It has been far too long since I last blogged. I figured out that I don't blog when I am really stressed out which explains the sabbatical over the last 2+ months. Eye Herpes. Viruses. Hives. Home Remodeling. New Boss. Company Layoffs - Again. These have been some of the main stresses, but things are back on the upswing now (and not a moment too soon). Abby had some blistering on the outside of her eyelid back in early September at the tail end of terrible virus in which she lost almost 3 lbs in week. The doctor said it was herpetic but it eventually healed. A few months later after another virus, her left eye became red and swollen. The doctor diagnosed her with pink eye, but when the eye drops not only didn't clear it up but it seemed to be getting worse, her pediatrician referred us to a pediatric opthamologist.
I was simply not prepared to listen to Abby scream and scream while the doctor opened her eye to get a good look at what was going on. Abby did not want to cooperate and squeezed her eyes shut so tight that the doctor and nurse combo could not get her eye open. Out came the mini forceps. Not something you want to see anywhere near your child's eye. We laid her down on my lap with my arms wrapped around her legs. The nurse anesthetized her eye, and the doctor clamped the forcep like thing on her eye to keep it wide open. Meanwhile, mom here was sobbing silently and uncontrollably the entire time.
He put a dye in her eye which showed that she had corneal opacity and abrasions on her cornea. Diagnosis changed from pink eye to herpes. Herpes is never a good thing but it extremely dangerous in the eye. We don't know how she got it, but she seems prone to outbreaks when she is extremely run down or otherwise sick. He put her on anti-virals and steroid drops (for the eye inflammation) and asked us to return in one week. I was to give her drops every two hours. I got great help from Abby's daycare and worked at home much of the week so I could keep her home some and go up to daycare regularly to give her drops. It was harried and hectic. Meanwhile, just days before I had contracted with someone to put in wood floors and new kitchen counters. In hindsight, it turned out to be terrible timing. I broke out in the nastiest rash that covered 75% of my body(don't worry, I won't post pictures as there are laws against that kind of thing). And, I had never had one rash in my entire life before, so I guess when I do things, I do them big. This was just plain crazy. I itched and itched, and there were days that I just wanted someone to set my skin on fire. The dermatologist said it was a rash for the medical journals, but he wasn't quite sure what it was. Music to my ears. Not. He prescribed cream that was $75 for 1 oz. Didn't work. Still itched. They took a biopsy a week later after it continued to get worse. Hives. WTF? But, I was so glad it wasn't anything serious. Pathologist determined with 90% probability it was a drug reaction, and sure enough, I had started a new medication weeks before. I believe the stress of the home remodeling and Abby's eye infection were too much to bear for me. I was happy with my contractor overall, however, we did not communicate that well at times (my fault being a novice at this kind of thing). I came home one day to see that the entire contents of my house were in my front and back yard. I walked in to my house, and it looked like a bomb went off inside. My contractor told me it would be dusty to drill up all of the ceramic tile I had in my house to replace the floors, but dusty was an understatement to say the least. It was simply not livable especially since Abby had the eye issues going on. We stayed with friends for a few nights while my contractors finished up, and I took a day off work to clean. All the dust rose to the second level of my house (high ceilings = bad here), and everything I owned that was left inside upstairs was covered in 3 inches of dust. I LOVE my new floors, and my kitchen looks a lot better as well with new counters and back splash. But, I will do things differently next time and not make assumptions that my contractor should know or will know certain things. But, I was so consumed with Abby's eye that minor home improvement issues just didn't seem that important in the scheme of things.
We went back to the eye doctor the week of Thanksgiving, and he said it looked worse. He thought maybe the drops were too toxic and prescribed new medications for her immediately. This time around I was prepared for the forceps and was able to keep it together during Abby's screamathon. He scared me because he said that if her eye got any worse that he would come in on Thanksgiving and see her. His office even called the day before and checked on her. Fortunately, the new medication began working immediately, and I was more optimistic. She was taking oral antibiotics, ointment, and two different eye drops for a week, so we were basically taking something every hour of the day. Single parenting kicked my butt this week, that is for sure. By the end of the week, I was beginning to finally see BOTH of Abby's beautiful brown eyes, and when we went back to the doctor the next week, he said her opacity had been reduced significantly, and her corneal abrasions were gone. Until Abby is old enough to cooperate for a vision test, we don't know what effect, if any, this has on her vision. The doctor said that the opacity that are still in her eye were not affecting her vision field from what he could see, and we really don't know if this is something she could have been born with or not because he never looked at her eye before she had any infection. For now, the eye looks clear and there is no more swelling. She is more beautiful than ever. If that's possible.
Other stuff happened during these months. Highlights. Abby's love affair with cars is growing. She wants to drive everywhere. I am not kidding. I thought this would happen in about 13 or 14 years, but not now. She just likes to sit in the driver seat, push all the buttons, move the gears, etc. and pretend she is driving to the beach or school.
Sometimes we just sit in the garage for a bit while she "drives". Jeez. If she can't drive, at times, you would think someone was cutting off of both of her arms. Thankfully, she has stopped with the tantrums when I put her in her car seat knowing that I will let her drive eventually.
We spent one wonderful afternoon at the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch with several other families who had adopted children from Guatemala. It was a nice group of people, and there were about 5 other kids that were Abby's age. Hopefully, we will have more opportunities to get to know them better. It was the first nice day in a long while, so there were several thousand people there. Of course, Abby wanted to run wild and free turning the day into an aerobic exercise for me for three hours as I tried to keep up with her. She ran into the hay maze, and it was so tall that I couldn't see her for a bit although I was amazed by her confidence to run through it so quickly and easily.
Abby in Hay Maze
Fortunately, we posted parents at the exit and entrances to keep the kiddos safe.
Abby's First Pumpkin Patch
And, she handed out candy at the front door to the bigger kids who were trick or treating. Next year, Abby will be one of them.
Abby and Grams At Fretz Park
