Snow what?

Welcome to our Second Annual Random Eye Infection Week! This year with added "oh, well it could be related to your shingles" action, and, for the very first time, now including special "It's the 'Snowmageddon' so you must a) come in every single day and b) find an open pharmacy that has this drug that no pharmacist has ever heard of before" complications!

Woo freaking hoo!

I hate having to put yet another sad depressing poor-me post up, but this is where I am right now, so what good is a personal blog if I can't complain about it a little bit? On the upside, I actually got to go out in the snow, which I haven't done in forever, and that means that I - in stark contrast to just about everybody else in the entire Northeast - really enjoyed being out in the snow. I always did: it's got a kind of a hushed, secretive aspect to it that I appreciate. It feels like the rest of the world is as isolated as I often am, and, in a weird way, that makes me feel more connected to everybody. It's difficult for me to get any place, what with the wheels and all, but sitting outside for a little bit this morning while we waited to see if yet another drugstore would have the eye drops I needed (nope) was a nice change of pace for me. The entirety of Massachusetts may be sick to death of the snow - which is too bad because we're supposed to get another foot or so before this storm moves out on Thursday - but I liked it.

Sure, there are some real drawbacks - I miss my days with LilGirl - this is our third day without her in a row, and Thursday ain't looking too good either - but since I can only half see things anyways, maybe that's for the best. SisterS, who lives in New Hampshire, in the middle of nowhere, was complaining about the snow up there today, on her Facebook page. But at least they've got lots of places to put it... around here, the streets have gone from kind of narrow to simply straw-like; there's not a whole lot of maneuverability on the roads. Which works out ok for me, most of the time, because I don't have to go anywhere. Until I have to go somewhere, like this morning's eye doctor's appointment, in which case I feel really bad for everybody who's got to dig me out and drive me down there, even if, on a good day, the office is less than 3 minutes from here. (Today it took us 15.)

I tried to take a picture for you guys of the beautiful snowfall and all of that, but I have one eye that I can't open and one that was still recovering from having bright lights shone in it repeatedly (Off topic a bit here - does that make anybody else want to fall asleep? As soon as she started shining those lights in my eyes, I was so drowsy. Note to self: maybe the cure for your insomnia is bright lights in your eyes), so I didn't wind up with the clearest picture. None the less, it'll give you some idea of how things look around here, I hope.




If you're having some snow, I hope you're enjoying it. Or, at the very least, having a cup of hot chocolate because of it. (mm... marshmallows...)

I lied...

about it being my last eye post. Sorry, but I thought I'd give you just a quick update: I have an infection on my cornea. It's a little bit abnormal, but the optometrist said it probably has something to do with my piece of crap immune system, and prescribed an eye drop I have to put in once every hour for the next few days, and then I go back on Monday. For my favorite-est of things: more eye drops (this time pretty colors - they make me cry yellow tears) and bright shiny lights directly into the very sore eyeball! Yay. Am wicked excited. But - today's drops have at least numbed my eye, so that I can talk to you nice people without turning the computer screen down so dim that I couldn't read it if I wanted to. Bonus.

Also, the optometrist seemed surprised that it had taken me so long to come in, which, I know ~ we've talked before about how, for me, having a strange-ass chronic illness (or multiple strange-ass chronic illnesses) makes it difficult to distinguish how real a problem actually is, but I have to say this fits right in there - it was something in my eye! Like an eyelash or something... How could that be a real problem? Everybody gets things in their eyes, and those things go away, right? And, ok, yes, I knew it was serious when it was still so sore a few days later, but that's why I bought the eye wash, and, when it didn't get better, that's when I called the doctor. I don't know: it seems reasonable both ways to me, even now. Who knows?

Anyways, the point is that ouch. My eye hurts. Especially when there is light, which is ALL THE FRIGGING TIME. My family grows more and more convinced that I am not really ill, but am, in fact evolving into a vampire. I am not entirely convinced that they are wrong.

It's been about a week and a half,

since I've been here, and I apologize for that.

