When you just keep writing…

…because you said you’d do it 31 days in a row. That’s where I am.

About 3 weeks ago, I got something in my eye. Dust, maybe. Later that day I noticed that the side of my face was swelling, in particular the lymph node right by my ear. So I made an appointment to see the doctor the next day. She saw some debris, rinsed and prescribed an antibiotic to be extra careful. By Sunday I was in terrible pain and skipped church to go to urgent care where I was diagnosed with cellulitis. More drugs and more eye drops.

The next day the swelling still wasn’t down, so I called the eye doctor and went in. Pink eye! Of course. How strange. No one else had gotten it, and it hadn’t spread to my other eye. But, okay. Stronger antibiotic and steroid.

Tuesday, I woke up around 4 am with terrible stabbing pain in my eye. It would water just from the pain. The effort to see sent me into more spasms of pain. I waited until 8 to text my eye doc (he’s a great guy) and he texted me right back–Shingles. I’m calling in more medicine for you. Call me and let me know how you are doing.

Whew. Shingles. But there was no rash! None at all. I got the drugs…but by Wednesday the entire side of my face and throat were swelling. Back to my primary, where he absolutely agreed. “Wow, shingles. No rash. This is bad.”

Right away he sent me to an ENT across town because, in addition to screwing up your eyesight, shingles in your ear/lymph area messes with hearing and balance. By the time I drove back home that night I could barely see due to the pain, and was terribly dizzy. One-eyed + dizzy = stupid driving. I quit driving for five days.

So that was the first week. Two weeks and many, many more doctor visits later I’ve regained about 80% of my eyesight in that eye (at one point I couldn’t even see the top letter on the eye chart!) and the dizziness has receded a lot as well. I have to say I have gotten great care from my three doctors. But I’m just so tired and headache-y.

And frustrated. Yesterday I rode my sweet horse Finn for the first time in three weeks. That is a looooong time off for this old girl, and for that young hot-shot thoroughbred, too. He was a rock star, so sweet and attentive. Apparently he missed me. So I was feeling pretty great today as I decided to fit in a Pilates class.

I almost passed out. Before this shingles episode I rode four days a week, walked three miles a day (most days) and did Pilates two days a week. Active. I couldn’t make it through the whole hour today, and I was completely worthless the rest of the day. Cold sweat, light-headed…It took me 90 minutes to recover enough to eat lunch! And then I needed a nap and had no focus this afternoon.

So I’m sitting here wanting to write about lovely things and instead I sound like a whiny old lady going on about her ailments. I know I just have to be patient. But there is a joke in our house. I never, ever pray for patience, because the Lord doesn’t just give it to you. He teaches you. And that is one lesson I just am not interested in learning.

Prayers and good thoughts sent my way would be greatly welcome! I’m so ready to be free of this stupid virus. Back to more fun things tomorrow!