simon_brooke, I had eye surgery yesterday, to clean out the filters in the drainage ducts of my eyes. I was (obviously) nervous about it. The experience was unpleasant but not terrible, and greatly helped by a surgeon with a great chair-side manner.
This morning my eyes feel not much worse than an average morning, and I have an only-slight headache. So (so far) this has been a much less bad experience than it might have been.
Many thanks to Scotland's NHS!