I think it's called inabilitytostopitis....

No.  I don't really have an illness.  I think I'm simply afflicted with something all people who are even slightly creative suffer from.  We are irresistibly drawn to colorful things.  Doesn't matter if it's fabric, glass, whatever.  You name it we just have to have every color that exists of it!!

So that's how this got started......

Sadly, that IS my collection of scrub hats.  I started making them because I really couldn't afford to buy every single one that caught my eye.  I figured since I was pretty handy with a sewing machine maybe I could figure out how to make my own.  I won't even tell you how many hats now reside in drawers in my sewing room.

Uh huh.  I don't have a problem....not at all!!

The little things....

This semester I am finding myself with a little bit of time on my hands.  This is such a luxury at times I just don't even know what to do with myself!  Besides trying to find my creative muse again I've been trying to catch up with old friends and it's been such a blast to see everyone but most especially my most favourite little girl - the cheeser.

She's growing up WAY too fast and all it does is serves to remind me of the passing of time.  Still, it's such a wonderful thing - having the pleasure of watching her grow up.  I'm honored to be Auntie Yee :D

I'm hoping that I'll get to spend more time with family and friends this year as well as getting back to some more creative endeavors.  Speaking of which....last night the girls and I went to Crooks Corner in Chapel Hill.  If you've never been you've got to go.  'Nuf said.

Procrastinating.....

because I'm so good at it :)  But really I need a brain-break from studying.  I've been at it non-stop (it seems) and I can't stop until the last final on Wednesday.  The great news is that my last final for this semester is on Wednesday!!!  Other than that.....well, I wish I had more fun stuff to tell you.

Let's see.  The beads I showed you in my last post sold so I had to say goodbye...it was sad :( That just means I'll have to get to making some more!  I've been feeling a little bit like a "dealer" lately. Lots of purple powder has been getting measured and shipped out. If you're looking for Zimmermann Z-99 Purple Rose powder you'd better mosey on over to the Etsy store before it's all gone.  Don't I only wish I could reproduce this "lampworker's gold".

Allergies are finally subsiding a little so I can breathe.  This is a good thing.

Looking forward to starting clinicals in a few weeks (could also say I'm slightly nervous about the whole thing!) I probably won't be around much but will definitely try to keep you updated. I keep thinking it would be super cool to tell you about all the stuff I'm doing at school but I worry about all those privacy issues so I think it better to keep it simple.

So that's my blah update for the day.  Weather is beautiful. Stuck inside. Maybe I'll try to escape the house a little later on this afternoon :)

Hope you're having a great one!!

ps.  Here's a pic just for fun.  You know I'd go into severe OCD induced shock if I had to deal with this on a daily basis!

@DH's workplace!  How do you find anything???

All sorts of good things.....

1. My last post contained sad news about my friends S and J but in a miraculous turn of events they did get the baby and everyone's just thrilled that Baby K will be coming to Raleigh soon so we can all meet her :)

2. The semester is almost over (3 weeks to go!) and I will able to say I survived my first semester of grad school!!

3.  DH switched to a new group at work and is all happy, smiley again.  Woohoooo!!

4. DH got a certification that he had been working on and I'm so totally proud of him for putting his nose to the books and getting it done.  Some nights he was studying more than I was!

5.  The weather is warming up and everything is in full bloom.  I love this time of year.

6. Made some super sweet beads which, when the time comes, I don't know if I'll be able to part with.

Hope life is treating you well!

Keeping it all in perspective.....

Hey everyone!  I'm still here.  Another month has passed since I last wrote and I thought I'd finally sit down to put my scattered thoughts into words.  Many times in the last few weeks I wanted to blog out my frustrations.  There are have been so many things I've wanted to vent about but thought it prudent to keep things on the DL. 

The events of the last few days have motivated to me to write this post.  My friends, S and J, recently had a devastating thing happen.  The short of it is......they were matched with a birth mother and were totally ready to welcome a baby girl into their home when the mom changed her mind after giving birth and decided to keep the baby.  I can't even imagine what this feels like.  I have no words and the standard platitudes are just that.....platitudes.  Whenever I think about this I want to cry so I imagine it must be 100x harder for the two of them.

