Twenty-twenty = Armageddon?

Well, what can I say? This has been a year of extreme difficulties. Of killer viruses, killer hornets, and children and parents spending waaaaayy too much time together! 

I'm only joking. About the kids and parents part. The rest is, well, going to be history, eventually.

Meanwhile, in my little island nation, the virus is back after we basically eliminated it from our communities for a grand total of 102 days. Now it's back and spreading fast. However, our government has a plan (Yay, Jacinda!) and we have kept the virus ring-fenced, mostly, to Auckland. The couple of cases which travelled out of Auckland, to Christchurch and Waikato, have been put into managed isolation. Most cases are still imported (as in, they arrived on planes and went straight into isolation, anyway) and the cases within our community are all linked back to one mysterious outbreak. One version of the virus we hadn't seen in NZ yet. One that may have come from product imported from overseas. Maybe. 

So while all that has been going on to the north-west of where I am (No, that wasn't an intentional Kim-ye pun) I have had plenty going on in my own little sphere.

My book, The Celestial Kin, finally made it to the publisher and has been going through editing, cover art creation, print layout formation and is now back to me for a final read through/look at before it gets printed. That's great, but right now I'm recovering from eye surgery. 

My vision deteriorated in May, after finally being deemed perfect following rounds of laser surgery during 2019. The doctors cleared me for discharge from the eye team, and I went to my optometrist for a LONG overdue update of my prescription. Finally, I had glasses I could see with! In fact, my vision was better than before I last updated my glasses (5 or 6 years ago) and my astigmatism was gone. (Astigmatism is where one eye is weaker or focuses at a different distance than the other eye. This runs in my family, so it did not surprise me when I got it. But the laser surgery had obviously caused that issue to disappear! Yay!) 

Anyway, I got my new glasses — at a reduced and equal strength — and I could read and work on my computer with no headaches, no visual disturbances, and no black floaties in my vision. 

Then came the change of seasons (followed by Covid-19, which thankfully my family never caught). We caught a cold that went around our family several times, since we were locked down together during April. My cold turned into a sinus infection, and I blew my nose REALLY hard to clear it a bit. 

BAM!

As soon as I opened my eyes after blowing my nose... my vision had a BIG BLACK BLOB. 

Yep, I had another eye bleed — what the laser had fixed previously — and I let out a huge groan. Not Again!

I have spent the last few months travelling to and from the eye clinic, monitoring my eye for improvement, or deterioration. I neither improved nor deteriorated. I just didn't get better. 

My doctor decided an operation had to happen on Friday last week. Despite my huge phobia of needles, and in particular my huge phobia of needles near my face, I braved it, asked for sedation, was pleasantly surprised when I didn't see or feel anything.

A big thank you to the nurses who ensured I had plenty of numbing gel, and the exceptional anaesthetist for sedating me enough to calm me, but not knock me out. Everything went smoothly, and I survived! 

Today was the first day I've been able to see reasonably clearly from my eye. While things are still a bit "misty" in appearance, I can see what and who I look at. I'm hoping that over the next few days I'll be able to do the last review of my book, so it can go to the printers. 

In the meantime, here is a picture of me, post-surgery, which was inspired by my daughter's comment that "Mummy look like a little pirate!" as she covered her eye like an eye patch, in response to my patch!

    Always be kind! XX Evie XX