HOT! and eyes are better-- yeah

I am pleased as punch to say—my eyes are about a 1000 times better today- I am still having to put the drops in really frequently until tomorrow—but they only hurt a moderate amount now. I am very grateful for the prayers of my friends and the good care from Dr’s. (Well three dr.s if you count the one at work and my cousin).

I am trying to get started on an album for (someone I can’t say in case she sees it) for Christmas. I have printed about 300 or more pics at WM and ordered some more last night. Anyway, since there are sooooo many pictures of many different activities and people and places I am going to do the whole album in probably black background (although I thought of white too) and limit the colors to 3-4 so to keep the album sorta together. Well that and if I am only working with a limited color palate that ought to make it easier to work on too.

I cannot believe the heat we are having... ET usually is not this hot- the record for today was 100. I just looked out the porch window and the thermometer out there says 100.9 it is too hot to breathe outside, and schools are closing because of the heat so the kids are not in danger. I think there is a quote about “mad dogs and Englishmen” that is related to the heat and it being too hot to go outside in the heat. Not that 100.9 isn’t bad enough but we have humidity to deal with also—course it is not toooo humid because it is so hot.

eyes again-- big old baby whine!

k-- Deep breath-- here is today’s news on the eyeballs. OK -- so Monday night my eyes were painful- but I put that down to the "trauma" of the procedures that were done. Tuesday-- my eyes were pretty painful and red and blinking was getting worse since that hurt. By last night, they were really getting worse. This morning when I got up they were so matted together I couldn't’ get them open at all-- even with my fingers- until I had put on hot compresses and really worked with them. Yep it was pretty nasty. By the time I got to work, I knew there was something really wrong-- I could barely open my eyes, my lids were swollen really badly and the sclera (white part) was this nice pink-to-red color and I looked like I had been on a weekend bender. I left my sunglasses on because they were so nasty looking. Anyway by lunchtime I was near tears (no pun intended) because of the pain-- and nothing I was doing was making them any better, plus because of the swelling my vision was getting bad. So I started calling around to see if I could find ANYONE Dr. wise that could see me today. I ended up right back with the Dr I had seen on Monday.

Anyway, by the time I got there my eyes were even worse if that is possible. She walked in and looked at me and said "Those are some seriously sad looking eyes." Sooo now that I have said all of that, this is what happened-- -well she doesn’t know for sure . She removed the punctal plugs she put in on Monday in case it was an allergic reaction (bet it wasn’t because the other one had been in for 4 years) but she took both of them out (yes Major ouchie). I had no sign of infection in my eyes on Monday --although she did tell me that I have the driest eyes she has ever seen in her 19 years of practice.-- today I have a rip-roaring raging infection in both of my eyes. No idea how or why this happened. I have to throw out all the medicine I bought Monday (just in case it is contaminated by the "virus" or I am allergic to it) :-( start another boatload of medicine eye drops. One of which is the newest, greatest, best, strongest antibiotic drop for eyes, a steroid drop, and another kind of moisture drop. If I am not WAAAY better by tomorrow, I am to go back -- I am off work at least until Friday (perfect time to scrap if I could see). And I am to see her on Friday morning if I am better. Her words not mine-- "Very very contagious viral or bacterial infection" so here I sit with washcloth over my eyes, putting in one drop or the other about every 15 minutes.

I know this is getting long -- and I hate to gripe-- but here is the even better part.... Since I have a lot of seemingly unrelated symptoms and not only with my eyes now they are probably going to do a auto immune system work up on me for possibly something causing this --- according to the Dr at work and the eye Dr it is pretty amazing to have a infection of this magnitude develop in less than two days-- that coupled with the previous back-of-the-eyeball infections I have had leads them to think it may be something systemic like Sicca Syndrome (Sicca syndrome: An autoimmune disease, also known as Sjogren syndrome, that classically combines dry eyes, dry mouth, and another disease of connective tissue such as rheumatoid arthritis (most common), lupus, scleroderma or polymyositis.There is a great preponderance of females. About 90% of Sjogren syndrome patients are female, usually in middle age or older.) had to copy that because I can’t spell Sjogren's LOL-- and that definition is me all over the place.

She doesn’t want to do anything about that though until the infection is under control.

Cooking, eggs, and mostly rambling

On Saturday I did a lot of cooking-- which has become fairly rare in the recent months. The occasion was Mark and Nancy's birthdays. Mark and his younger sister share the same birth date. Mark is 5 years older than Nancy though. Anyway we were planning on Mark's sister Lois and her hubby Mark, Granddad (but probably not Lillian because there was a possibility that Nancy was coming) and possibly Nancy coming over for dinner and cake etc.
So I started cooking some of the stuff on Friday night because it was so dang hot and I didn’t want to heat up the kitchen. Mark's request for deviled eggs, potato salad, baked beans, barbeque, chocolate cake and strawberry ice cream.
My first issue was the deviled eggs-- Ok I cooked the eggs and waited on them to cool so I could handle them. While I was peeling the eggs I had some random questions pop into my mind--- ya know how sometimes you boil an egg and it just slips out of the shell as soon as you crack it? And sometimes you cant pay the egg to separate from the dang egg shell and membrane. I wonder what causes that?? Out of 12 eggs I had to fight to get 11 of them out of the shell~~ and when they were out they looked as if they had been nibbled on by a rat or something. I haven't had this problem too much in the past. But, in the recent past this seems to happen every time I hard boil an egg. Wonder what I have done differently?
OK then there was the cake. I have always been a good baker and have not had too many disasters when it comes to baking. I have some great recipes from my Betty Crocker cookbook for simple white, yellow and chocolate cakes and have never ever had a problem with them. This cake I made on Saturday was absolutely gross! I have never made a cake that tasted so bad-- no never. It was beautiful to look at--risen to the top of the pans, smelled good and even the batter tasted good . I must have left something out is the only thing I can figure out…..gosh did I remember the sugar? I thought I did, but that may be what I left out. I don’t think it would have risen as well as it did if I had left out the sugar though. I may have to bake another cake just to see what I left out and to see if I can make it work.
I am having some issues with my eyes that are really kinda worrying me-- they are so sore and painful. And red. I hate having problems. Come to find out Judy, my cousin the OD, had discussed the complexity of my case with my history of infection and dry eye, weird family history etc. with one of her Ophthalmology friends and he said I probably should never have had the LASIK procedure. Course she only found this out after I had my surgery so it is a case of 20/20 hindsight. Anyway she suggested I go to see someone who specializes in corneal problems. I had some corneal scratching and really dry spots. I asked her what the worst case scenario is and she said pain-- probably will not loose my sight unless something unexpected happens. Can we say scared to death here? Oh well if anyone is reading this and feels the urge -- please say a prayer for my eyes

so sad! I cant find my friends

OK-- guess i am a complete doofus-- i can not figure out how to find someone i know is on here grrr

new --

I decided that "my space" didn't allow me to check my spelling and add the pictures of my work very easily so. . . here I am. I have also seen lots of people I know from Scrapbooking that have their blog here.. so since i am a joiner and not a leader --done deal here i am-- i am not a very prolific poster but sometimes i get in the mood and will post a bunch.