Which just makes me realize....no matter what I have going on that I may want to vent about....my issues are trivial.  When I was working I would be reminded on a daily basis of how unfair and sucky things could be and it really helped me keep things in perspective.  Now that I'm away from it I find myself losing perspective more easily and I don't like it.

Today I am thankful for so many things:

• the most wonderful, supportive, and loving husband
• friends and family who listen and help keep me grounded
• good health
• all the opportunities that have been given to me

 I hope that you are having a good day wherever you are and thank you for reading this blog. Each and every one of you mean a lot to me.

On the cusp of a new year.....

I'm sure I'm not the first to say.....My goodness! This year has just FLOWN by!  At the start of every year I find myself wondering if it's ever going to get going.  Then, before you know it, the summer is over and all of a sudden it's Christmas and a new year is just around the corner.  Then I find myself wondering....where on earth did the year go and what the heck did I do all year???

The highlights of this year include:

Kev not killing himself falling off his bike.  Don't know if you recall that one but he knocked himself unconscious and was transported to Big Duke. Didn't know his name. Talking out of his head. Major concussion.  For a while there I thought maybe I wouldn't ever get my Kev back.  Thankfully he's back to his same silly self with no seeming lingering effects of the accident.

I freaking got into Duke for grad school!!!  YEAH!!!  Please remind me that this was a highlight of my year when I get on here in the coming months and moan and gripe about how school is sucking the life out of me :D

I found some additional creative outlets - incorporating metals and whatnot into my repertoire.  Keep checking back.  I've got some fun stuff planned :)

Thank you everyone for being a part of my life this past year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

Scattered....

Haven't updated in a while.  Kind of been all over the place. Wrapping up work. Trying to get all of my life-support courses renewed so I won't have to do it until close to the end of school.

They're working on the house (siding and windows).  Those of you in-the-know know that this has been a rather extended project and, while we're getting closer to being done, it isn't moving along a quickly as I had hoped.  I think the plan is to have all of the house wrapped up by the end of the week next week. 

My last day of work is Monday.  Haven't quite figured out how I feel about that.  Wednesday I'm officially switching status from worker to student.  Wish me luck as I have to travel to Buffalo to cross the border to get paperwork done. Given the ridiculous amount of snow that's been coming down up there I'm wondering whether I'll actually make it there and back on Wednesday as planned.

In the meantime I haven't really been at the torch but did manage to work on my first ever spinner ring as well as a couple of mini cab rings to go with the stacking bands.

That's all I've got.  Well, actually there's something else in the works but I'll update you on that once it's a done deal :)

Hope you're staying warm wherever you are.  It's kind of freezing here in NC which is very, VERY, unusual!

Flu shot....should you or shouldn't you?

I never used to get the flu shot.  Up until last year I had never gotten the flu shot.  That is.....until I worked with my first patient who had H1N1 who was deathly ill.  This was a young, previously healthy individual with no significant medical history who, all of a sudden, was struck down by this crazy flu strain.  It didn't take much to convince me to get the flu shot after that.  Last year it seemed like everywhere I looked someone was really, really sick after getting H1N1. Mind you, I do work in a critical care setting so it would be normal for me to see really sick people but the number of illnesses attributed to the flu were distinctly out of proportion compared to the norm.

So, this year, the minute flu shots were offered I got mine.  That was 4 days ago.  I am officially sick.  I guess it's a small price to pay to protect against possible greater illness but this really sucks. My sinuses are clogged. My eardrums feel like they're about to burst and I'm sure my patients will be thrilled that I'm coughing and hacking all over them at work tomorrow.

Nevermind that this week is the one week where I'm scheduled to work 5 days in a row and that my mother is arriving next Saturday and I have no energy to do anything other than veg in front of my computer and blog about how yucky I feel.

It's going to be a splendid week.  Yeah.

Best of intentions...

You know what they say about the best of intentions....like I always intend to update this blog on a regular basis but it winds up never happening because I just have too much other stuff going on. Also, I don't have that much to say on a regular basis and I'm sure you have no desire to read about the goings-on in my daily, hum-drum life!

