Eighth stop = Fairfield with the Greens for a week.
quality time with one of my fave kids + his momma, jen.
ahhhh.....nap-times galore.
ahhhh.....nap-times galore.
My two fave Jack quotables:
(in a demanding tone) "mommy, amuse me."
(in a sad tone) "kassar, carry me."
Baby Jimmy @ Jen's PlayGroup BBQ
My friend, Shannon, had twins and this little one looks just like her dad (Jimmy).
Having only met them through f.book, I was stoked to get my hands on their cutie-patootie faces.
Lots of crafting for Becca's wedding
Allergies
It was this week that I suffered from the worst allergies I've ever experienced...ever. Sniffling, sneezing, coughing, itching, horrible eye irritation (feeling completely different from bacterial conjunctivitis aka pinkeye). Luckily, I had a slew of allergy medication with me; unluckily, nothing seemed to bring any semblance of relief. People kept asking if I had been crying, my face was sore from being unaccustomed to so many hours of glasses wear, and I was so fatigued. What was supposed to be a week full of photo taking and exploration with Jen ended up being a week of nightly cold compresses and early bedtimes. Blah.
The worst was the night before Becca's wedding, the night before I was supposed to get to see a large grouping of my CA friends. I had gone to bed super early, leaving Jen+family to catch up on their Survivor/StarTrek shows, and had fallen asleep quickly...only to be woken up by severe eye itching and extreme eye pain. For some reason, I felt compelled to turn on the light and grab a mirror...the pain was pretty intense and my vision felt a little cloudy. To my absolute shock and disgust and fright, the surface of my eyeball skin had BLOWN UP and parts of it were OUTSIDE OF MY EYELIDS. Ya, that's right....OUTSIDE OF MY EYELIDS.
BUBBLES ON BOTH EYEBALLS.
COMING OUT OF MY EYELIDS.
It sent me into immediate panic as I sat on my bed, trying to not cry*, and contemplating the desire to run down the hall to Jen/Pete or to call the 911-eyeball-hotline. Jen had bridesmaid duties beginning a few hours later and because it was a Friday/workday, I had babysitting duties while her husband went to work/gym/etc. Needless to say, I was looking forward to my one-on-one time with Jack and wanted to be a reliable resource for my friends. This eyeball situation was in no way ideal and the timing was horrible. *I knew crying would have created further edema.
Instead, I took several deep breaths, checked to see that they weren't bleeding, and decided to painfully google solutions to "eyeballs coming out of their sockets" and "blisters on the surface of the eye". There wasn't a huge sensitivity to light so if I tried to ignore the pain of blinking, I was able to look at my laptop. It was a path of least resistance as I knew we had a hugely long day (becca's wedding) the next day. Why I didn't think to call my father-in-law physician in the middle of the night, I do not know. Instead, I piled on some meds and cold compresses, hoping a few hours of sleep would just make it go away.
The next morning, I was relieved to see the blisters had reduced in size significantly (they at least back inside my eyelids) and while they were still a little painful, it was definitely manageable. My vision was back to normal and I actually felt symptom-free other than the eyeballs (no other allergy symptoms). Jack and I took a morning drive to Sonoma to drop Jen off and we made our way back to their home to hang out before the evening babysitter came over. I waited until the last second to put in my contacts and managed to happily get through the wedding festivities....phew!
Once I was back in Hanover four days later (Tuesday), I was able to receive an in-person consult with aforementioned father-in-law (ahem...allergist...hehe) and identify what had happened.
Prepared to get grossed out by photos of Vernal or Allergic Conjunctivitis (non-contagious):
Some "cobblestone" blistering.
Here's a nice lady's blog....similar thing happened to her.
Does this look human to you? Hmm...might be a dog?
Google image: Vernal Conjunctivitis
I have a solid game plan in place for when/if it ever happens again and am taking precautionary measures to not let my allergies get to this point again. Eeep!!
Denial was a safer place for my brain to be than facing reality of EYEBALL BLISTERS.
The next morning, I was relieved to see the blisters had reduced in size significantly (they at least back inside my eyelids) and while they were still a little painful, it was definitely manageable. My vision was back to normal and I actually felt symptom-free other than the eyeballs (no other allergy symptoms). Jack and I took a morning drive to Sonoma to drop Jen off and we made our way back to their home to hang out before the evening babysitter came over. I waited until the last second to put in my contacts and managed to happily get through the wedding festivities....phew!
Once I was back in Hanover four days later (Tuesday), I was able to receive an in-person consult with aforementioned father-in-law (ahem...allergist...hehe) and identify what had happened.
Prepared to get grossed out by photos of Vernal or Allergic Conjunctivitis (non-contagious):
Some "cobblestone" blistering.
Here's a nice lady's blog....similar thing happened to her.
Does this look human to you? Hmm...might be a dog?
Google image: Vernal Conjunctivitis
I have a solid game plan in place for when/if it ever happens again and am taking precautionary measures to not let my allergies get to this point again. Eeep!!
Up next: last day in CA with Tara...
