Writer's Block

I'm very sorry to inform my readership that I have severe writer's block. Hopefully tomorrow I will be a little more creative and able to write something witty and inspiring. Until then, I will sit and watch "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" with my children and eat almonds.

Lookin' fab-lee-ous!

Last night Missy Lou decided she wanted to play beauty shop with me as the client. Since we had a little time before bedtime I was happy to oblige. It was so much fun. She got her little tiara and put it on top of my head and then she twisted and combed (with her fingers) and patted and smoothed my hair and kept up a steady stream of conversation all the while. When she was all done, so looked at me and said, "Mommy, you look fab-lee-ous!"

Going from pink to black!

This has been an interesting week. In my previous post, I indicated that I had pink-eye. Well, the plot has thickened, to say the least. Wednesday afternoon I finally got hold of the doctor's office to ask what the culture said about my eye - was it viral or bacterial pink-eye because the antibiotics the doctor had given me were of no use whatsoever. So, I talked to the nurse and she wasn't terribly concerned, said the doctor said that the oral antibiotic I was prescribed should really kick it. But then, I mentioned that the dilation wasn't going away and my eyes were still terribly sensitive to the light and I couldn't drive. Boy, then her ears perked up. I talked to the doctor personally and she said I needed to get to the opthamologist right away. So, they called the specialists and my dad drove me there, while my mom took the munchkins home with her.
Aside from the fact that I was in a lot of pain and they were really hurting me trying to figure out what was wrong, I had a really good experience at the opthamologist. I saw two doctors and they determined that I did not have pink-eye, that my eye was terribly inflamed, but they couldn't figure out why. They did all these tests and put a lot of drops in my eye and this, that, and the other until they'd done all they could do and still didn't know what was wrong with me. So, I left with prescriptions for 3 different drops and a prescription for a blood panel and chest x-ray. Oh, and the worst part - she gave me a shot in my eye-ball. When she said she was going to give me an injection I started rolling up my sleeve. Then she said, "I'm just going to numb the eye a little" and started pressing down with a swab. So, yes, it was in the eyeball, and now I have a beauty of a black eye.
I must say the meds are working. She has my eye dilated, for reasons unknown to me. So, I'm still very sensitive to light and I cannot drive. But, the redness is almost gone and the pain is gone, too. I go back on Wednesday for a follow-up, so hopefully she'll know something by then.

Pink is definitely not my favorite color!

Squirt. Scrub... scrub... 1,2,3,4.... scrub, scrub....10,11,12,13... scrub... 14,15. Rinse. Repeat 15 minutes later (or less). This has been the story of my life the past couple days. I have pink-eye. It really stinks. I've never had pink-eye before, but last week my allergies had a hey-day and then it seemed to morph into a cold and I lost my voice and by Friday my eye was turning red. I assumed it was just allergies, but by Sunday afternoon, it was very painful and I had a definite sensitivity to light and I decided I had pink-eye. Now, what I've heard of pink-eye is that it's this horrible disease that is highly contagious and is kind of... well, on par with lice and ringworm. So, I've been kind of embarrassed to say I have it. I went to the doctor yesterday morning first thing. I was the first one to sign in. I didn't have an appointment, but I figured if I was there, they'd have to see me. Besides, Hubby had to take me in, since I can't drive with this light sensitivity. I only had to wait for 15 minutes, which was nice. So, she took a culture and gave me some antibiotics. However, we don't know if I have viral or bacterial pink-eye. I suspect it's viral, since I've been on the antibiotics for more than 24 hours and I've seen no improvement.
Anyhow, I went on-line this morning and did a little more research on pink-eye and found out some interesting things. The first is, the virus that causes pink-eye is the same virus that causes all other upper-respiratory illnesses. So, you can get pink-eye from someone who doesn't necessarily have pink-eye. They can have a cold and instead of the virus settling in my nose or throat, it settles in my eye. That made me feel better. Another thing I found out is that, while it is highly contagious, it is no more contagious than any other cold virus. Fortunately, my eyes don't itch, they just hurt like the dickens, so I've had absolutely no desire to touch or rub them. That's how it gets spread. I have been washing my hands an awful lot these last several days and washing my towels, pillowcase, etc. So, as of now, no one in my family has gotten it. I'm so glad. It really is no fun. I still can't drive, my eye really hurts and it's ugly. But, I do feel a little better after having got some facts about it and hopefully in a week it'll be gone!

This is the time of the year when...

* my allergies kick into high gear
* our electric bill is lowest
* I start making soup
* I start wearing sweaters
* I really admire our neighbor's Chinese Pistache trees
* our cat starts to really look pretty
* I am tempted to listen to Christmas songs, and occasionally give in