This morning we trotted off to Sutton Hospital Eye Unit. We left really early giving ourselves 1 hour and 15 minutes to get there. Armed with address and A to Z we set off only to find that it wasn’t listed in the A to Z and ended up getting to St Helier Hospital before getting an answer from the switchboard with directions on how to get there. I mention all of this as we had received not one tiny piece of useful information on how to find the hospital, even the road that it is on isn’t listed – but the big one which will get you there is not mentioned either. On top of which Sutton County Council need to do something about their total lack of signposts and where we did see signposts they were usually cleverly hidden behind traffic lights!
We did manage to get there on time and the Eye Unit looks like a shack from the outside and a rabbit warren on the inside. Anyway we were called in only 10 minutes past our appointment time which we thought was very good until we realised that this was the pre-appointment: 5 minutes with someone who asked a few questions, made a few notes and then led us to another queue for Massimo to have eye drops put in. A further half hour wait later we got to see the opthalmologist. The upshot of her investigations was that she could see “nothing to write home about” ie nothing to cause any concern at the moment. Massimo’s focus is slightly long-sighted but that is common to all babies. She asked another lady to come and talk to us who said that although the eyes are rarely spared when it comes to these episodes (the two early episodes of lack of oxygen) he can clearly see so it is important to determine how good the eye sight is so that we can stimulate it to develop further. The quality of his eyesight will be determined at a further appointment at GOS in about 3 months time. Also we have been given a follow-up appointment at Sutton so that they can check that nothing develops which could cause concern and most specifically would cause the doctors to decide to put a shunt in his head to relieve the pressure from the hydrochephalus.
So all in all, good news on the whole. The only other thing that happened of note today is that we met the nurse who will come and look after Massimo probably two nights a week for us so that we can get a full night’s sleep. Her name is Verna and after initial aggression from Jasper and fear from Horace, the dogs accepted her presence gracefully and they will allow her to look after Massimo! She seems very sweet and she gives us our first night of respite care tomorrow night. Although it will seem very odd to have someone here at night I’m sure we will get used to it pretty quickly!
That’s all folks! Have a lovely bank holiday weekend.