The Eyes Have It

"It" is the active word here. It seems that the day after we learned that our health insurance had lapsed (a long story, probably whined about in another blog entry), something more than a little piece of "schmutz" got into my eye.

Thursday afternoon, I felt as if there was an eyelash in my eye. I tried to look to see how I could get it out and could find nothing. My eye kept on bothering me. It kept me awake off and on all night, and by Friday morning, it looked like my own private version of a GPS. Red lines ran amuck in my sclera. It hurt, too. I knew that this was no eyelash.

By the time I got in touch with my doctor Friday morning, it hurt so much I didn't know what to do. Neither cold nor warm wet cloths did no good. Closed, my eye didn't exactly hurt, but it kept wanting to move, which DID hurt. Plus, I was so light sensitive, neither of my eyes would stay open. If I opened my right eye, it seemed the left eye had a light leak and huuurrrt.

Ok, ok. I'll get on with my story. My doctor, after hearing my story, put a "Stat" referral in to an ophthalmologist, who gave me an appointment within two hours. That two hours was a story within itself, but I'll stay with my eye story for now.

My pseudo-sister Jan agreed to take me to the opth…doc, and she nearly had to hold my arm and guide me into the office. It wasn't sunny that day, in fact we found ourselves darting between rain drops, but the glare was incredibly painful to both my eyes.

We got inside, and after the examination, this warm-hearted young-ish doctor let me know that I have irisitis and uvetis ("U V – tis"). That seemed to have grown from an old surgery scar (Radial Keratotomy in 1992) that got infected somehow and festered, then grew to the point of severe pain. I tried to compare it to labor; that didn't help. Daggers penetrated my left eye. Keeping it open seemed impossible. So—my new good eye doc seemed to know what it was quickly, and gave me drops plus an ointment to put on my eyes, hoping it would improve my situation.

Today, at least I can open that eye! It still hurts—more like there is a large piece of wood in my eye than an eyelash, but it's better because I can at least open it for awhile. I get tired; I read too much. But after a rest I can read some more. Doc said that if it went untreated I could lose the eyesight in that eye. I'm sure glad I called him the morning after it started!

Now—it seems that the "in-a-hurry" doc from last year decided that we ought to just let it go—that it was merely a condition of "drying up as we age." I wasn't even technically "old" yet then! She was in such a hurry, and dismissed me so quickly that I commented to my primary care doc about her. I guess this inspired him to send me to the new doc. I was so glad and appreciative. He (the new doc) described what had happened, took time with me to make sure I understood what had happened, and also said treatment for this is important because it can be vision threatening.

I see him again tomorrow, and am hopeful I'll "see" a major improvement soon!

 

A Leaner View of Me

Wow! Even my necklace looks leaner!

This is a web site that manipulates a picture of you to see what you'd look like up to 20 lbs. thinner. I thought it was pretty cool.

Of course I selected the 50 lbs, but the site itself says it will only change your image up to 20 lbs.

We R Doomed

11:25:15 P:
ok--I'll tell you what's bugging me--I'm both pissed off and scared at the same time.

My husband put on a TV show titled what would the earth be like without any people? It was sort of like a "Day After" type of show.  He ALLOWS EMILY to watch it, as well as Sarah. But EMILY IS ONLY 6 YEARS OLD!!

I hear the subject matter, about how the electricity would gradually stop, and how it would take about a week for all the domestic dogs to die, and I yelled that she should not be watching that.

So, he turns it off.

For the rest of the night, I've been obsessing about death--my children dying, me dying, why did I bring children into this horrible world? How could I ever protect them from the scary things that might happen to us with all the natural resources drying up and people not willing to do anything to preserve them?

Of course the TV show had shown footage of the most adorable little dogs possible and how it would be difficult for them to get out of their houses without their people to find food, and by the time they could get out, they'd be eating dead flesh and that would probably make them sick and die anyway.

As I'm putting Emily to bed, I'm thinking how bright and funny and happy and beautiful she is, and how long will the world last...how old will she get to live will she have a decent life....then it was Sarah's turn and I could not bear it anymore.  Tears streamed down my face--I'm too weak for this world anymore..

How do we know that it won't happen in our life time? Why shouldn't we care about generations of humans following ours? With all the talk about global warming happening in the next 10 years, I kind of think it could be our lifetime.

Do I really want to see that kind of world my children/grandchildren could have to live in?

A friend said, "a lot of things must happen before anything close like that will occur."

My response was, "Wow--really? Like, nuclear war? How unrealistic is that? World wide economic collapse? That's been talked about for a few months now, too. All we need is one moderate earthquake, a stock market sell off, both on the same day, and California might as well be in the ocean with our million-dollar homes that are really worth about 100,000$. Or, just all the water drying up...that would be fun wouldn't it."

My friend says: "What can we do about it?

"We have to try something, don't we?  I mean, we don't know what will happen, but the natural resources are not limitless, so what we can conserve would be good, wouldn't it."

This morning, I see a quote from Carl Sandberg, "Babies are a sign that God wants the earth to continue." I then smiled.

 

 

Happy Saturday

I just had a shock to my system realizing Sarah (and the other Dec Babes) will be in 6th grade next year!! I never would have believe, in my 20's that I'd have one child, let alone that child going into 6th grade and having a sibling!

Well, Happy Saturday, we just got home from Sarah's team's last playoff game...they won one game, and lost two...the good thing is that 1) Soccer is over till next September, and 2) the team they played this morning only won by one point whereas all the other teams they played they beat by 5-8 points. So we showed pretty strong, even though one of our girls did not play due to illness, and Sarah was ill but played anyway, plus 2 other girls just didn't show for the game. All 11 of our girls had to play the whole game. Usually they get subbed out and get a little rest during one or another quarter.  So, I'm still very proud of them. (and still pretty d**n happy about Sarah's goal last week!)