I did want to come on here today to just post a quick note about an incident that happened to TheDude earlier this week and some lessons that I've learned and would like to pass on as a consequence of the incident.

On Tuesday afternoon TheDude went for a bicycle ride. He does a loop that is about 10miles long and is mostly on a trail with very minimal road time and when he is on a road section he stays on the sidewalks. Long story very short....he wound up in the hospital with a pretty bad head injury - loss of consciousness, amnesia, and a multitude of scrapes and cuts - some of which required suturing.  Luckily he eventually regained consciousness and was able to tell them his name (which he did not know on arrival to the hospital!) and where he lived.  That is how the cops found their way to my front door.

Lesson 1: Always wear your helmet.  I hate to even think how much worse his injuries could have been had he not been wearing his helmet

Lesson 2: Always carry ID with you even if you're only stepping out for a minute. He did not have any ID on him and I don't know how they would have found me had he not remembered his address.

Lesson 3: If at all possible try to go out with a friend. Just about everything is safer when you've got someone with you.

Lesson 4: If you should ever see someone in need of assistance - no matter the circumstance - please do not simply turn a blind eye and drive on.  I am so thankful that the people who found Kev were not the type to just turn a blind eye so....C.S. and no-name bicycle guy..... I'm thanking you from the bottom of my heart!

A big shout out to the Apex EMS and the folks at DUMC who took care of my hubster. Even though he doesn't remember any of you or any of the events leading up to his hospitalization I know he is truly grateful for everything you did for him.

Exercise in frustration....

I've been holding off venting to the world but this morning I feel like this:

I feel like I may need to exercise some primal scream therapy or something.  For the most part I'm pretty level-headed.  Until something really irks me and then I have been known to say some not so nice things under my breath.

I have been taking a course at the local community college.  Believe me...it's no institution of higher learning.  Still, I'm invested in this course, learning as much as possible, getting the best grade possible.  If I'm foiled in my quest because the person teaching the course is a butthead who has no idea how to teach and the reason I get a poor grade is not because I dropped the ball I'm going to be (I already am!) a seriously unhappy camper.

I find it highly inappropriate that we should be teaching ourselves the course material.  Not only that but when did you ever have essay questions as your whole science exam (won't say which science)?  I mean, 10 essay questions in 1 hour???  And then you tell me that the reason your taking points is not because the answer I gave wasn't right but because you didn't like how I answered the question?????

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!

I WANT TO HIT SOMETHING!!!!

The perfect cereal?

I've been meaning to talk about my current, all-time favorite cereal for a while now. I know, I know. It's such a personal thing and what I like may not be what you like. However, I thought I'd throw this out there for all of you who may have seen this particular item in the cereal aisle of your grocery store and thought about it but never bought it.

Yes. I could eat this cereal day and night. Why? It's just everything I want in a bowl of cereal-y goodness. First, and most importantly, the flakes stay crunchy forever! You could leave the bowl sitting while sitting down to update your blog and when you came back your cereal would still be crunchy good!

It's sweet but not too sweet. Just the right touch to prevent it from being bland. Oh...and the strawberries and raspberries. Swoon. Yes...tons and tons of fruit. So sweet and plentiful. This cereal does not skimp on any of the good stuff and that is why every time I go to the grocery store you'll find me walking out with a box. It's panic time in the house if there isn't a box sitting in the cupboard.

Yes. Don't wait. Go buy a box and see for yourself. You won't regret it. I promise! And no. I have no affiliation with the company. Just an avid eater of this particular cereal :)

Hope you're having a better day where you are. It's cold, slushy, and rainy in this neck of the woods. How un-North Carolina.

Busy weekends...

As if the weekdays weren't busy enough DH and I have resolved to tackle all the remaining tasks around the house in hopes that we'll finally get the place into "visitor" shape. We moved into this house in early 2004 and, up until recently, it looked like we had just moved in last week! In my last post you got to see some pics of the master bathroom. We're a little further ahead now with the toilet installed. We were all ready to install the new sink and cabinet until we realized that we accidentally got the wrong sized leg/brackets for the base unit and so we can't finish the install until the replacement parts arrive. Not bad. 90% complete. It's looking really nice :) Will post final pics when that's all finished.

