Weekly Posts

Laura of late August: Yeah, weekly posts! That'll be easy, I've been doing daily posts!

Laura of early October: I feel like I have nothing to write about, and I also don't want to write.

Laura of late October: Medical issues and work abound! No time or mental space for writing!

But I have more faith in Laura of November.

It's true that I took the first two weeks of October kind of "off" and did stuff that didn't really help me long term. I looked at my financial accounts too much. I looked at Reddit too much. I watched YouTube too much. If I learned anything, it was that I was not any happier by overusing those things, and I should probably cut back or quit.

In late October, my annual review was due, and I'd wanted to write how I had learned how to use SQL Server Integration Services. After all, I had started a book in the early summer (that I had purchased in 2014) and I should be able to finish by the time the review needed to be handed in, if I work on it consistently, for two weeks solid.

So, I did. For the last two weeks in October, including the weekends, in between medical appointments (I'll get to that in a bit) and actual work, I finished over 40 lessons in the 24 hour trainer. I also ended up working 12 - 16 hours a day, excluding weekends where I'd only work on SSIS for 2 hours a day, to get all my commitments met. And at the end of the book, and after handing in my review, I didn't feel much like relaxing. I felt like doing more work/constructive hobbies. So I played piano for 20 minutes, then cleaned the kitchen, then started reading a book.

Work also was a helpful distraction, and it's been easy to work overtime when you have to stop in the middle of the day to go to an appointment. After having some severe abdominal pain, I went to the general physician, who sent me to get a CT scan. Apparently, I have a cyst on my left ovary, two kidney stones in my right kidney, but nothing that would explain my current specific pain. 

After several rounds of tests and pictures of my eyes to gauge vision therapy possibilities, they saw that I had a hole in my right retina, which when left untreated, would possibly lead to a tear and retinal dislocation and then blindness. The doctor said "Well, it's not urgent, but I'd like you to see a retinal specialist next week." Gee, that sounds kind of urgent, but sure. That was quite the uncomfortable fix. The doctor holds a thick kind of contact lens covered in goop on my dilated eye. He then shines a bright light at it to see where the hole is so he can laser all around it so it wouldn't further tear.

I can tell you with certainty if LASIK was a possibility, I am NOT going to have it. This felt like getting lightly punched in the eye about 30 times. The first few laser, I don't know, beams, were fine, but after a while it started to hurt. I was more concerned about what I should be feeling - I mean, was it supposed to hurt? Is it hurting because he's lasering a part of my eye he shouldn't? So I started asking, and yes, it's common to have some pain and ache during the procedure, and more for the days after. Once the procedure was done, he removed the lens from my right eye, and I could see nothing out of it. That was an unnerving few seconds. Then vision started to come back, all dark and purple, then blue, then the normal colors I expected, though cloudy. And, I'm still dilated, so I couldn't read anything, either. I just sat in my car for a half hour before I felt comfortable enough to drive home, then immediately went to bed and listen to an audiobook for two hours while I kept my eyes closed. My eye hurt most of the weekend, but got better as time went on. It's now as if nothing happened, so I'm hoping this will be the end of lasering my eyes.

I would also suggest not having a dental appointment the morning after minor eye surgery. I had my orthodontist appointment 16 hours later, and of course the first thing they do is turn on that bright light to see what's going on - so I shut my eyes immediately, and they kindly offered sunglasses which I readily accepted, and kept my eyes shut for most of that appointment along with keeping the sunglasses on. That appointment wasn't easy either, as they needed to remove the Invisalign attachments and put on new ones in different spots. So, the orthodontist ground the attachments off - a few times a little more than necessary, but he's not attached to my nerve endings, I am, and by 10am I felt like I had spent the last 24 hours going for a bunch of bar fights. I was tired, my teeth hurt, my jaw ached, my eyesight wasn't 100% and my right eye felt bruised. But that was about the worst I felt all weekend, and things got better as time progressed.

I now feel absolutely fine, except that I've bitten my lip where the new attachment meets my top teeth, so I will need to be careful about eating for the next two weeks, but that won't be too much of a tall order. I'll just focus on soups and stews and maybe a bit of ice cream.

With all of the doctor's appointments and work meetings, I wasn't able to run last week, and I'm hoping that my schedule won't get any crazier than it is now, as at this point I'll still be able to go for a run three times this week. I'd like to use this WFH time throughout the winter to run during lunch so that I don't have to start in the spring with almost no endurance.

That's been my October, and I hope to get some answers to current open questions in November.