Sorry to keep going on about this (although I know I’m not the only one here who has this problem), but I can’t get a doctor’s appointment - AGAIN.
I’m having a bad flare-up of a recurrent eye problem. I’m not sure it’s even MS-related, as nobody “medical” seems to think so, but it’s actually causing me more problems and distress than most of the MS symptoms, at the moment.
It’s like conjunctivitis - though no infection has ever been found. It’s possible it might even be an allergic reaction like hayfever, although it’s only ever the one eye. But this is the best explanation they’ve been able to come up with.
Anyway, I digress. It’s really bad at the moment; my eye is sore, weepy, and half-closed. It’s very depressing, as it’s a constant discomfort, and I can’t see properly. It also makes me look terrible.
I’ve been given notice of redundancy, and, God help me, might have to start actually applying for jobs and going for interviews. How could I go to an interview with the terrible, weepy eye? I don’t have much confidence to begin with, let alone if I can’t even look nice, and have got to walk in there with one eye shut! People DO judge on appearances, even if it’s subconscious. Nobody’s going to hire someone who looks as if they’re riddled with infection - even though they can’t know it’s actually NOT infectious.
So today, I begin the regular pallaver of trying to get a doc’s appt.
Dial on the dot of the prescribed time of 8 a.m. Engaged. Dial again and get recorded message saying the surgery is not open (they’ve forgotten to switch it off yet). Dial several more times, and it alternates between the recorded message, and “engaged” (other poor s*ds having to listen to the recorded message).
Eventually get through, hoping, for once, for a same day appointment (much as I generally dislike them). No, she’s not in this week.
“OK, what’s the soonest I can get?”
“18th July, 18:40?”
“18th July? But I have a weeping eye! Have I got to wait until 18th July? It may have cleared up by then!”
“Well, that’s the earliest you can book. You could try ringing tomorrow, for a same day appointment?”
“I thought you said she’s not in?”
“Oh no, that’s right; she isn’t!”
“Well when is the earliest I could try again for a same day appointment?”
“She’s in next Wednesday, afternoon only. Ring at 8 a.m.”
I already know what will happen. If she’s been out for a week, and is only working half a day, I’m not going to be one of the lucky ones, am I?
So, I’ll just have to keep plugging away with Optrex, anti-histamines, eye mist, and ibuprofen, which seem to calm it down slightly - but only if done absolutely religiously.
How depressing.
Tina