Eye Eye Captain

As you are all well aware of by now, we have a new addition to our little family. Sassy is settling in to her new home quite well. She is even learning to walk on a leash without choking herself and wearing out my arm. I must admit that I feel so guilty yanking the leash to pull her back in line. But, I just can't handle walking a completely spastic pooch. I feel so sorry for whatever she went through in her life prior to coming to live here. It's obvious that it's going to take time for her to learn how to be a happy, Sassy dog. But, we will continue to shower her with love and affection, while working on her manners, too.

Speaking of showering her with love and affection...My cousins Ruth and Mark brought their beautiful princess Isabella (my favorite little girl in the world) down on Friday evening to meet Sassy. They came complete with a whole bag full of special goodies for her. She was initially shy and took each toy and ran to her doggie bed, but as soon as she realized how much Ruth and Mark love animals, she opened right up to them and couldn't get enough of their love and attention. She was extremely cautious with Isabella and I am embarrassed to admit that she even showed her teeth at her. But, Matey is not so nice to the princess, either. Perhaps both Matey and Sassy are jealous of how much I adore Isabella. They have nothing to fear, though - I wouldn't give up my two furry babies for the world. It was so nice (to say the least) to spend time with my cousins - time that is precious to me in every way. As I get older, each day my family becomes more and more important to me. Ruth and Mark - Thank you so much for welcoming my new baby to the family...I'm sure she'll bring the whole family many years of joy. And, the next time she sees Isabella, I'm sure they'll become great friends.

Friday morning had brought on great discomfort in my right eye. When I got up early to take the poochie out, I felt this horrible pain in my eye. I immediately removed my contact (to all who don't know, I wear my contacts ALL THE TIME much to the displeasure of my eye doctor. In fact, I usually don't take them out for months at a time - DO NOT try this at home, folks!) So, I wore my glasses throughout the day and had many attacks of shooting pain in my eye accompanied by tears flowing like the Nile River. I had every hope that the pain would be gone Saturday morning so that I could head out on a brief 12-mile recovery run. I woke up Saturday with some pain in the eye, but I thought I could handle it. I took out the dog and then hopped in the car (I had decided to run at the gym due to the threatening storms despite my bad experience last week with 17 miles on the treadmill). As soon as I got to the bottom of the hill, my eyes started to go black and I had a terrible pain in my head. YIKES - I was terrified and had no idea what was going on. I turned around and headed home. I went right to bed and text messaged my friend to call as soon as he woke up "emergency." Somehow, even with my eye about to explode, I drifted back to sleep. Around 8:20 the phone rang - Oh god...the pain got instantaneously worse...I could barely see the phone to see that Ken was calling. Crap - he was in Virginia. Okay, call Marc - no answer. I was now crying hysterically from the stabbing pain in my right eye and I felt like my eye was the size of a soccer ball. I called Mom, but knew it would take her an hour to get to my house and I really wasn't sure I could wait an hour. The stabbing pain had morphed into a hammering pain. As always, Mom came to my rescue. She rushed down to my house - she really is the best Mom ever and I can never thank her enough for everything she does for me. By the time Mom got here, I couldn't open either eye - my eyes had become so sensitive to light that I had to have Mom look up the doc's number on the computer. Looking at the screen was like (here comes my favorite saying) drinking battery acid. Thank goodness the eye doctor was open because I was not looking forward to sitting in the ER for 3 or 4 hours waiting with a bunch of yahoos.

Within two minutes of sitting in the chair the doc knew exactly what was wrong. He gave me the "I told you so" speech and I hung my head low (almost like Sassy does when I yell at her for eating Matey's food). A corneal ulcer dangerously close to my line of sight - a really scary diagnosis. But, the doc dilated my pupils so that I could actually open my eyes without screaming in pain and sent me home with all kinds of antibiotic drops and sticky ointments that I have to put under my eye lid - yes, under my eye lid. Good thing I am not squeamish about putting things in my eye. Mom took me out to lunch, which was actually more painful than enjoyable, despite her wonderful company. I continually covered my eyes and winced as I struggled to keep them open. I spent the rest of the day in the house with all the lights off, which is really boring for me. I NEED to be outside and doing things, but my eye just hurt so bad. I have to admit, the entire day all I could think of, when I wasn't distracted by the hammering in my eye, was that I had missed my run (now, this is what they call OCD). I went to bed early in hopes of waking up completely cured and able to run this morning. Well, I certainly was NOT completely cured, but I was well enough I head out for my twelve miles donning sunglasses and a visor (even though the sun was not even up yet). By the time I got home, the sun had come out and Sassy was itching for a long walk, but I couldn't take the light. I forced her to wait until after lunch, which wasn't any better for me. I tried to stay in the shaded areas, but I still had to squint so badly that I was looking through tiny slits under my visor. A trip to the grocery store this afternoon was not enjoyable - it was so sunny out that my sunglasses did absolutely nothing. Once I got home, I made a point to stay indoors until the sun had dropped. Sassy and I went out for our second walk just at dusk and came home in the dark.

I sit on the bed now (Sassy in her crate and Matey sitting in the doorway staring at her) with disgusting goop in my right eye so that I can really only see out of my left. And, I have learned another lesson...the hard way, which seems to be the only way for me. I now do not take sight for granted as I came very close to permanently ruining my vision in my right eye. And, I am going to try really hard to listen to my doctors when they tell me to do something, or not to do something. All of that medical school must be worth something, right?