Important Appointment.

Good luck George, here's hoping you get a good result. Good old NHS!

Dear Tony,

The NHS is splendid, whatever the result of my case. I quite look forward to being absolved of the responsibility to drive, which society tends to regard as a normal requirement these days. Sometimes an excuse is priceless!

And Mrs Chinna is a great lady, as I knew her from ten years ago and more. She invited me back if ever there was more trouble. My insistence on seeing her if possible has slowed the process, but will be most helpful in arriving at the correct solution.

And already paid for in effect with personal taxation so not ruinous to me for priceless medical advice ...

The UK is still the best place in the World to live as so many outside it appreciate! I think it was Sir Cecil Rhodes [who founded Rhodesia], who said something to the sort. He was right about the UK anyway ...

ATB from George

Best wishes with that George.

I'm sure you are in very good hands.

G

If you are not safe to drive will you be safe to cycle?

Currently yes, but in future who knows?

After all the reaction time between 20 mph and 70 is rather different.

I have never come close to hitting something on a cycle, and actually never did with my careful driving style.

But there could come a point ... And I would not persist if it were dangerous to others ...

ATB from George

George

Are you like me Diabetic ?

Mista H

Best wishes for a good result George!

+1

steve

I will post here the results.

ATB from George

Dear George,

Will be thinking of you on Monday and hoping you have a good outcome.

ATB, Don

Hi George

I shall keep my fingers crossed for you on Monday and let us hope you get a good result.

If it is of any consolation to you,  I saw a very junior nurse last Monday evening when I tripped over at the top of the stairs and bounced down on my posterior on the corner of 13 steps of the stairs with the end result that my bottom is now extremely sore and is 25 shades of purple.

I wish you well for Monday.

Regards

Mick

.

I take your kind words, Mick, with special thanks.

We shall see. Whatever comes out will be the spring-board to a vital future though the course may be different!

It might be a freeing-up to be somewhat confined by the result. From confinement should come great results.

ATB from George

I'll be thinking about you George and hoping for the best possible outcome! 

regards,

dave

All the best George. I've recently been suffering quite similar problems and have been having injections into my eyeball. Last week I had my droopy eyelids cut back to relieve the pressure on my eyes but it's too early to assess how it went as my eyes are still bruised and swollen.

I am completely impressed by the treatment I've had on the NHS. What a national treasure it is and we mustn't let right wing dogma harm it.

Good luck George. I hope you come back with good news.

ATB.

Erich

Well no-one else seems to be praying for you George, so I will.  And if Him upstairs doesn't sort you out, I hope Mrs Chinna does!

All the best to you, sir.

Roger 

I wish you all the best George. How bad is your eye?

A number of years back I was diagnosed out of the blue with an extremely rare form of Cancer apparently there was only approx 10,000 cases of it in the US out of 500 million people in any given year which meant I had to have ribs removed from one side of my body. Now I have one tit bigger than Pamela Anderson and the other one is like Twiggy's.

To cut a long story they ended up finding out it was something even rarer but I still had ribs removed.

Google to find out more about this condition.

In my case not related to steroid abuse! 

My chief problem has always been that I cannot but take work too seriously. That will never change. 

Work is a question of doing it by the book and not just right, but as well as it can be done. That is matter of self respect. Playing music was the same. Either do it the best possible or not at all. 

I love the way CSR is referred to as idiopathic and then it is related to stress! I don't know anyone else who has it, though there are lots retina degeneration diseases which are more common ...

Unfortunately this is the third attack, and the remission phase has not yet arrived even after more than half a year. It was emerging again last Christmass. My second attack was also in both eyes in May 2004. That took two years to settle down. My first was years before that in 1993, but I never went to the Doctor as I assumed that everyone had something of the sort!

What provoked me to see the Optician and get reffered this time was trying to drive back from Hereford to Worcester after the rehearsal for my concert in the Cathedral A journey of 24 miles, which took me an hour and forty minutes to do. It is poor and narrow road, and I took it very steady. Aiming was horrendous. It provoked me to sell the car within a week, even before the advice not to drive. I knew what was coming. If I don't need to drive for myself then the only reason to is for work, and there is no way that can be done and guarantee that i might not be out in the dark. Therefore I would welcome a complete reco to give up driving permanently. Even after the first attack in 1993, I was aware of quite poor night vision, which led me to drive too slowly for most people. Perhaps I should not have been driving at any time in the last twenty years ...

