Thank you very much, Kikki. xx
This has been a mixed week.
The good news is that after a lot of last minute anguish (our buyers' solicitors phones & IT was down) we finally completed the sale of our house in Norfolk on Wednesday and we have had our offer on a house in a village near York accepted - it has no onward chain & vacant possession, so should not be too troublesome. Plus we are renting the house in York till the end of January so can make sure everything is okay before we move in properly. The searches and survey are going ahead.
But - on Tuesday, my husband ('AE Bear') was called to the hospital (Specsavers referred him after a photo showed a change in the back of his eye) and he has a freckle on his retina, i.e. 'a choroidal nevus', which the eye doctor thinks has some suspicious signs and has sent off the hospital photos to the eye specialist centre in Sheffield. I am worried to death.
Less worrying, but annoying and upsetting - I went for my eye test for the first time to a chain opticians in York - I don't use Specsavers, but had used this chain in Norfolk with no previous bother - and the 'new' optician seemed intent on getting me on a conveyor belt to have my cataracts treated. I didn't think there was a problem. Because of this, he hasn't prescribed me any glasses, reading or distance, and says I am not safe to drive. He also advised me to tell lies about how the cataract was bothering me because otherwise I wouldn't get the op - which I don't want anyway. I couldn't talk to him, and he answered my questions either incompletely or not at all.
I'm going for a second opinion at Specsavers on Tuesday. I don't want to be told I can't drive if my husband needs help for his eye.
The eye-doctor at York Hospital Eye Clinic told us that we mustn't get ahead of ourselves and think the worst, but it's hard not to worry.
I am praying hard that it turns out just to be a common freckle and not malignant, and will only need to be monitored, not treated with radiation therapy.