Things took an unexpected turn yesterday. I had a hospital checkup. I was expecting nothing new. But instead I got a big dose of lasers.

The pressure in my right eye was still too high. So the doctor suggested giving it a powerful laser attack. It’s something you can do to an eye that has no real chance of being able to see again. That’s never fun to hear. But I knew already. I knew. But the point is that it should lower the pressure so you don’t have to keep taking medication. And you don’t have to remove the eye. So we decided that was probably the best thing to do. And then he went and got the expert on the procedure. She came and looked at me. Said I was a primce candidate for it. It’s a much stronger procedure than the laser treatments I had at the beginning of the year. Those were just some little bursts to close blood veins. This was going to be a major burns. So they asked me if I wanted local or full anesthesia. You know I like the full stuff. But it’s a pretty short treatment. 5-10 minutes. And they said that if I went with local anesthesia then we could pretty much go do it right away. So I decided to go with that after all.

It wasn’t too bad. Although I think they were a little skimpy on the anesthesia. When she started with the laser she said “you can’t feel that, right?”. But I could. A little. She told me that if I couldn’t stand it then I should just say so and they’d give me some more anesthesia. But I braved it out. Afterwards it still hurt a little. And my head was very woozy. They’d given me a couple of diamox pills. So I was feeling somewhat beaten up at that point. With a bandage over my eye and tingling teeth. I much prefer the marshmallow dreams of full anesthesia. Oh yes. But at least I came home to delicious soup and also had the best night’s sleep I’ve had in the past year or so.

Now I have to take diamox pills and eyedrops for three days. And then stop. And hopefully the pressure in the eye will stay down. She did say that sometimes it does take two treatments, though. With my luck I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to get it done again. Another risk is that the pressure in the eye can drop completely to zero. If that happens then the eye gets smaller. I guess the pressure is from fluid in the eye and with no fluid the size shrinks. I’m not sure how much exactly, but I guess it might look somewhat weird to have one eye smaller than the other. Still, it would be better than having the eye removed completely. We’ll see what they say when we come back on Tuesday.

In case you were wondering, yes mama still makes the best soup in the world. So at least that is one thing that hasn’t changed over the past year. Good stuff. And now my fridge is full of soup. That should keep me happy for a couple of days.

Also good was the fact that I managed to go to my parents’ house on my own. Past roads and traffic lights. First time I have done that on my own in many months. It helped a little that it was afternoon and overcast. A little darker than usual. That meant I could actually see the traffic lights. It’s much easier when you can see if the light is red or green. Also when crossing one of the roads without traffic lights one car actually stopped for me and let me pass. That’s another benifit of the cane, people can tell you are sight handicapped. I don’t know if he stopped to be nice or if he just thought I was completely blind and would have walked out in front of him. But in any case it was nice. Better than people breaking the traffic laws.

When it was time to go home it was evening and very dark. That made it apparent how much I still use my remaining eyesight. I have no night vision left. So I had to depend on the cane only. And my dad helping. But it’s much harder and scarier. Very evident that I’m lucky to still have some eyesight left. I have to admire people who are completely blind and still go out alone with their cane. I don’t know if I could do that. Let’s just hope I never will have to.

But it went well and the soup was great. And today I got to see the goats again. Finally. There was even a new goat. A buck. A smelly, smelly buck. That should mean goat babies in the new year. That will be splendid.

He was a nice and friendly sorts. I don’t think I have met him before. Because he wasn’t that interested in me. He obviously didn’t have the “Plume=treats” mindset that Magnethe and Vanilje does. He did come over to investigate. Sniffed around and got some scratchies. But he spent most of the time munching hay on the far side of the pen. And the girls seemed happy enough with that. Most of the times he came closer they baahed and ran away. “Eeew, icky boy” they almost seemed to say. Other than that they seemed to get along fine, though.

And it was just swell to see the sisters again. They make me so happy. I also got to talk a little to Sigrid. She was there when I came. And she saw my cane. So we talked a little about how it was going. Nice to get some sympathy from her. She told me to just say something if I needed help. And she warned me about the smelly buck.

All in all it was a very good time. Cold, though. For me. Actually it must have been 5-7 degrees or something like that. But it took its toll on me. I had taken my gloves off. Because it’s just nicer to scratch a goat with your bare hands. But when I was leaving I could barely get my gloves back on. My fingers were practically frozen. I didn’t feel the cold so bad when I was sitting with the goats, but afterwards it did hit me. My dad came to help me get home and I think he could tell. I was literally shivering. My blood circulation really has gotten bad. I used to be able to take freezing temperatures with no problem. It’s going to be harder now, spending time with the goats when it gets even colder. May have to take shorter trips there. Just an hour and a half on the bench made me into a walking fish stick. Even when I got home it took a while before I could really use my fingers again. Oh boy. Lucky goats with their winter fur.

Goats and soup. It’s been a nice couple of days.