Down to Auckland for Mary’s Eye “op”

                                                                                                     23^rd Jan 2014

 

Clock Museum in Whangarei

It was with mixed emotions that we drove the 250kms down to the Auckland Eye Clinic for Mary to have her cataract phacoemusification and lens implant.

The problem had been diagnosed in January 2013 while in Cape Town, but we were not there long enough to have it done. The next stop over which would have given us sufficient time, would have been in Tahiti. While I am sure the French doctors would have been right up to speed with the procedure, Bupa, our medical Insurance Supplier, did not have a reciprocity arrangement there, and the thought of having it all explained in French, was less appealing than English!

Bupa, in fact gave us the name of the clinic and doctors in Auckland, and issued a pre authorization for both the consultation, and the procedure.

The previous week, we were lucky enough to be invited to Wendy and Dave Dalton’s lovely home above the Bay of Islands. Mary was surrounded by people all of whom had had some form of high tech laser eye surgery, and left feeling confident that it would be a breeze!

In retrospect, I think it was only Dave who had had the same cataract procedure, and he was a lot less vocal about the ins and outs of the op.

We spent some time at the waterfront, and had fresh fish and chips from one of the many facilities around the Auckland Fish Market. The city is home to about a third of New Zealanders, and is very impressive

Team New Zealand's Americas Cup headquarters......happier times!

Life jackets in paddle pools?

"A" .......we've seen her round the world, and here she is, wearing a nappy!!

Westhaven Marina with the city in the baackground

The procedure itself was quite a bit more uncomfortable than Mary had been led to believe, but it was all over in less than an hour. Mary had been so brave and confident that she declined the tranquilisers/sedatives on offer! Me? Coward that I am, would have said “load me up, I’m much braver and more co- operative when I’m unconscious!”

She was instructed to only take off the eye patch first thing next morning. By that stage she could hardly wait to take it off, and to find out if she could see anything through her new artificial lens! The eye was a bit red and bloodshot, but it WORKED ! Her vision was immediately better than it had been, but by lunch time, when we had to go back for the post op checkup, Mary was a little unhappy that the vision was a bit “hazy”.  At the checkup, Prof Polkinghorne, said everything went perfectly, and he just wanted to ‘laser zap” a little hole through the lens pouch, to clear the vision.  He focused the laser, which then went “click”,..she felt nothing, and was back out again in 1 minute with near perfect eyesight!

The morning after......and working!!

What amazing new technology! Now, a week later, you cannot tell which eye was treated, and the “new” eye is much better the other one, which she thought was perfect!