April showers

April showers, a set on Flickr.

The photos I uploaded below straight to my blog didn't come out very well. So here is a link to them on Flickr

Back to Moorfields hospital and April showers

I ended up back at Moorfields eye hospital again yesterday. Those of you who follow my blog regularly know that since 2 lots of eye surgery last summer I've had some problems with inflammation in my left eye, double vision and pain. I've been taking steroid eye drops for a while now to control it.

Recently I noticed a blurriness in my central vision in my left eye. But it went away after a few days. Then yesterday suddenly the blurry blob in my central vision came back and was joined by another blurry blob. The effect is quite disorientating. When I was waiting to cross the road yesterday approaching cars would disappear into my blurry blind spot - very scary.

As always the hospital staff were great. The Dr I saw spent a long time examining my eye and even took a special 3d image of my retina with some fancy imaging machine. It showed that I have Cystoid Macula Oedema - swellings within my retina. It's painless, probably caused by inflammation from the op last year but it can cause permanent sight loss if not treated or if it's complicated in some way.

Treatment is steroid & anti-inflammatory eyedrops to begin with 2 types 4x a day. Hopefully that will do the trick but if not there is other treatments like steroid injections. Hopefully the eyedrops will work and the blurry blob blind spots in my central vision will go too. But it can take several months.

It's all been a lot to take in and I'm trying to get used to my new blurry blob vision! Close to stuff is easier but distance is harder as the blobs can blank out more stuff in the distance. If you know what I mean?

On a brighter note after some heavy rain I popped out into the garden to take some photos which are below. Tried a different lens which really worked well.

Sunset garden & cats

Sunset garden & cats, a set on Flickr.

I've had a good day today planning some training for Monday and a meeting in London which lead to a new contract for me. I'll tell you more about that soon.

This evening I had some time to take photos in the garden (and one of Lumpy indoors.) the sun was just setting behind the fence but there were a few rays hitting the plants along the far fence.

I'm still trying different settings with the camera and still getting used to things. The light wasn't great so they aren't the sharpest photos but I'm enjoying my new camera :-)

Some photos

I had such a lovely birthday on Wednesday and I'd had such a lovely time in Doncaster with my parents, Lorraine and Ollie the dog that I was totally exhausted yesterday! We went shopping in the morning but I spent the rest of the day reading magazines and Private Eye and then watching the DVD of Contagion (which is a very good film.)

I did take some photos of the cats, mainly Kasumi as she loves having her photo taken. As soon as she sees the camera she starts rolling around and purring! She is a right diva though. Lumpy slinks off if I try to photograph him like a moody teenager. I did get one of them play fighting.

We were watching Animal Park yesterday and the lions at Longleet were playing just like our cats.

I also took a photo of the moon last night with my zoom lens - I'm quite impressed with how it came out.

Birthday blog

It's my birthday today and last week it was 4 years since I started this blog!

I've had an excellent day. I've had some fabulous gifts. Jase bought me a Nikon 1 V1 camera. He gave the camera to me on Friday so I could use it while away in Doncaster for the weekend. I'm having fun learning all the settings and taking lots of photos.

Today we went into London for lunch at one of our favourite Japanese restaurants, Taro. After that we went to the theatre to see the matinee of the Ladykillers, which was superb, very funny. We then went to have dinner at Gaucho's; steak of course but also lovely cocktails. All in all a really lovely day.

I've included two photos I took in my parents garden in Doncaster earlier in the week.

catch up

As I've not been blogging much I've got quite a lot of catching up to do!

Firstly I am beginning to feel better now, the medication seems to be working and my side effects are changing and getting less intrusive.

I've been trying to spring clean over the last week. I started on the kitchen sorting through cupboards as well as general tidying and cleaning. As you'll see from the photo below Kasumi decided to "help" me, although her help seemed to involve trying to break into her food bag!

We've had fantastic weather over the last week, really hot and sunny for the end of March. It feels very unnatural and although I appreciate the warmth and sun it does feel a bit unsettling. I'm sure it's climate change. Any way the warm weather has woken my tulips early with one of the salmon pink tulips flowering today!
Here it is from another angle.
I had a wonderful weekend, on Saturday I went down to London to meet my twitter friend, Sarah aka @gentlechaos It was the first time we'd managed to meet up and I had a lovely time. Sarah is really easy to talk to and I can talk for Britain. We certainly didn't run out of things to talk about. We had a lovely lunch at Canteen on Baker Street. Below you can see the victoria sponge I had for pudding.
After lunch we walked up to Regents Park, the weather was glorious and after looking around some of the park we sat on the grass in the sunshine. All in all a lovely day.

The Black Dog

I have to apologise once again for not blogging. The black dog (depression) has been scratching at my door for a little while now. As ever it was only when my ability to actually work was affected that I realised how bad it was.
But at least I did recognise it and I went back to my GP to go back on the antidepressants again.

The black dog is what Winston Churchill called his bouts of depression
and I think it's an apt description. Dogs can be scary but they're also loyal and for me my depression is not as frightening as it used to be and it does keep coming back like a faithful dog. I do believe that I can train my black dog so it becomes less of a problem.

I was really touched and grateful for the support and kind words of my friends on Facebook and Twitter. I was also surprised at how many had experience of mental health conditions whether it was post natal depression or something more like my anxiety and depression cycle. It cheers me to see how the stigma of mental health conditions is being slowly eroded. I know there are many barriers to over come but I know that 10 years ago I didn't dare talk about my mental health condition openly.

I've had nearly 2 weeks of side effects from the medication: nausea, dizziness, head ache & hot flushes but they're easing slowly. I'm also beginning to feel a bit more positive being able to start spring cleaning & gardening.

I love my garden and today I had a Japanese honeysuckle and two climbing white roses delivered. One of the roses was featured on Gardener's World on Friday, I was so glad I ordered it before the programme I bet it's sold out now! I'll post some pictures and links about my garden later this week.

Garden and cats

Garden and cats, a set on Flickr.

I took some photos of the cats in the garden yesterday enjoying the sunshine. I was digging the border ready to plant some roses & a blackberry bush. The cats were fascinated by me digging as well as enjoying themselves chasing bees!