Pink Eye and Post-Holiday Thoughts

Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. I know, I've barely touched my blog for quite some time. I had pink eye for almost two weeks (Yes, two weeks! Unheard of!), and the flu accompanied it for a week. I spent my Christmas shivering and weak, with my eyes watering constantly. It was like trying to see underwater, that's how bad it was. I've had pink eye at least twice before, but it's never been that bad or lasted that long.

I went to the doctor on December 23rd, and saw Dr. Singleton, not my usual doctor. She prescribed these drops that stung when I put them in. I put them in every two or three hours, and used just about the entire bottle before seeing my primary physician, Dr. Butler. I showed him the medicine I was prescribed, and he chucked it into the garbage can. He gave me an ointment that made my eyes all blurry, but after four or five days of that, the infection was gone. It's called Erythromycin Ophthalmic Ointment, and my doctor told me that it would stay in my eye for several hours, rather than just 10 minutes like the drops.

Until then, my eyes would water whenever I looked at the computer screen or the TV. I was barely online at all. I did go on Facebook for a few minutes a day, but often it would result in my eyes getting all irritated for the next few hours.

This is why my lapse in blogs, comments, emails, etc. I humbly apologize.

As far as Christmas, it went well otherwise. The kids had a LOT more presents than last year. I'm not sure how that happened, but they sure didn't mind. I mentioned in a previous post that I had sent Christmas cards with family photos out to my family, all of which (besides my grandmother) had never seen me with this hair, make-up, etc. Here's the photo:

I heard nothing back from my parents, brother, sister, or anyone on my mother's side of the family. My uncle (my dad's brother) and his wife did send a card, but wrote nothing inside other than, "Dear Amy and family." I was told by my grandmother that the two of them had no problem with me, but it was nice to get a card from them anyway.

New Years Eve was fine. Nikki and I aren't much for going out and getting liquored up and partying, so we stayed home and watched the remake of Star Trek. It was very clever how they respected the old fans while reinventing the entire cast. Afterwards, I switched the channel and caught the last three seconds (really!) of the ball falling. 3...2...1... Kissi for Nikki!  ;)

Those are all my thoughts for now. I hope to keep on top of this blog again, though I found myself struggling to begin writing this entry. Once I get started, however, I'm usually fine. I often get seasonal depression in the winter, and there are other stressors as well. I'm fighting it though, and trying to do things that I enjoy and maintain a positive mode of thinking. I haven't gone too far past the "blah" stage so far. So far, so good.

I was going to send a couple people out there ecards for the holidays. Because of my illnesses, I never got to do that. I'm sorry, but I'll wish them (and anyone else reading this) a safe and Happy New Year!  :)