This weekend we were committed to clearing out the front living room. This space had become a repository for all the crap that had migrated from all the other rooms as we worked on them. The time had finally come to turn it into a real living room. So, we put in a couple of hours of dedicated sorting, throwing, and cleaning and miraculously it looks absolutely fabulous!! Just a little more decorating/organizing and we'll have liveable space.

The other big thing we wanted to get accomplished this weekend was to put down new flooring in our little kitchen. When we first moved in we laid down linoleum tile - which looked great initially. However, after a few years of living it started to look less than nice and I convinced DH that it was time to do something about it. Gotta love sales at the local big box home improvement joints. We found some Pergo on blowout and so that's what we're finishing up as I type. It looks like tile but won't be as fragile or require as much maintenance. Certainly the installation was 10x easier than tile! Overall cost for our little kitchen? $100 in materials and some sweat equity. Pics to come on this too :)

I managed to get some serious beadmaking done late last night. I had some items that needed to go out for an order so I definitely had to get that done. I cranked out a ton of staple items - no off the wall creating going on - but it was nice to light the torch and get the feel of a mandrel spinning in my hands again. Hopefully I'll have more time over the holidays to work on stuff just for fun.

As for work....it's still going well. I'm enjoying the change of pace and just starting to find the groove. Unfortunately I kinda overextended myself for the next 2 weeks so I may be nowhere near the computer for updates until after the dust has settled.

Life is good. I hope you're enjoying your day as much as we are ours!!

Where does the time go?

Checking in quickly and realizing that the last time I wrote anything was the beginning of September. Geeze. Time really does get away from us. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Good in the sense that things progress quickly without incident, bad in that I feel I haven't accomplished anything in the time that has passed.

So...let's see what's new since the last time I posted. Well...big thing is I started a new job - two actually. I finally got rid of the cancer that was my old job and moved on and I have to say that, so far, I'm a much happier person. I work when I want. No nights, weekends, or holidays. I get to work in a bunch of different units so there's no getting into any of the silly politics and whatnot of being in one place. And...I get paid more than I did at my last job. All in all I think things are looking good :)

DH is just cruising along after his surgery in September. Aside from the humongo scar that's left he's back to his old, spunky, self. I am very thankful for his superb surgeon and gastroenterologist. Keeping my fingers crossed that DH stays in remission for...well...the rest of his life.

We started gutting the bathroom just before the last hospitalization and when the time was right afterwards we picked the project back up. I'm hoping for it to be complete by next weekend. We tore up the old tile floor, wallpapered over the old stuff and repainted the walls, laid a new floor and now all that's left is to install some trim, the toilet, and the new bathroom sink/cabinet. I'm really excited. This one is going to look fab! Here are some before and work-in-progress pics.

This is just after we finished busting up the old floor. Don't you just love the wallpaper? Nothing like cabbage roses and navy blue wallpaper to welcome you into a bathroom. It had to go!

Unfortunately, the builders applied the wallpaper directly to the sheetrock (which we knew from another project earlier on) and so it was not an option to remove the paper. Since we didn't want to hang all new sheetrock we took the easy route and just gave the wall a new covering which we painted to match the bedroom.

You can't really tell the color in the next picture
but it's a soft greyish green. Very bathroom appropriate and kinda spa-like. We found some textured wallpaper that they were discontinuing at the local home improvement store and used that to cover the old flowery stuff. The nice thing about textured paper is that it hides all the underlying imperfections. Painting over it then gave us brand-spankin' new walls and I'm super thrilled with the results.

It was my very first time hanging wallpaper and I did it all by myself so I'm giving myself a big pat on the back :)



Here you can see the whole room top to bottom. We need to put new window trim up. You might get a better idea of the room color. We laid new concrete backer board on the floor in preparation for new tile.

Because the subfloor was warped just enough we had to use levelling compound underneath the backer board to make sure there weren't any major dips or bumps. I was not about to lay tile floor to have it crack on me!

