Things Do Go Wrong

I have been waiting for my second cataract operation for a few months and the day finally arrived for my operation last Thursday. The first one on my left eye was last year and it went very well with great vision almost immediately. There was the usual eye patch at night and drops to put in but all in all a very successful operation.

This time the operation was in the afternoon so I duly arrived at 12pm and sat down to wait to be called in for the usual checks. This all went smoothly and I was seen by the surgeon who was to operate on me. He went through the details but then informed me that he would have to operate on me second because he needed someone to hold a special instrument for my operation and due to the junior doctor’s strike there wasn’t anyone available until later.

Complicated surgery

My operation was slightly complicated because there was something not quite right with my cornea and it could result in a second more serious operation for a cornea transplant. This was the case in the first operation and it all went well so this didn’t particularly concern me. The patient the surgeon was operating on before me was a complicated case which would take 2 to 3 hours so I had to wait.

I was called in at 4.15pm for my operation and it was completed in about 30 minutes. I had a dressing on my eye then I was given medication to apply to the eye and I was told that I would see the surgeon in two weeks. I got a lift home and spent the evening resting and watching TV. After a couple of hours I was feeling discomfort in my eye and I couldn’t watch TV any more so I went to bed.

Not quite right

When I got up the eye wasn’t good and I was in pain so Julie took me back to the hospital and I waited in the eye emergency department to be seen. When they looked at my eye they discovered that I had a scratch on my cornea which had been caused during the surgery and this was causing my discomfort.

My eye lid was swollen and I couldn’t see out of the eye. The vision was very blurred and this concerned me. They gave me some cream to put in 4 times a day and they told me to continue with the drops 6 times a day – phew!! I had a very important and complicated proposal to put together which I had promised would be with the client at close of play on Saturday (yesterday).

Completed the proposal

I tried to work on this on Friday but the pain and the sensitivity to light was too much to concentrate so I left it until yesterday to complete. This was not ideal but I had no other choice. I worked on the proposal from 12pm to 7pm and finally sent it off on time. I had hoped to write this blog yesterday but the proposal took much longer than expected.

Julie is driving us to my cousin Leon’s for Sunday dinner today and we leave at 10.15am. I made a commitment when I started my blogs that I wouldn’t miss any blogs so this is being written this morning. I got up at 6.30am and had my quiet time and motivation time and now I’m writing the blog.

Making a Promise

Another word for commitment is making a Promise and keeping it. I made a promise that I would not miss a blog and that has got me up this morning to complete what I promised. There is power in taking action when you don’t feel like it. It’s like the people who go to the gym when they don’t want to, or the people who run in the rain when they would rather be watching TV.

My eye is still blurred and I am wearing sunglasses as I write this blog. I have taken some pain killers and I am taking action. I could easily have used the excuse to myself to miss this one. But then when would the next time come when I will make an excuse to miss another one and so on.

Playing for England

This brings back memories of my time playing basketball and the training I did to get to the top. I remember getting up around 6am every morning to run 3 miles around the Wollaton Hall lake in Nottingham and back to the main entrance. It was very hard work and I really didn’t want to get up so early to face the pain – but I did! I was eventually running it in just over 17 minutes.

Because of my commitment to the training and the other areas of basketball I ended up playing for England and professionally. This didn’t just happen but it was a series of small commitments which added up over time to fulfilling my dream to play for my country. This is exactly the same principle I am applying here with this blog.

It’s easy to give up

On the face of it writing this blog is no big deal, but actually the fact that I have completed it and can now enjoy the rest of the day with Julie is massive. It’s easy to do things when you feel good and things are going well, it’s another thing to get things done when you don’t’ feel so good and things aren’t going so well.

Things will continually go wrong in our lives and this is just part of life but the key thing is how we respond to these setbacks. You can radically change the way you feel by responding positively to each setback. I could focus on the negative and blame people for what I am going through or focus on the positive of getting better and moving forward.

Thoughts for the week:

1. Things will go wrong in your life – it’s just the way it is
2. When something goes wrong in your day see if you can respond in a positive way
3. If you can do something about something then do it – if you can’t don’t think about it! The only thing you do if you worry about things you can’t do anything about is make yourself ill.
4. Think about the commitments or promises you have made and see if you are keeping them. If not see if you can go back and do something about them
5. It’s easy to get things done when things are going well – how good are you when things aren’t going so well?

Well that’s it for this week.

Have a great weekend and stay positive.

Warm regards

John