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My Week from Hell

All in all, my life is pretty good. Ive been in good health, my kids are healthy, Im steadily employed. Life has its ups and downs, but mostly they are ups. Except for this week, which had more downs than usual, so Im calling it my Week from Hell. Last weekend while I was photographing the Shepherd Maple Syrup Festival and ushering my kids to different events, my left eye started to bother me. By Sunday it was quite troublesome, but both my wife and I dismissed it as just allergies. Then, I woke up on Monday and my eye was much, much redder. And scratchy. And a little puffy. It was a day when I worked from home, so I lived with this irritation while I plowed through my day. On Tuesday, when I woke up my wife insisted that I should go to ReadyCare instead of driving into Lansing that day. By now, there were bumps along my nose and my eyebrow in addition to my irritated eye. The doctor prescribed me eye drops and antibiotics. Then, that night when I took my shoe off I noticed that my big toe had been bleeding into my sock. Bleeding? Why? I still dont know. Im guessing that I had stubbed it somewhere, but I couldnt remember where. Just one more thing to add to my list. Yesterday, when I woke up my eye was so puffy that it was half-closed. I called work, arranged to work from home, and then suffered through the rest of the day. The drops seemed to be helping, and I felt like I was finally going to put these troubles behind me. Until this morning when my eye was so puffed up it I could barely open it. Added drops, called the office to make arrangements to work from home, and then planned on having a doctor looked at it again. I called my own doctors office to try to make an appointment, and they told me that he was out of the office today. Really? I asked if they had a substitute doctor, and they suggested that I go to Readycare. So, my wife took the rest of the afternoon off and we drove to ReadyCare. This time, I was looked at by a different doctor who seemed to take a little more time with his examination. Let me guess, did you have chicken pox when you were younger? Short answer, Yes. Long answer, that is an example of another week from Hell that got worse just as I thought things were going to be better. I came down with the chicken pox when I was in the sixth grade, and I really wanted to go back to school the following Monday because I was a part of a group of students who were being treated to a pizza lunch by the principal. I cant remember if it was because of the Spelling Bee or if it had to do with the Junior Honor Society. While I was waiting for the bus to arrive that morning, my nose started to bleed. My cousin loaned me a washrag that I used to stop the bleeding. I boarded the bus, and I was finally on my way to school. When I arrived, the principal Mr. Carouseli noticed me and asked if I still had the chicken pox. I answered, no.

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He brought me into the boys bathroom to take a closer look at my face. I remember him distinctly asking, Is that acne? Im pretty sure I tried to convince him that it was acne, something I really had never needed to do before. In the end, my mom was called and I ended up going back home. I also missed the special pizza lunch. I told the doctor that I did, indeed, have the chicken pox when I was younger. Well, he said, Have you ever heard of shingles? Egads, yes. But, he wasnt talking about the tiles that go on to the roofs of houses. He explained that shingles have to do with whats left of chicken pox. Every once in a while, they can flair up. Next, he looked at my eye. Here are some of the things that I avoid when it comes to my eyes: eye drops contact lenses hot pokers Bright light The Sun Dust Pieces of Glass Twilight movies

At his instructions, I leaned back and one of the first things he did was drop eye drops into my eye, then he asked the nurse to turn off the light so that he could peer into my eye with some kind of ultraviolet light thingamabob. The good news is that he didnt find any shingles inside my eye, which up until that point had been a working theory. Still, he strongly urged me to see an opthamologist just to be on the safe side. So, I collect my paperwork, my wife and I drove to Walmart to fill my prescriptions, and then we arrived back home where I resumed my work. But, while Im on the subject I wanted to mention that I dont like taking pills. Aspirin usually isnt much of a problem, but the prescription pills are usually so much bigger that it takes me a while to swallow them. And, now Im going to have to several three different types of pills two or three times a day. But, for the first time in my life I dont think I mind as much, as long as the pain and those awful bumps go away. Another side effect of my situation is that now I cant get too close to Elijah unless I want to risk exposing him to chicken pox. So, Im on the inactive list when it comes to feedings, baths, or plain ole quality time until at least Sunday. So, to summarize, I have shingles, plus I am going to see another doctor tomorrow who pokes things into patients eyes for a living, and even after thats done theres still no guarantee that I will actually be relieved of what I affectionately refer to as the stink eye.

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After that, I will be spending the next three days isolating myself from my infant son who has become such a huge part of my daily routine that I dont know what I would do with myself if Im not holding or feeding him. And, not to mention that shingles could return at any time and I might have to go through all of this all over again. But, hopefully not on the face. So, in the midst of all of this, today my wife brings home the mail. She hands me an envelope from Isabella County. I open the envelope and discover that it contains a Juror Qualification Questionnaire and that I have basically been selected to possibly serve on a jury. This would be the third time that Ive been picked as candidate to be a juror, but Ive only served in a case once, and that was in Lansing. The other time was while I was living in Shepherd, and I only had to report to the courthouse for one morning without being picked to serve on a jury for that day. Then, it was over. The best thing I can say about serving as a juror in Lansing was that it was interesting to see the legal process play out, and the bagel selection was really good.

The Mandible
Share a story from this past week, either good or bad Respond Describe a series of events which you feel would make up a Week from Hell Respond