So far things are looking good an level and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we evened things out enough that everything will stay intact :)




So here is the almost finished result. We got the walls done and the tile floor is down. We used a prefab patterned tile. It's alternating hexagons with 1" squares in between.

When the bathroom is fully completed I'll take bigger closeups so you can see more of the details. I'm super duper happy at how this is turning out. Mainly because I don't think anything could have been worse than what was there before!

More to come on the bathroom reno in the next little while.

Hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are. The sun is shining here today and I'm going to leave DH to the trim work in the bathroom while I fire up the torch and kiln to see if I've forgotten how to melt glass!

Playing catch-up...

Well, doesn't time fly? Since the last time I wrote there are been tons of new happenings. The one that comes to mind first is that DH wound up back in the hospital. Long story moderately short....he had an abscess that was not fully treated and it wound up doubling in size. Fortunately for him it didn't rupture and they were able to drain it. Unfortunately the consensus was that the time had finally come for him to have surgery to fix the "broken" innards.

I could go on and on about how I think his gastro doc did a shabby job of addressing the initial problem but that would just make me mad and what's done is done. So, instead I'll tell you that DH had surgery today. Right hemicolectomy. Basically they took out part of his large colon and small intestines and stitched the two ends up. My DH, being the unique individual that he is, of course has to have insides that aren't quite the norm and, therefore, the surgeon had a bit of harder time of things than expected. Overall though the end result hopefully should be the same but with a bit more of a scar. Let me just say that I can fully understand how people go broke trying to pay for medical care down here. If we didn't have premium health insurance we'd be crying over the bills right now. Last hospital stay: 4 days = $20,000. I don't even want to guess that this stay will amount to.

Most of my/our time has been spent in the hospital - getting treatment....getting ready for the surgery. I don't think I've worked much in the last few weeks but I've also come to accept that there is more to life than work and family is my top priority right now. However, in between dealing with all the health issues I did find time to consider other options work-wise and will be making some changes in the next few months. Thankfully the healthcare profession is one in which there are always job openings allowing for all sorts of flexibility and mobility.

Not much else to tell about. I did have my 2month post-op eye follow-up. That went well. At one month I was seeing 20/60 in my right eye, 20/30 in my left. Last time I was seeing 20/30 in my right and 20/25 in my left. I'm hoping for more improvement although I can't really complain as, for the first time in as long as I can remember, I can actually see without any visual aids. I think before the surgery I was 20/800 so any improvement is amazing to me!

Haven't found time to do much creatively. Lots of projects got started and then put on the backburner when we found out that DH was going to have surgery. We started gutting the master bath and got halfway done so that's got to be finished at some point. The stairs still need to be done (ongoing project!). Once those things are done it's small finishing touches around the house and then we'll actually be able to have people over. Yay!!!

No beads or otherwise to talk about/show. Maybe in the next week or so.

Hope you're having a good one wherever you are!! Stay healthy and safe :)

Just blah....

I'm at a bit of a crossroads. I find myself having to make a whole bunch of decisions about a whole bunch of different things and I kinda just want to crawl into a hole - or at least under the covers - and not think about anything at all.

I think I'm feeling blah because I haven't been able to do anything creative lately. I haven't been able to torch - not because I've been put on restrictions - because I've placed myself on restrictions. Somehow I think after something as life changing as eye surgery you probably should stay away from lighting up the torch and exposing yourself to flare etc too soon. Of course, without the torch I don't have any beads to play with so can't translate that into anything else.

Does re-doing the bathroom count as something creative? We finally got around to leveling the floor so when that's all dry we'll be able to lay the concrete backer board and get to tiling. I think, if all goes well, we should have the bathroom completed by next weekend (fingers crossed!). Before and after pics to come when project is completed.

Meanwhile, I've been shopping around for a new pair of shoes for work. So far I've found that Crocs (even though they're hideous) seem to work best for me. I'm wanting a pair of the Custom Cloud shoes that I'll be able to throw my orthotics into. Anyone else wear these and have any feedback? I'm waiting to hear back from Crocs as to how to size the shoe appropriately to accommodate my inserts. I hate shipping things back and forth (especially if shipping is on me!) so I'd like to get it right on the first try.

