Angelina Jolie chose to have bits of herself surgically removed to reduce a genetic cancer risk that she faced.

As I lay in bed last night, watching Jean-Luc Picard on Netflix, the Bell’s palsy impact on my right eye worsened.  The eye won’t blink.  Pain comes and goes, usually triggered by bright light.  Last night it convinced me to suspend activity on the Starship Enterprise as the iPad lighting, usually fine, had become intolerable.

I applied my lacrilube gel but the pain persisted.  So I taped down the eye and attempted an early night.

Alas, my right buttock twinge kept happening, regardless of my sleeping position, rendering early sleep impossible.  Despite a maximum naproxen dose earlier.  And with that keeping me awake I became aware of the eye discomfort again.

I use the word discomfort because it’s nothing like the intense pain I felt as my lung cancer attacked my bones last year.  But it’s an unpleasant sensation nonetheless.

And then a plan entered my head.  My right eye has always been my weak eye.  In normal times I could close it and see virtually the same amount of the world out of the left eye.  In other words, my right eye has always been a bit rubbish and I can operate just as effectively with one eye.

Now the plan.  I’m resigned to my Bell’s palsy being here forever.  It hurts my right eye.  My right eye is rubbish when healthy and obscured by gel when unhealthy.  Therefore there’s a lot of sense to the idea of removing my right eye.

I’m not sure the NHS will entertain the idea.  And my BUPA expired with my employment.  But the idea seems to make a lot of sense right now as, despite closed blinds and no lights on, the eye is suffering a lot with what light there is.

If Angelina can remove things, why not me?

Sedona, Arizona