So, about a little more than two weeks back now I had some fun. I feel like I’m almost out of the woods now so I’m a little more comfortable talking about it.
There’s no question I’m not doing such a great job taking care of myself and although I’m aware of that, I’m still struggling with what it means to do a better job. In a lot of aspects of life, ignoring things and hoping they just take care of themselves isn’t all that unusual but where your body is concerned therein lies a path to some significant consequences.
Starting round about a little into December one of my eyes began to bother me. It wasn’t the eye itself that was the problem though, rather the skin in the eyelid became itchy. I’ve had some problems with my eyes over recent years, the kinds of problems which probably don’t bode well in the future and I’ve also had some skin issues too.
Overall though I feel for the most part lucky.
And I say that because I know people who haven’t made it this far or who have suffered through some really horrible health issues. I remind myself of this often. Your health isn’t one of those things that is guaranteed and although I have been confronted in the past with situations where I wondered if I would be around for long, things turned out in my favor.
So, the eye was bothering me and I was trying to do my best to avoid a trip to the doctor. What this meant was I was continually trying to get the eye clean to keep the area of the eyelid germ free but in my zeal I may have overdone things. As the weeks progressed, the irritation simply wasn’t going away and the skin around the eye got worse and red and inflamed.
Finally of course things started to take an even more serious turn over the holidays. It just seems to be the case for me that when the rest of the world is shutting down there is a time when I really wish it wouldn’t so right after the holidays ended I dutifully schlepped over to the local clinic (literally January 3rd).
The doctor looked at things, prescribed some ointment and sent me on my way.
And over the next ten days or so as I went through the ointment things did get better. The eyebrow which had been swollen (making my facial expression one of continual astonishment) went down and some of the redness went away. I finished my ointment and the next day the eye still didn’t feel right so much so that that afternoon I went back down to the clinic but the doctor had already left for the day and the aide on the unit said I should give the ointment some ‘time to work.’
And the next day when I got up I thought maybe I was overreacting and should pay heed to the aide but throughout the day the eye still didn’t feel right and again I went back to the clinic in the afternoon again after the doctor had left (and the aide asking me why I hadn’t come back that morning).
Well, the next day when I woke up? This is what things looked like:
Nice, huh?
But we had snow that night and so I shoveled and then made it down to the clinic where I was first in line. I know I’m not pretty but even I have limits.
And the doctor took one look at me and wanted to send me off to the ER. The ophthalmologist
looked too and concurred and my day progressed with me going to an ER at a local hospital and spending the day there ultimately being admitted overnight.
Again, I’m lucky... this was the first time I stayed in a hospital overnight since I was 19 I think which means I’ve led a pretty charmed life in my book.
But, as much as I DIDN’T THINK it was serious, as much as I fought being admitted to the hospital (for reasons I will not go into) the doctors kept stressing how I could lose my sight or worse from this (worse being this or this).
And now two weeks later after lots of drugs I can say things are better. The original problem with the eye still remains but things are definitely better. Thing is, it’s fairly apparent I have some hard work to do, not just on getting better but also on doing a better job of taking care of myself.
Because when you get right down to it, there are no guarantees.
There’s no question I’m not doing such a great job taking care of myself and although I’m aware of that, I’m still struggling with what it means to do a better job. In a lot of aspects of life, ignoring things and hoping they just take care of themselves isn’t all that unusual but where your body is concerned therein lies a path to some significant consequences.
Starting round about a little into December one of my eyes began to bother me. It wasn’t the eye itself that was the problem though, rather the skin in the eyelid became itchy. I’ve had some problems with my eyes over recent years, the kinds of problems which probably don’t bode well in the future and I’ve also had some skin issues too.
Overall though I feel for the most part lucky.
And I say that because I know people who haven’t made it this far or who have suffered through some really horrible health issues. I remind myself of this often. Your health isn’t one of those things that is guaranteed and although I have been confronted in the past with situations where I wondered if I would be around for long, things turned out in my favor.
So, the eye was bothering me and I was trying to do my best to avoid a trip to the doctor. What this meant was I was continually trying to get the eye clean to keep the area of the eyelid germ free but in my zeal I may have overdone things. As the weeks progressed, the irritation simply wasn’t going away and the skin around the eye got worse and red and inflamed.
Finally of course things started to take an even more serious turn over the holidays. It just seems to be the case for me that when the rest of the world is shutting down there is a time when I really wish it wouldn’t so right after the holidays ended I dutifully schlepped over to the local clinic (literally January 3rd).
The doctor looked at things, prescribed some ointment and sent me on my way.
And over the next ten days or so as I went through the ointment things did get better. The eyebrow which had been swollen (making my facial expression one of continual astonishment) went down and some of the redness went away. I finished my ointment and the next day the eye still didn’t feel right so much so that that afternoon I went back down to the clinic but the doctor had already left for the day and the aide on the unit said I should give the ointment some ‘time to work.’
And the next day when I got up I thought maybe I was overreacting and should pay heed to the aide but throughout the day the eye still didn’t feel right and again I went back to the clinic in the afternoon again after the doctor had left (and the aide asking me why I hadn’t come back that morning).
Well, the next day when I woke up? This is what things looked like:
But we had snow that night and so I shoveled and then made it down to the clinic where I was first in line. I know I’m not pretty but even I have limits.
And the doctor took one look at me and wanted to send me off to the ER. The ophthalmologist
looked too and concurred and my day progressed with me going to an ER at a local hospital and spending the day there ultimately being admitted overnight.
Again, I’m lucky... this was the first time I stayed in a hospital overnight since I was 19 I think which means I’ve led a pretty charmed life in my book.
But, as much as I DIDN’T THINK it was serious, as much as I fought being admitted to the hospital (for reasons I will not go into) the doctors kept stressing how I could lose my sight or worse from this (worse being this or this).
And now two weeks later after lots of drugs I can say things are better. The original problem with the eye still remains but things are definitely better. Thing is, it’s fairly apparent I have some hard work to do, not just on getting better but also on doing a better job of taking care of myself.
Because when you get right down to it, there are no guarantees.
No comments:
Post a Comment