Other than all of that my eyes are doing well. I don't really notice anything odd most of the time. There is still occasional blurriness which I'm convinced is due to dry eyes. I'm terrible when it comes to adequate water consumption on a daily basis! Scheduled for 2 month post op follow-up in a couple of weeks and am hoping for improvement in the right eye from the last visit. Otherwise I'm thrilled with the results and don't regret opting for the procedure at all :)

Lots of things going on behind the scenes. Hopefully I'll be able to tell you all about them when all the loose ends have been tied up.

Hope you're having a great day where ever you are!!

PRK - Week 3 quick update....

Reponding to a comment left re. last post.

It took me years, literally, to even wrap my head around the whole idea of laser eye surgery. The whole fear of being in that miniscule number of people who had adverse outcomes..something I could overcome for a very long time. I don't really know what it was that finally changed my mind. I guess I figured that it wouldn't hurt to just get a consultation to see if I was even a candidate and then I could go from there.

I got an appointment with one of the laser eye centers locally. This was a couple of years ago. Basically they told me that I was not a candidate for LASIK because my corneas were too thin. Instead, they suggested that perhaps I consider lens implants. OK....if I wasn't quite on board with laser eye surgery I certainly wasn't on board with lens implants!! Funny....I remember being totally disappointed that the consultation turned out that way. I guess since I'd finally bitten the bullet and committed to the whole idea I was ready to go!!

So...put that idea on the backburner for a couple of years. Fast forward to this year. After thinking about it I realized that lens implants were probably not that bad....I mean, people get cataract surgery every day and it's an outpatient procedure, right?? Made an appointment with one of the top names in our area and was all set to get a consult for lens implants.

Long story short....even through I wasn't a candidate for LASIK, I was a candidate for PRK. I took about 3 weeks to think about it then just decided that it was now or never. Fortunately so far I fall to the "successful procedure" category. Of course, who knows what will happen down the road. Will there be regression? How long will it take for my vision to stabilize? All I know is that I can see - see better than I can remember - even when I'm having my blurry eye days.

I'm at the start of week post-op week 3 and most days are clear eye days. There are occasional blurry moments - washed away with my endless supply of lubricating eye drops! I fully recognize that it will probably be months before my eyesight fully stabilizes but I have to say that I'm pretty happy with the results so far. My prednisone taper starts today. I'm down to 3 drops per eye per day. At this rate I'm looking at completing my taper sometime in September. Aside from that I'm not on anything else and I figure putting in eyedrops 3 times a day is hardly a chore if the end result is perfectly clear vision.

My PRK surgery - Weeks 1-3

Image by Nicole Johnson (Bivoir)

I wanted to blog about this as a way to keep track of my progress and to share my experiences with laser eye surgery with others out there. I'm about 3 weeks out now and if I could have blogged in actual time I would have but unfortunately that was not the case :)

After an extensive consultation my doc advised that I would not be a good candidate for LASIK but rather PRK. The reason for this is that my corneas were too thin to make the corneal flap required for LASIK. In my case, the corneal epithelium would be removed, the laser part would remain the same, and after that the epithelial cells would have to grow back. I was told that recovery would take longer and that I would most likely experience more discomfort than if I got LASIK. OK....after thinking it over....I was still committed to having it done. I got both eyes done at the same time.

I had my surgery on July 7th. I was premedicated for the procedure with some Valium. Eye prep was done and then I rested in a darkened room for a while before they took me to the OR. In the OR I lay on the table where they positioned the equipment over my face. I remember lots of very bright lights. The first part of the procedure involved removing the corneal surface cells. I don't know what the exact steps involved were but I do know that at one point they applied pressure to my eye and everything went dark for about 40 seconds. I could hear the nurse counting down. Then, vision reappeared and the doc did a lot os sweeping and flushing of my eye. After that prep was complete I was told to focus on the green lights flashing overhead. The laser fired up. I could smell it. I think that freaked me out more than anything else. It took about 30 seconds and it was over. My eye was flushed out with cold solution and all of a sudden I could see with perfect clarity. Same procedure to second eye. Bandage contacts were applied and I was good to go. I think I was in the OR for a total of maybe 20mins. Actual operating time maybe 10 mins.

