Did anyone see the magical Aurora on Thursday night? It was a beautiful night! The brightest I’ve ever seen it with my naked eyes!
I only stayed out until 9:30 p.m. But looking at other people’s fantastic photos, the show went on until the early hours of the morning, performing an even stronger and better display than what I saw.
It’s weird how the Aurora was once a bucket list dream to tick off. People would be amazed that you’ve seen them, and tell you how they hope to see them one day in their lifetime, and that would be the end of the conversation. Now, Aurora is like a cloud inversion. You still have the excitement and the feeling of ‘lucky’ to see them, but now the conversations are different. Now you’re sharing photos, locations, and excitement with everyone around you. It’s great!
No Longer Alone!
However, a note to me, if I’m planning on leaving my own back garden to hunt down the Aurora, don’t go out in my Pj’s! Yup, that was me on Thursday night! I headed out down the country lane near me. Somewhere I’ve been going the last couple of years. Nobody ever used to go down there to catch the Aurora, just me! I used to be scared, standing all alone in the dark with my camera, in the middle of the countryside.
Well this Thursday, it was a whole new story! I’ve never felt so safe Aurora hunting! The road was packed with people! I literally had to fight for a parking spot! So there I was, standing with my tripod in my Pj’s, with everyone from the village.
Here are some of the photos I took:
(They are not the best as there was just too much light pollution from park cars leaving headlights on, torches from people walking up and down the lane, and too many passing cars to do any good long-exposure shots! I even tried capturing one with the windmill, but annoyingly, the windmill gets lit up at night!)
My Eyes
A week ago, I was back at the Eye Hospital. It wasn’t quite a planned appointment with my Cornea Consultant, but more of an urgent appointment.
About a week or two prior to the appointment, I noticed my eyes were getting really painful, and my vision was starting to go. I had increased the frequency of my eye drops, yet it was not helping. I was waking up in the middle of the night to my eyes burning with dryness. It was awful! Not sure why all of a sudden they had got a whole lot dryer than my normal, kind of somewhat managed dryness. But I knew I needed to contact the hospital for further advice.
I rang the hospital and spoke to the nurse. She was brilliant! She got an appointment with my cornea consultant just a few days later.
He Could See How Dry My Eyes Where Straight Away
Without needing to put any of the fluorescent dye into my eyes, my Cornea Consultant could see just how dry my eyes were, by looking at them!
The plan when I was next due to see him, was to go back onto the Ciclosporin Eye Drops. So he decided to bring that plan forward. He knows I didn’t get on with them a year ago, but he wanted to try them one last time. So he’s given me 6 weeks to try them. If I still don’t get on with them this time around, then that’s it. We will move on to the Blood Serum eye drops, my final line of treatment.
Steroid Eye Drops to Help
This time I’m on a stronger dose of Ciclosporin. Because of how dry and inflamed my eyes are, he wants me to use the Ciclosporin Eye Drops twice a day, instead of just once a day. He’s also prescribed me with some Dexamethasone Eye Drops, to help with the side effects.
Not sure if I’m going to get on with them any better this time around, but I really hope so. The Ciclopsorin Eye Drops are good and do work, just as long as you can get past the side effects. Last time I couldn’t, but maybe this time I will. We can only hope!
Trehapan Eye Drops to Trial
While I was at my appointment, he gave me some new eye drops to try, which the hospital had been given. They are called Trehapan. The special thing about these eye drops, they contain three different active substances. Whereas, the other eye drops for dry eyes only contain two. The third is a new substance, that is supposed to stop the artificial tears from evaporating as quickly.
It’s too early to say if I prefer these eye drops to my other eye drops. But I will keep you posted.
Iloprost Next Week
Next week, I head into the hospital for 5 days of Iloprost. I’m really not looking forward to it, but very much needed.
No matter how many rounds you have, it never gets any easier!
That’s it from me this week. If I’m not too ill next weekend after my Iloprost, I will update you on how it went!
Goodbye for now.
Emma
xox
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