Sleeping in Swimming Goggles.

As well as the Jag, there was one other item on Neil's wish list for moving back to the UK. He had always talked about having laser surgery on his eyes but while he was working, he had never got round to having it done. He wore contacts lenses and had glasses which used to cost about £350 each time he changed them.

Just before moving to Spain we both got new glasses with reactalite lenses and prescription sunglasses and even with discounts the bill was not much short of £1,000!

By the end of the first year in Spain, Neil's glasses were showing signs of scratching - even with an anti-scratch coating, because there is just so much dry dust there. You have to be really careful how you wipe your glasses to minimise the scratches.

As time progressed we noticed the reactalite coating seemed to be peeling off and eventually he reverted to an older pair of glasses as he was having difficulty seeing properly. By now 2 years had passed and any warranties were no longer relevant.

We did price up replacements in Spain but they were no cheaper there than here. All the adverts offering cheap glasses were the same in Spain as in the UK, not applicable to Neil's prescription.

We looked into laser surgery in Spain which is just as expensive as in the UK, and despite the adverts saying from £395 - for Neil you could multiply this by 10.

Before we had decided what to do in Spain about the surgery we had decided to move back and that finalised Neil's thoughts on what he wanted to do. The fact that he would be playing golf in rain more often here meant he wanted rid of his glasses. He had taken to wearing his contacts when playing golf but with his vision it meant he couldn't read small print, including texts on his mobile. The frustration over his sight was obvious. Just marking he scorecard was difficult.

Within a week of being back we had an appointment at a clinic in Sheffield. They did all the tests and confirmed he was suitable for surgery. He was scheduled for the following week.

The clinic were very keen that all his questions were answered and, while I wasn't too keen on knowing the details of the actual operation, they always included me in the discussions.

On the day of surgery Neil was obviously nervous and I tried to keep his mind of what was happening later in the day. We arrived for the appointment in plenty of time and joined a few others in a very quiet waiting room. There were a couple of large TV screens on the wall showing the golf tournament which helped pass the time, but made us chuckle as they were not tuned in very well so the picture was quite blurred. Considering we were in an optical clinic, I wondered how many people looked at the screen and thought their eyes needed more work!

Finally we heard them call Neil's name and I then began my lonely wait while they carried out the surgery. It seemed to take longer than others but after about 20 minutes he came out wearing his sunglasses.

The anaesthetic was still working so he wasn't in any pain and he had a bag full of drops to use. One of the main problems after surgery is dryness which will affect the healing so he had drops to help fight infection, drops to keep the eye moist and drops to encourage healing. He also needed to wear his sunglasses for 24 hours as his eyes would be more sensitive to light.

They had suggested the best thing to do when he got home was to sleep. As I don't think he had slept much the night before, it didn't take him long to fall asleep and he slept for a couple of hours. I had told him to take painkillers before he went to sleep so that as the anaesthetic wore off the painkillers would keep the pain at bay. It seemed to work.

Everything seemed to have gone Ok. One of the biggest no-no's is rubbing your eyes after surgery, yet there is a massive urge to do just that. During the day it's easy to control the urge but at night it's not.

And that's where the swimming goggles come in. They stop any attempt to rub or scratch the eyes while asleep - and they work very well. They just look really odd.

To be fair, they must be reasonably comfortable as they didn't stop Neil sleeping and by the time he woke the following morning his vision was starting to settle. He saw an immediate improvement in one eye, the other was slower to heal but now, a few weeks after surgery he is finding he doesn't have any problems at all. He still uses drops at night and he now needs reading glasses for small print but he can read his texts without his glasses.

There is an advert on TV where Podraig Harrington says how much laser surgery has helped his golf. Well, I'm sorry to say Neil cannot say the same - but it has improved his enjoyment of the game. And when it does rain, he doesn't have the problem of trying to keep the rain of his glasses.

Would I have it done?

No way.

And how do I cope on the golf course when it rains?

I stop playing and go into the club house for a coffee. It's so much cheaper than surgery!