Kev drove me home (no driving after taking Valium) and I basically kept my eyes closed the whole time even though I was wearing the ever so stylish huge wraparound sunglasses :) Didn't do much for the rest of the day but rest. Had moments of clear vision that was encouraging. I'm convinced I made the right decision.

Went back the next day for a quick followup. Was reading 20/30 or so. I'm thinking this is totally the reason why I finally decided to do this. For the rest of the week I'm diligent with my eyedrops just waiting for the bandage contacts to be removed. I remember I felt like i had to use tons and tons of hydrating drops. Towards the end of the week I was able to finally focus on things closeup. With my pupils being hugely dilated I really couldn't do that earlier in the week.

Monday the 13th I had my second followup. This time my vision sucked and I could barely read the eyechart. I remember feeling totally disheartened although the folks assured me this was normal and that I could expect my vision to get worse after removal of the bandage lenses before they would get better. I went home after the visit and I felt like I was back to day 1 all over again.

Went back to work on the 16th. Although my global vision was fine I was definitely experiencing blurred vision and had a terrible time working on the computer. Don't know how I made it through that day. Same thing the next day.

I'm now at the end of week 3. I'm still using Prednisone eye drops 4 times a day. Will be starting to taper next week but it only drops 1 drop every 2 weeks so I'll be on for another month or so. I have my 1 month followup on August 3rd. My vision, when it is clear, is amazing and gives me hope for when it finally stabilizes. I've been told that this could take several months. I'm getting to the point where I have more moments of clarity than blurriness. My eyes get fatigued pretty easily. I'm just trying to take things easy and not doing eye-intensive stuff (like staring at the computer screen too much!!!). I don't have to use the lubricating drops as much these days.

Best moments?? Waking up on the day after the surgery and being able to see the numbers on the clock on my bedside table! Watching TV the other day and realizing that I could clearly read the ticker scrolling across the bottom of the screen!!

All in all it was totally worth it to me. I sometimes get frustrated with the fluctuating vision but I was told to expect this. I guess I just didn't realize how much it was going to fluctuated. Still, I know the end result will be worth it. Would I recommend it? Definitely!! Just make sure to pick a reputable facility and get recommendations on the doctor. I wouldn't shop around for a bargain with this particular procedure :)

It's been a while....

Goodness....I didn't even realize it had been close to a month since I last updated. There's been a ton of stuff that's taken place since I last wrote I don't really even know where to start.

Let's see....well, the situation at work never really got fully resolved but I've managed to wrap my brain around things and have come up with a game plan that will work for me. I'm still waiting to find out whether or not I got an interview for the grad program I applied to. I hope to find something out in the next couple of weeks!! Once that's done I'll have a better idea of what the next step of my plan will be.

Other than that I've spent quite a bit of time getting to know my torch again. I've made a ton of beads and been working on getting my website updated. I'd love it if you'd take a gander over there and let me know what you think of the small updates (a little shopping wouldn't be bad either!) :)

The biggest news is that I finally bit the bullet and got laser eye surgery done. I was all psyched to get it done in early June but couldn't get a date that would work with my work schedule so I worked my July schedule around my surgery date and now that's come and gone. I underwent the laser this past Tuesday and am happy to report that recovery is going well. I think I was prepared for the recovery to be much more than what it turned out to be so overall I'm very happy with the way things are going. I had a follow-up on the day after the surgery and I think I was reading around 20/20 which is AMAZING considering that I could barely even make out the numbers on my bedside clock prior to the surgery!! Vision is still blurry due to the fact that my pupils are still grossly dilated. I expect for this to wear off in the next few days. I don't have as much light sensitivity as I did earlier on in the week so that's good. I can't wait for everything to stabilize and for the fuzziness to dissipate. I have to say that this is such a fantastic feeling...to be able to see without contacts or glasses. I was scared spitless at the moment of the actual laser firing but am loving the results!!

