sue, I'll do that this year. I always plant basil with the tomatoes to help keep the bugs away but there is always way too much to use at the time. I let the parsley seed everywhere this year so it should be abundent.

[Stanley]

Here's the mail I sent to the kids this morning;



I look a bit peculiar because my mouth was full! I was eating a fat rascal from Betty's at Ilkley.

Susan was great, daughters are the best thing since sliced bread. Home at 21:00 in bed by 22:00 and slept fine for six hours with no discomfort. I've taken the shield off (the instructions say I can Susan!) and put in the first lot of eye drops which is a mixture of steroids and antibiotics.
I can't give any you news of a miraculous improvement in my vision because the anaesthetic hasn't worn off yet and the new eye drops blur my vision, and of course my glasses are now useless! I suspect also that my brain has to get used to the different signals it's getting from my eye so in some ways I am seeing worse than I did before the op but it's only eight hours since I came off the table so I shall be patient.
The surgeon was very pleased and commented that he wished all his patients were as good at keeping still as I was. The nurse told me it was as quick an operation as she'd seen because of that. I doubt if it took any longer than 15 minutes and I can tell you it's the best light show ever!
I've managed to persuade Susan that she doesn't need to come round to walk Jack as I can see well enough. She's going to ring me and come across at about 15:00 or thereabouts to get my reports!

So, the message is so far, so good. Ask me again in a week how it's all settled down.... If you ever have to do the same thing have no fear, it's painless and quick. I can only marvel at the skill and level of technology.... [end]

Update after my first hour.... I got all my old glasses out, picked the least bad and have kept them on. Nowhere near perfect but my eyes have adjusted to them and they will do fine. Vision actually worse of course but no point getting any new ones till the other eye is done and settled down. I shall not trip over kerbs!

By the way, I wrote four articles yesterday finishing the big series on the church in Barlick so BET have enough articles to last till March next year! I can always pop a topical obe in if I want, say at Xmas....

[Nolic]

A black patch would have been better - more piratical. Great news though. Well done. Nolic

[Stanley]

That's what I said Comrade.... They say it's important for the eye to get light and air through the holes. I only need to use it at night to stop me rubbing the eye in my sleep or accidentally scratching it....

[Wendyf]

Glad to hear that all went well Stanley.
Colne library for me this morning.

[Sue]

Excellent, all over with. Keep going with the drops. Your eyesight should be much improved. All the best

[PanBiker]

Looking good Stanley. If Sally's mums experience is anything to go by it will settle over the next few days. Fantastic what can be done nowadays.
Finlay day for us today.

[David Whipp]

Thanks for post, Stanley (not sure about the pic!). Glad to hear all went well.

My mate that's just had his second done said dealing with the differential in the period between the two ops gave a temporary dip in quality.

[Tardis]

I'm liking the big black drawn arrow so the surgeon didn't forget which eye to operate on.

Good to hear that things went well

[Tizer]

Well done Stanley. Perhaps in the absence of a black patch you should have asked for an identical one over the other eye - you might have started a new fashion!

I'm liking the big black drawn arrow so the surgeon didn't forget which eye to operate on.

What I want to know is did a medic draw that on or did S do it himself before leaving home? I wouldn't put it past him!

[Cathy]

Great to hear everything went well Stanley. Have you got one of those Dictaphone thingies, maybe you could record all your ideas and articles then process them when your vision is all better. You shouldn't risk eye-strain. Tut tut

[LizG]

Great news Stanley. My Mum (well Dad really) took out the glasses lens in the side of her 'updated eye'. It looked a bit odd but it meant that she could still read without straining her eyes, and that's one of her favourite things.

(That reads a bit strange but you'll get the gist!)

[Stanley]

Thanks to all of you. Liz, you're mother was dead right! Here's what I wrote to the kids this morning...

Yesterday I realised I had two different eyes. Left long sight, brilliant at distance but no good close up and the right one the opposite. So I took the lens out of the right side of my distance glasses and now have better outside vision than I have had for years. For reading I take my glasses off and for this I use my old reading glasses and put up with not seeing well.

New eye is almost fighter pilot. I can see the TV better than I have for years. Have stopped taking the paracetemol and am being good about drops every six hours.

All is well and it's a great success. Roll on the right eye!

The only chaNGE IS THAT THIS MORNING i REALISED i WAS DOING THE SITE POSTS USING NO GLASSES AT ALL. pAIN IN THE BUM BECAUSE mY LEFT EYE IS NO GOOd for reading but easily supportable. (Bugger caps lock!). Outside vision is better than it has been for years even with the impairment of the right cataract. Thank you those pesky scientists.
And no Tiz, the surgeon made the mark after agreeing it with his colleagues and most importantly, me! They checked continually with each other right up to actually starting. Quite impressed....

[Sue]

My friend did the same, took the lens out of one side of her glasses. Unfortunately the two eyes never really balanced, the optician struggled with a prescription that worked so within weeks she had her second eye done. Then she took the other lens out. For a few weeks she was walking around with lens less glasses on. Quote 'I feel wrong without glasses'. The funny thing was she used to adjust them on her nose and take them off to clean them!

[Stanley]

Liz, probably the most enjoyable thing about the experience is being able to discard the glasses except for TV. I've had to wear them for over 70 years and the feeling of the wind on my eyes is lovely! I don't have to go near the optician until the right eye is done and settled down. It may well be that I will get an improvement in long sight with glasses so I shall have to go back to them for that but will still be able to do things like dog walks with the wind on my eyes. Reading is going to be a different matter as my new lens is long-sighted so while I can read now using the right eye, I shall need readers after. I shall get a pair of El Cheapo non=prescription readers to tide me over the gap between second op and eyes settling down enough for new glasses.
Today is shopping!

[Moh]

Glad all went well Stanley

[Stanley]

Thanks Moh. Someone commented yesterday that I seemed to be very happy. I told them I was glad it showed, wonderful experience. You don't realise how bad your sight is getting as it's such a gradual process. It's like drawing the curtains!
It applies to TV as well... I shall be enjoying F1 today and tomorrow even more.

[Stanley]

Reading CS Forester and watching Korean Grand Prix at 14:00.

[Wendyf]

Been for a lovely walk this morning from Laneshawbridge, through Wycoller and up onto the tops before dropping back down into the village again. Now I'm going to clean out the hen house before settling down to watch the Grand Prix.

[PanBiker]

Cooking.

[Stanley]

N red mite Wendy? Nice pic of you and Bertie.....

[Wendyf]

No red mite yet Stanley, thank heavens! I never want to go through that experience again, so I started puffing mite powder in all the cracks and on the ends of the perches early in the year. I have a quick check every morning when I let the hens out....so far so good.
Lifted another fine crop of carrots yesterday and put them in the polytunnel overnight to dry off. I need to decide how to store them today. Last years were packed in a wooden box and layered with hay, they lasted well but started to grow little roots.