ATB from George

Best of luck with your diagnosis and treatment George. I hope your eyes recover, and everything turns out well for you.

I imagine that reading and posting here is not the easiest thing for you to do. Have you tried using any tools for translating voice to text? This post, for example, was primarily generated by talking to my iPad's microphone (but it did require some keyboard editing afterwards).

ATB.

Hook

Dear Hook,

One of the great things about MAC Mini is the ability to so easily zoom with two fingers on the track-pad. I have grown to rely on this more and more. Next will be a larger screen as the further away it is the easier it is to see avoiding the poor parts of my eyes in the middle -  weird really. But reading print on paper is a problem for more than a few moments ... reading a screen at four feet - zoomed up - is easy enough. 

I have 21 inch HP monitor at the moment, and think I might splash out in the Autumn and buy one twice the size at least. Better for DVDs too.

Oddly I seem as adept as ever avoiding stones and pot-holes on the cycle, though I am quite alarmed at driving and the possibility of missing something when pulling out of a junction. If I hit a cyclist or pedestrian I can imagine that I would react very badly. Certainly my confidence would never recover, and that already does not exist. So I think it is best to act cautiously, and almost hope for a driving ban. That way I have a good reason for not driving at work. I know that I'll never drive privately again, whatever the outcome. I lost confidence in it that night in May. 

As for the long term, give me a challenge, and I fight back every inch of the way, so long as I hurt nobody else on the way!

Your point about posting is true enough, and it is why sometimes I fail to see my own typos. Like the day when I addressed Simon-in-Suffolk as 

Deaf Simon!

As it was it produced a comic effect, but some others might not have taken it so nicely, even though it was not other than a mistake on my part!

ATB from George

I may (must) be missing something here George; if you think you are unsafe to drive, why would you just not cease voluntarily?  What does being officially banned do for you? (Excuse my ignorance on this please.)

I have a very good friend with RP - he has zero peripheral vision and never had it.  He used to drive because he honestly didn't realize that his limited field of vision wasn't normal - he thought this is what vision is for all people. He was always bumping into things, and thought he was just clumsy.

When he went to a doctor who diagnosed him he was told he wouldn't be able to drive any more, and he said "Well, I am going to drive home from here."  He did and has never gotten behind the wheel ever again. He received a medical discharge from the US Navy.

Like you he is also an avid bicyclist, and he can only go with a group, because without peripheral vision his odds of getting hit by not seeing a vehicle without others to help guide him are too dangerous.  He tried to go alone for a few rides a couple of years ago when his sons were no longer interested in going, and found it to be far too dangerous.

George, my very best wishes for tomorrow. Hope you get a good outcome.

Best regards Graham.

Dear Dr Mark,

I have desisted. I told my employer that I could not drive, though the firm decision is on Monday. Strictly I was jumping the gun. Certainly the optician thought it advisable to desist back in May but was not prepared to give a firm direction to that effect. The Consultant thought that was fair enough a fortnight later. Wait till a second consultation ... when things may have settled down ...

I have not driven since May. I sold the car before the end of that month.

The real issue is that when I was employed I was expected to do some deliveries. With a proper ban it is not simply a question of voluntarily giving up my licence permanently, though that is how I feel in any case. I have been on the receiving end of motors crashing into me on the cycle. I would not want to do that in a vehicle to a cyclist.

Employers prefer employees who can do a wider range of jobs. The pressure to just pop this load over to Stratford would be inevitable, if I let it just ride without a formal ban. 

I hope that is not saying anything out of place, but it is how I feel.

My Norwegian grandfather gave up driving after being diagnosed with diabetes. He was not prepared to take the risk to other road users that his continuing to drive might involve. He was never advised not to drive and did it voluntarily, though he was a business-man and not employed by someone else for all that. Easier for him to volunteer if you see what I mean.

ATB from George