Bad news is that DH is not feeling well so we're working on getting him better this weekend. Some IV antibiotics and a short stay at the hospital are going a long way to convincing him that it's not a good idea to just go on and off his maintenance meds as he feels fit. Yeah....I've spent more time trying to convince him of that but it takes something like this to really hammer it home. So....hopefully we'll be home by the start of the week and no surgical intervention will be required. We're the walking wounded....he was supposed to be taking care of me after my surgery but as it turns out I have to take care of him in my not fully recovered state. In sickness and in health......

Well that's all I've got for now. Hope to keep updating more often!

Deep cleansing breaths.....

The hoopla seems to have died down for a bit. I think that's more me burying my head in the sand and choosing to try to ignore the situation while trying to come up with an alternate plan. At least I don't feel the urge to cry every time I think about "it". I've also overcome the urge to commit some kind of bodily harm around certain people :)

In the meantime I got the GRE over with. Took it last Thursday. Did OK. Could have been better but was decent. Now there's nothing left to do but wait. My application for the program is completed and submitted. I only need the GRE scores to be reported directly to the school and then it's all wrapped up. Now we play the waiting game. Have to admit...was never really good at that.

Also got busy and finally committed to getting laser eye surgery done. I have a date scheduled and it's coming up fast! Have to make a note to remind myself to stay out of my contacts at least 2 weeks prior to day of surgery. So excited but also scared spitless!

In the meantime with no more studying to do (yay!!!) I have all of this extra time on my hands and I've committed to getting back to the torch. In the spirit of trying to find my glass mojo I prevailed on hubby to help by making more space in my miniscule studio. This is what we came up with:

We built an "arm" onto the left side of the workspace. Underneath you'll see some plastic storage bins which hold all the stuff that used to be in the dental tools cabinet that inhabited that space. I'm planning to get more plastic bins for the PMC stuff I have stashed underneath the table on the right where you can't see it.

Here's a pic of the old dentist's tool cabinet in that space. I think getting rid of it opens up the space up a lot and also makes for additional table space which is super useful! We also added the pegboard to the wall where many of my tools have now taken up residence. I think this is great and makes everything really easy to find. I'm particularly fond of the blue rod holder thingy on the leftmost side. I think it was intended as a paper towel holder but I've decided that it will hold all my reels of silver. I'm sure that over time the pegboard will fill up with more stuff. For now I'm super thrilled with my added workspace and storage! Have I mentioned how much my hubby kicks butt???

Today I sat down for a few hours and made big hole beads. Some just for fun. Some for a bead exchange. Some may be for sale. It was really nice to have a day with nothing hanging over my head to just sit and mess around. The beads are cooking in the kiln right now but I'll be sure to take a pic when they're done . This is the first step in regaining my glass mojo :)

Hope you're having a great one wherever you are!

Primal Scream......part 2....

So....you could call this a continuation of my previous post. Let's just say that these days I have a ton of venting to do and, unfortunately, all of you reading are going to wind up being my audience.

This week was a very bad week. It's all tied in to what happened last week (last time I blogged). Related to the same incident. I can't give out details just in case I get outed but let me say that I discovered things about people I kind of suspected but never wanted to believe to be completely true and that those things turned out to be even worse than I could have ever imagined.

In one fell swoop I had the carpet pulled out from underneath me and I'm still reeling from the shock. Whereas before I was contemplating a possible change in my work situation I am now 100% convinced that a change is needed. QUICKLY!!!

I'm proud that I didn't do what I wanted to do which is quit on the spot. At least I've grown up enough to know that probably wasn't the best thing to do. However, I am taking this time to come up with an alternative and if that doesn't get figured out next week I'm quitting regardless. It's truly for my own sanity. You wouldn't believe me even if I told you. I'm emotionally drained. It's been a struggle to get through this week and I'm mentally worn out. For the first time in forever I keep wanting to lay down and sleep....and not get up. Like yesterday...I got out of work early because of a low census...came home and fell asleep at 6pm. Today we went out for a short while in the afternoon and when we got home I lay down on the sofa and fell asleep for a couple of hours. I'm lethargic and have no motivation. I feel hollow. This is so unlike me. I'm afraid I won't snap out of this funk in time. I take the GRE next week and at this point I just don't care which is really, REALLY bad!!

Think happy thoughts for me.