:: mlle. h. bean ::

:: Wednesday, July 8 :: eye declare

So I got an eye infection!

I thought my eyes were just really irritated and dry from being on the computer all day at work yesterday, and when I got off work my brother said, "You look really tired, like your right eye looks weird." I checked it out: it looked a little bloodshot, but that was all.

I lay down on my bed to relax, and my right eye started weeping - fluid coming out of it, and draining off down my cheek. One-eyed crying. I got up and said to my family, "I think there's something wrong with my eye!" Mum checked it out and said there was nothing in it. I decided that the best plan was to lie down and let it be. So I did.

After about two hours, and a short nap, I got up and looked at myself in the mirror. My left eye was fine, but my right eye was swollen, half shut - I looked like I'd been in a fight! I could still see just fine, but I looked way worse. The lopsidedness struck me as funny, but I was getting worried.

I called the hospital and talked to a nurse. She said that it sounded like I could wait the night, and if it was still swollen in the morning, to come in. But I thought about it and decided to go in that night. You never know with these kinds of things, and I'd rather have peace of mind and have it looked at soon.

Mum drove me in. The air was cooling down, and we both remarked on how cool it was for July. After I saw a nurse for triage, and then sat a little bit in the mostly-empty waiting room (and watched some of the Michael Jackson memorial on the flat-screen TV mounted on the wall), the doctor called me in. Mum came with me, and sat quietly off to one side. The doctor used a light to shine in my eye and had me look down, and over. She spoke economically, meting out her words. "Conjunctivitis," she said as she washed her hands.

She went and got me a little bottle of antibiotic drops. "Replace these in the next few days," she said. Meaning, go get some from the drug store, and bring them here when you can. She gave me two pieces of paper, both taken from her bright-yellow prescription pad: a prescription for the eyedrops, and a note for my employers. In remarkably legible handwriting it said: "This is to certify that the pt was seen and advised to rest for 24 - 48 hrs."

We drove home, and the full moon was low and golden over the Bras d'Or lake, just rising. Half the time I had my eyes closed; it was a strain to keep them open for long.

I slept well. And today, I've been resting, not working. Part of me is bored, and part of me is glad. The bored part was happy to do an hour of work this afternoon, and the glad part is happy that it's over now, and I can rest, close my eyes, think about eyesight and gratitude and health.

The infection doesn't hurt, but is more like a strain. And I'm taking my drops regularly, and drinking lots of fluid, and marveling at the wonderful system that is my body. Hopefully I can remember to actually REST, too - I have a propensity to try and "get stuff done" during the time when I'm meant to be at rest. But, I've had a lot of practice in the last few years with actually resting, with letting things just be, so I'll call on that now.

Have you ever had an issue with your eyes? Or temporarily lost or damaged one of your senses?

Labels: illness

Leah said at 4:43 PM
...

Happy Canada Day!

I'm a pretty happy Canadian, proud to be from this country. I love our symbols, I love our people, I love our music and arts, I love our land. I don't love our history of abusing the Native peoples, and I don't love our (collective) slowness in shifting off oil and continuing to rape the land in so many, many places. But I do love the vastness of this country, and the feeling I have that I could travel only within Canada and NEVER BE BORED.

14.2 more reasons to love Canada (because 142 is too long a list to compose and still go out and do stuff today):

1. Snow and ice are beautiful.
2. Pierre Trudeau is quite the cat. (See photo below.)
3. CBC Radio spans our country and despite cutbacks, does an amazing job.
4. Maple syrup!
5. Chatelaine, Macleans, the Globe and Mail, and Canadian House & Home are among our awesome publications.
6. National health care.
7. Margaret Atwood.
8. Q with Jian Ghomeshi.
9. The Trans-Canada Highway that has taken so many of us somewhere.
10. The complex relationship between Quebec and the rest of the country that could only exist here.
11. "Eh?"
12. The Hudson's Bay company colors.
13. VIA Rail!
14.2. Yes, Tim Hortons. I know, I know - but despite my reservations, I know that several times I have re-entered the country from away, and the first thing I wanted to do was get a Tim Hortons coffee and doughnut. This means they have great advertising and marketing, but it also means we all share it. For the extra two pounds I must have gained over the years from eating Tim Hortons doughnuts, I make this entry 14.2 on the list.

And from the book, "I never promised you a rose garden," by Michelle Le Grand and Allison Fay, 1972, Greywood Publishing Limited, a little exchange between former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and former President Richard Nixon:

Labels: holidays, my photography

Leah said at 11:23 AM
...

My trip to another part of the island went well. I rang in summer by drinking ginger beer on the beach while sitting next to a roaring bonfire, with some friends old and new. There were also ketchup chips, hot dogs (with mustard and ketchup), and for dessert, s'mores. I mean, it really doesn't get much better than that.

Well, actually, it did: we also played dominos and chess, and then took pictures of the fire as it burnt down to embers. At one point in the evening there was even swimming in a frigid river that flowed straight out of the Highlands into the ocean. Mind you, the swimming didn't last very long! I had been dared - well, actually, what happened exactly was that after everyone else went in and I didn't, someone said, "I bet she won't go in," and so I had to after that, of course. But when I faux-bravely jumped right in, I found it hard to breathe, it was so cold! So I came out soon after. But oh, how much does cool, cool water soothe muggy skin.

The next day I drove home, through fog and over green mountains. I stopped and had my lunch by the ocean, eating a packed ham-and-swiss sandwich, corn chips and salsa, watching waves crash in. I also watched other people stop in the parking lot and get out and stretch their legs.

I made it home just in time to return my rental car and get ready for Monday. And now it's nearly the weekend again...

I like this whole posting-once-a-week thing. I think my posting day will be either Thursday or Friday for the next little while. It's a good length of time: it keeps me motivated to write, but enough time goes by between posts that I actually feel I have something to write about!

Also, I've rejuvenated the links on the left. I took out the blogs that weren't alive anymore, and put in some new ones that I've been reading lately. Enjoy!

Labels: Cape Breton, my photography, summer, travel

Leah said at 8:05 PM
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