Near Catastrophic finish to major holiday

A week or so ago I nearly had some issue with my intentions to travel overseas with close to 9 weeks off on the count down. Somethings you can prepare for and others, you have to go with the flow and see where you end up. I dont know if I would have had to change huge parts to the trip away due to any medical procedure as I could have still been recovering or become tired.

Deciding that I required new glasses and sunnies, I went to get my eyes checked. I wanted to pick them up before I went on holiday and to look cool. Also I was overdue to get my eyes checked as you do. The spanner was thrown into the works as the optometrist was concerned over what he thought was a problem. He had a feeling that I had a detached retina or coming close to it in my right eye. I required to see an eye surgeon for a second opinion.

As time was ticking by, I wanted to get looked at and I had a referral. The first lot of people were not in the office that day. I got mum to arrange things in the afternoon as I was heading to work. By the time I arrived, I had a doctor and referral arranged. The surgeon arranged that had done my left eye when I had a detached retina way back in the early 2000’s. I did have to visit the surgeon and there was the worry that I might require surgery before I left and they knew my tight timeline. 

There were two techniques they could use and only one was going to be possible. They could get the jelly out of my eye (Sounds gross) and put in gas, which would not be ideal for a plane as gas expands. The other option was some sort of oil that would slowly correct itself but would be removed through another operation. Once the surgeon came in for a loving gaze into my eyes with a bright light. The verdict was there wasn’t anything wrong apart from vision changes. I was told no surgery required and no extreme sports while on holidays. I was very relieved as I really did not want this to happen. I cannot go diving as a I have a buckle on my left eye from the last lot of surgery. No idea what skydiving would do.

The lessons to this, is always have travel insurance well before hand in case something like this occurs. I have had mine since around September last year when I was buying flights. I slowly buy things as I go on. I was happy that I was back to getting new glasses even though my right eye had changed in regard to prescriptions. At least I would not be in Far off Europe with vision problems related to surgery and not have time off from work at the same time too. If there are major problems and I don’t see that there would be any, the surgeon has a list of people I can see within Europe that are trusted. I have all bases covered and one mega 8 week journey to look forward to, along with new glasses.

My old glasses are bent, battered from years of service especially when they get thrown off your face when walking into a fridge that has flaps. Soon I will have the new pair and can see clearly now that the sun is out. I can move on with looking at the basics towards my epic journey. No changes or challenges that are out of my control will be sorted out.