Waiting Eyesight

Today I waited.

But more about that later. John went to the doctor today. For a few weeks now he has had problems with one eye, seeing something dirty and almost wrinkled (floaters) in his field of view. This morning he had an early appointment and took a cab directly to the hospital, Mount Elizabeth. According to himself it looked like a luxurious hotel. I can only tell you what he told me on the phone after the examination. They sprayed something into his eyes to widen the pupils, doing so making it easier to see the inside of the eye. The photo he sent me was both extremely unsettling but also very interesting. It is fascinating how big a pupil can get! John's almost covered the whole iris. Then they took a bunch of tests, using machines which they charged you for using even if only for thirty seconds. Luckily this went under his insurance.

Unfortunately John has something called lattice degeneration. If you do not know what this is I suggest you Google it. I will try to explain. 'The "things" holding his retina in place are structurally weakened.' That was a direct quote from John himself. The most important thing to say here is that it does not hurt - he is in no pain! Something else important to mention is that it will probably never go away. He will always see those spots and cracks. The condition might get better, but nothing is for certain. If it gets worse he could have a laser operation to fix it. I do not know if this will fix everything, but if it gets worse the operation will perhaps at least put it back in the state that it is right now. Speculations, people! This would all be much easier to write if John actually wrote it. He will not.

After the meeting he went on with his day. I had suggested he would take sunglasses with him, not knowing he would actually need them later. Unknowingly smart, that is me. The pupils were still incredibly huge and so the sunlight was extremely painful. In the office things went better but a headache appeared and he did not have a very pleasant day. Understandably.

Back to me waiting. After I had waited for John to call and knowing he was fine but not fine, I waited for the AC cleaning service. We had an appointed time at eleven sharp and I had been pacing for at least half an hour up until that. Just in case they were early. They were not. Twenty minutes past eleven I asked John to call them. He called me and said they were being held up at the costumer before us and so they would be half an hour/an hour late.

"So, they will be here in fifteen or thirty minutes?" I asked since it was already eleven thirty.

No. It was an hour from the time John called them. He told me not to pace around and do something while waiting. I could not! I sat in the sofa reading but after I finished a chapter I was stressed about sitting there reading when it would eventually knock on the door.

Fifteen minute past twelve they arrived. Apologised for being late. Then more trouble appeared.

We were signing a contract with this company that four times in a year they will come and clean our ACs. This is normal in Singapore. This is not normal in Sweden. Apparently there is a law that AC cleaners must come to your house every third month (we thought it was every sixth month). The first time this happened was in April, I wrote about it in a post. It was a total surprise they would show up since the folder with this information had not yet been delivered to us by d'Leedon management. I let them in and they did their job, but six months later nothing happened. John talked to out agent, since everything between the residents and the owner will go through agents, and he said we needed to book these ourselves. D'Leedon only booked the first four once, but failed to both mention this to us the first time and they failed to inform us to book this ourselves!

The real problem was the contract. There had been a misunderstanding over the phone between John and these two mens's boss. One unit is not one apartment, but one AC. The boss made it seem the other way around. John only asked for one unit to be cleaned. I called John and asked the guy standing next to me to talk to him since I had no idea what had been said. The man next to me told John that he would tell his boss to call him and sort this out.

Meanwhile they started cleaning. Ymir was a very scared kitten, sitting behind the bed where he had been previously sound asleep. Now he dared to barely sneak above the edge and watch these new interesting men. When the special AC-cleaning vacuum-cleaner (I will coin that word, thank you very much) went off he hurried into safety behind the standing mattress used as backrest for John.

John called and it had all been sorted out. I would give them hundred and forty in cash, which is the price for one AC unit to be cleaned, and then I was given the number to the bank to which we would transfer the rest.

After one o'clock they finally left. At this point I would like to point out that I had planned to have lunch with John, meaning I would have left twelve thirty, but was unable to because they were late. Another thing I need to point out, because I hate this part, is that THEY did not call to tell us they were going to be late. John had to call them. *grinding teeth* I had a very good lunch! Rice and big chicken breasts - apparently they can stick together and become one large which I mistook for one so I almost ate both. The half I could not eat because I was full had to go back into the fridge. It was a tasty meal!

That is literally it. After lunch it was closer to three than I knew about at the time. I had to take a nap after I finished eating so when I sat down by the computer to work it was already half past four. I worked for a bit, gamed for a while then suddenly John came home. Lots of hugs have been exchanged tonight. John is even trying to set a record of kissing me on the head. Tomorrow is Friday and I will have my lunch with him!

The inside of John's eyes. The right eye is the one with lattice degeneration.