OMG, I forgot to tell you. So as you know, I travel to Taiwan on the regular, meaning yearly. And invariably, I get sick every time I get back Stateside. I mean, I suppose it’s no surprise really, bc there have been numerous instances where clearly, my body demonstrates an especially poor constitution. My body is known around these circles for abruptly crashing into flames. Needless to say, this time was no different, though I did feel like we were even more on the move than usual (if that is even possible). Maybe too, it was the exposure to my sick mom (she had the flu) or the many trips to the hospital or being stuck on a plane for 12-14 hrs with germy people.

Anyway, while I was in Taiwan, I noticed my eyes feeling strained. I figured it was just the long hours in my contacts, fatigue, whatever. So after I got home, that night, my left eye was like twitching kinda crazy. I just chocked it up to the gross recycled air on the flight back. The next morning, I woke up and ok now the vision in my left eye was clearly cloudy. This imbalance of clarity had actually been going on for days, but this particular morning, I realized that I couldn’t pin it to dry or dirty contacts. It felt like something was in my eye, but I rolled my eyeball around and nothing was in there. I was supposed to attend a real estate conference and meet up with my coach, so I popped in my contacts and decided to proceed. But the blurry vision was really throwing me off. I imagine it’s similar to if you have ear pain– it just fucks up your balance and orientation. And my left eye started watering and stinging. I took out the contact again. WTF is happening? John told me to go to the doctor.

Thank goodness for the nurse advice line, bc hell, I use that service all the damn time to determine if an office visit is really necessary. Well, in this case, they wanted me to come in. Like today. Now, I was getting worried. Per usual, Bubs was back behind the wheel shuttling around Miss Daisy. I swear, he’s already done it a bunch of times– that beeline to Kaiser.

So they dilate my eyes and then begin a series of tests. Puffs of air, reading texts, bright lights, flipping the eyelid. The verdict? One of three possibilities. Best case? Corneal inflammation caused by dryness and irritation from poor eye care. Admittedly, when I travel, I leave the contacts in for the long haul flight. The thing is, when I wear glasses, they give me a headache after ten minutes and plus, I like to see to read signs and watch movies and do shit on the plane. Second case is an eye infection, which can be a real problem for lens wearers. Third possibilities is a parasitic amoeba. OMFG. In cases 2 and 3, permanent eye damage can happen FAST. Great.

Cutting to the chase now, I’ve been on antibiotic eye drops and ointment since last Friday. On Sunday, shit felt worse and I was a little worried bc the cloudiness was not subsiding. The nurse line told me the eye was adjusting to the meds. Stay the course. On Monday, I finally noticed some improvement. I had a check up on Tuesday. No scarring or permanent damage, so it looks like I was just Case 1. Thank the lord, baby Jesus! One of these days, I’m going to outrun this lucky streak.

My vision was totally back as of yesterday. I am wearing my glasses, so putting up with headaches, but it’s fine. I’m just glad to have my vision back. I mean, you know me: I was already planning out how to get ahold of a guide dog!

In other health news, the spironolactone for my acne isn’t doing squat. Yeah, in the last week, I’ve gone to the hospital three times. My doc wanted a bp check and blood work before upping my dose. Everything checked out ok, so fingers crossed this shit is going to work some magic. Incidentally, the spiro path was triggered (and I’m sure the docs are gonna love this) by a hair blogger I follow, who had really bad cystic acne. Her final solution after trying EVERYTHING, was new skin products, supplements, and 200 mg of spiro. My doc is only keen on upping me to 50 mg, so I just hope that’s enough. I’m sure it’s super annoying to have your patients come in and self-diagnose. I try to be as respectful and pleasant to my docs as possible. I’m not insisting on anything, just sharing what I read and asking how they think I should proceed. Fortunately, my primary care is amenable. Blood/BP check in two weeks to make sure body is handling it ok. After all, you never know with this body of mine!