Those of us of a certain age will have heard of Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional character Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr Watson, who first appeared in his novel ‘A Study in Scarlet’ in 1887. He went on to write four books and 56 short stories about the two crime fighters, with worldwide success. Tourists still come to London to visit 221b Baker Street, the site of the office where they worked and now the sight of The Sherlock Holmes Museum. I am not sure I ever read any of the books but by a process of osmosis know that the series ended with Sherlock Holmes’ death near, I think, near some cataract in, er, Switzerland? Google provided me with confirmation, which I paraphrase:
“Sherlock Holmes’ constant foe is a Professor Moriarty, a successful criminal mastermind. In the final drama, Holmes, ignoring the fact that Moriarty has vowed to kill him, delivers appropriate evidence to the police, so Moriarty and those who operate his network will face justice in a few days. Holmes flees to Switzerland and Watson joins him. Moriarty follows and confronts Holmes at the top of a cataract known as the Reichenbach Falls. After some vicious hand-to-hand combat occurring at the cliff edge near the waterfall, both men fall to their deaths.
“Cataract n. 1. Waterfall, especially large precipitous fall or series of falls. 2. Progressive opacity of lens of eye which impairs one’s vision and, if left untreated, leads to blindness.” Note 1
The highest waterfall in the world is the Angel Falls in Venezuela, the fall a staggering 979 metres.
In 2015 Celina and I were lucky enough to visit Las Cataratas del Iguazú on the borders of Brazil and Argentina, staying on the appropriately named Belmond Hotel da Cataratas (see PC 51 Foz!)
You may remember the joke that went around the school playground:
The biology teacher asked her class: “Which organ of the human body increases tenfold when stimulated?” One rather prudish girl in the front row, Mary, said: “Miss, you shouldn’t be asking a question like that. I am going to tell my parents and you’ll be in trouble.” Ignoring her, she asked the question again and Billy at the back said: “It’s the pupil of the eye, Miss.” Turning to Mary, the teacher said: “As for you, young lady, I have three things to say. One, you obviously have a dirty mind; two, you didn’t do the set homework and three, one day you are going to be very disappointed.”
My step-grandfather Tommy Tizzard was a well-respected ophthalmic surgeon in Bath and had his consulting room on the ground floor of Number 15, The Royal Crescent. It was off-limits to a seven-year-old but a quick peep revealed cabinets full of optical equipment and trays of lenses. I have to assume in amongst his other skills was the removal of a cataract, as the modern cataract procedures were first pioneered in 1747 by Frenchman Jacques Daviel.
Old people start talking about cataracts. “I’m having my cataracts done.” In much the same way they say: “I’m having my hips replaced.”, but until you’re in need yourself, it’s just something old people do! I hope to demystify the process, although accept that for some sensitive people anything to do with operating on one’s eye is too much information.
I had been short sighted for ever and worn contact lenses since 1969 when I wanted to sail and be able to see – salt water on glasses is a complete no-no. Aware that I had growing cataracts, the situation came to a head in October last year when the local optician said he couldn’t prescribe glasses until my cataracts has been removed.
I couldn’t better this little series of diagrams of what happens:
The Optegra Eye Hospital in Brighton is taking NHS patients to reduce the current 5 months NHS backlog so, after the appropriate checks, I had my first operated on before Christmas. Very straight forward, lots of anaesthetic drops in the eye, onto the operating chair, stare at a very white light and five minutes later done. Here in the UK there’s a standard 8 weeks between the first and the second eye operations but I know in Turkey, for instance, if you go private, they will do both eyes at the same time.
After the cloudy lens had been removed and a clear one inserted, the outer surface seals together very quickly but for 12 hours or so the eyelid’s interaction with its microscopic bumpy surface is discomforting. It was only after I’d had the second one done I realised how my balance had been affected by effectively being only one-eyed for eight weeks!
There’s a certain conveyor-belt feel about the clinic, inevitable I guess as there’s a repetitive nature to what they do, but each person is treated with great care and attention and nothing seemed too much trouble. Given that they deal almost exclusively with the elderly, I am sure at times their patience is tested, but to their great credit it doesn’t show.
Cataracts also interfere with the way you interpret colour. Everything might start to look like an old Polaroid or one of those sepia-tinted photos. This happens because the deteriorating proteins in your lenses can become yellowed or brown-ish. The difference ante and post operation was absolutely stunning! What happened three hundred years ago when one’s eyes developed cataracts? I guess you slowly went blind; how blessed we are with these commonplace operations.
I wrote to Optegra after my second operation:
“Thank you for my new vision, thank you for your professionalism and thank you for changing the outlook of those fortunate to be your patients.”
And to end on a note of amusement, when Holmes and Watson were on a camping trip, Holmes woke Watson in their tent in the middle of the night and asked him to look up and tell him what he saw.
“I see millions of stars, Holmes.”
“And what do you conclude from that, Watson?”
Watson talked for a few minutes about the universe, distant galaxies and how God is all-powerful. He then asked Holmes what it told him.
“Watson, you idiot! Someone has stolen our tent!”
Richard 22nd March 2024
Hove
Note 1 Cataracts on the surface of the eye’s lens cause increasingly fuzzy and cloudy vision, like looking through a tumbling waterfall.
postcards 