But I think I'm going to skip the long explanations that explain nothing, really, and just say: my brain has been tired, and I have not felt like ordering it to work. Which is fine, really, except that all the posts I wrote in my tired head during the past week are now gone into the ether, and I have to come up with something to write because we all know the longer I go without posting, the harder it gets to post.

So, onto today's post:

Did you know that my most popular post, the post that gets the most comments and hits (at least one a day, I am not kidding you) is this one? 42 comments, as of today. Apparently, something I thought only I was careless enough to do (accidentally getting gel deodorant squirted into my eye) is pretty damn common. The number of people who find me after Googling "got deodorant in my eye" is very high... that search is, by far, my biggest referral.

I'm not entirely sure I'm happy to be known on the Internet as the girl who got deodorant in her eye, but I'm glad that I'm not the only one. I'm also happy to let people know that, while I have no medical training, and cannot guarantee anything, all of the people who searched and found me after getting deodorant in their eyes, at the very least, saw well enough to type. So, while it stings worse than shampoo or most other things you may have accidentally got in your eyeball (I will refrain from judgement here), it will probably get better relatively quickly. If I remember correctly, my eye was fine after a few hours, and only red for a day or so.

Not like this week, in which I did absolutely nothing whatsoever to my damn eye, and haven't been able to see clearly for three days. I also can't keep the eye open any length of time and have taken to wearing my sunglasses inside the house. Although today, I just shut off all sources of light - I am typing this on it's darkest setting, and occasionally peeking behind a piece of paper to check for misspellings - and confined myself to a dark room. Where I couldn't read or write or watch TV or any of the things I usually do to distract myself from my normal pain, so guess what kind of a week I have been having? (*And, oh, how this is its own post, readers: distraction as pain management technique, and how the loss of those distractions is like flaying yourself raw and then swimming in the ocean.)

I honestly have no idea what got in there, because it has felt like a little crumb of something is just under my eyelid, but I don't see anything. I thought about going to the doctor, but what do I say: "My eye hurts, but I don't know why?" I am giving it until tomorrow to straighten up, though... if it ain't better/improving by then, screw it, I'm calling. And then, of course, my eye got all red and weepy (sorry - disgusting, I know), and for whatever reason when my eye gets watery, my nose starts to run, and ALSO, the more I blow my nose, the more my face gets all broken out, so now my nose and one eye are all red, and I've got little cuts all over the place, so basically I look like I've been fighting with a very angry cat that I am also allergic to, or something. Tres attractive, I am sure.

On the plus side, I can't look in the mirror, because it hurts to open my eye, so there's that.

I think it was at it's worst this morning, though, because it hurt so bad I actually did something about it. I sent my dad to the store for some Visine (even though it gives me a rash on my skin, I would deal with that for an eye that functions), and he brought home an eye wash/eye cup thing instead. Have you ever had to do this? The directions are simple and straightforward - fill cup with solution, put cup on eye, tilt head back, OPEN EYE AND ROLL IT AROUND with the solution pouring right into it, empty cup, pat eye dry.

Simple, right?

Except that you are talking to the only person in the history of my optometrist to learn how to put contact lenses on by finally being allowed to do it without looking. I was in my 20s, and it took 3 lessons. Because the guy who was giving the lessons kept saying, "You have to look at your finger when you're putting it in your eye!" and "I have taught 4 year olds how to do this, now look at your finger!" That approach did not work for me, so finally I said to him, "How about if we try it this way?" and I looked in the opposite direction and snuck it in my eye while I wasn't looking and then blinked a few times: voila! Mission accomplished. (Off Topic - this is also the way I taught myself how to swallow pills: put food/drink in your mouth first, then slip the pill in, and act like it isn't there and just swallow your food/drink. Easy peasy.)

So the whole, open your eye and swish the water around in it, thing? Not my cup of tea. Basically I wound up having to tip my head back, and then blink really fast for as long as I could. What? It seems to have helped, so why knock it?

My eye is still puffy and red and hurting, but it's getting better, I think.

This concludes my second - and hopefully last post about stuff getting in my eye (and if I ever figure out what it was this time, trust me that I will avoid that substance like the eye plague it truly is). Enjoy the rest of your day, and I'll try and come up with something less gross for tomorrow's post.