I've been battling what I thought was a contact issue since Saturday. Friday I had the annual eye doctor visit and switched to a new brand of lenses in hopes of saving a few dollars. Saturday they were bothering me, immediately my left eye swelled and turned red & got really yucky, for lack of a better word. It progressively got worse until Monday morning I woke up & the entire left side of my face was swollen to the point on not being able to open my eye. I was definitely thankful our great eye doctor had set up to meet me before hours. On my way to see him I started not being able to see color out of my left eye. Thankfully, everything in my eye checked out healthy, but I was on my way to the ER now as something was seriously wrong. On the way to drop the kids off at a friend's house, I started losing feeling in my lips and my hearing was starting to go. I got into the ER and the doctor had no idea what was up and called in a consultation. FYI - doctors looking at you with an 'I-have-no-clue' look on their face, leaves a lump in your throat and a sick feeling in your stomach. A feeling I've never experienced before and don't care to ever revisit again. It was determined I had some sort of allergic reaction - not necessarily to the contacts, but to play it safe I am going to go back to my usual brand of lenses and hope they don't cause the same issue. I've worn contacts going on 15 years and have never had a problem with them. Still have no idea what caused it, but it hasn't even been the full 24-48 hours before the medicine will work and the swelling has gone done significantly and things are getting much better!
Even though this all was just a matter of 4 hours it was a pretty frightening 4 hours. Looking back, with perfect hindsight I see that my faith and trust were just called out and I played about as well as the Steelers did tonight in their 3-20 loss to the 49ers. How many times had I encouraged friends who were facing medical challenges bigger than medical professionals' power; to be strong, courageous, to not lose faith, to trust in God and His plan? Too many times! Not that these things are bad, but I apologize to those who I've shared these unmerited totally empathetic-less encouragements with. I didn't intend to be empathetic, but until you are in that position; you have no idea the emotions & thoughts they are battling. I am so grateful my experience was very short lived; I am sure I'd have not even scored a field goal if it were much of a long term issue. I have a new respect for those who have gracefully fought & won (and even those who have fought with grace & lost) ... living out your faith & trust in God, even in these most physically trying circumstances; speaks volumes.
I am also thankful for an opportunity to realign my perspective. How many times have I bemoaned the mounding laundry, accumulating dishes, crumbs sticking to my socks, pine needles on the ground, rude drivers cutting me off, kids whining & crying, & each and every other little inconvenience I've faced? Too many. I was thankful I could see the grass stains (yes, it's the week of Christmas in Wisconsin & I am washing out grass stains on my boys' pants still ... no snow yet) that needed to be pretreated tonight. I was thankful to be able to see crumbs that needed to be swept. The thought of losing my sight or hearing has really brought a new appreciation to Connor's constant whine and being able to spot a rude driver before rear ending or side swiping them.
As I sat down to watch the Steelers hand over a win tonight I felt like I was living out a Bible story. A big change of pace compared to the House patient I had felt like earlier today! I lived out a modern day Saul to Paul transformation. I am sure there is some medical explanation to what happened, but I was sitting here and my eye itched a little and these little scale like flakes began to come out of my eye. I am now seeing the Christmas tree in full color and although my sight isn't totally back to normal, it is much much better than it was all day today. I could only read the first few lines of the eye chart with my left eye this morning. It was truly a creepy, gross out, but amazing kind of experience.
I am very thankful to be able to see things in a new light, literally & figuritively. Thankful for great family & friends who were praying for me and who went out of their way to help Jacob & I out with the kids. I am really thankful that my shopping & wrapping is done and what is usually a stressful week in the Graf house will be full of fun baking, decorating, and getting ready for fun Christmas celebrations with our family. I know you are all dying to see this, so yes, of course, Jacob snapped a picture ... this was a little after the Benadryl IV drip was started and the swelling had definitely started to go down. I couldn't even open my left eye earler.
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