The Story of My Left Eyeball.

Romantic, I know. It's a complicated one though, so instead of writing it out in a million emails I thought I'd take advantage of my blog and write it once. Here goes....

Sometime in early December my left eye had a bit of red on it, near the iris, and I assumed it was just a mild flare-up of a cornea infection I had in the summer.

I went to Punto Bianco (the not-so-emergency room) and had my first of several misdiagnoses. With the assumption it was a corneal scratch and on the wrong drops, it got worse, fast. Now I had a very red, super-light-sensitive eye and piercing headaches, so I went back to Punto Bianco and a new doctor (quickly dubbed "Hot Doctor") had a look. He was the one good thing about all this. He changed my drops and booked me for a hospital appointment first thing the next morning, thus beginning a series of 9 visits over two weeks. I told them I was supposed to be leaving for London on the 28th and India on the 4th, but once they thought it had stabilized they assured me I would still be able to go.

With time the pain only got worse however, and I started having headaches down the whole left side of my face. On the 23rd my eye clouded over so much I couldn't see out of it. I ended up back at the hospital on the 24th, and at that point they told me it was a condition called Anterior Uveitis (a swelling of the interior front part of the eye) and that it had gotten very serious. They gave me a bunch of meds and basically said if the swelling lasted much longer I could start to lose vision permanently.   Not the best Christmas Eve news, but I did get to eat rib cake later that day which helped.

Many drops, pills, disgusting eye-gel and two weeks later, my eye has returned to normal, the pain is gone, and they are starting to ween me off everything. Needless to say, India has had to be postponed indefinitely as I'll need be semi-chained to an ophthalmologist in the coming months. They're thrilled with how my eye looks, but annoyed that they don't know the cause; on the 28th they took a bunch of blood but the tests have since come back inconclusive. My doctor's theory is that it's an autoimmune disease that manifested itself through Anterior Uveitis, but he said I'll need to have further testing to figure out which one. For now I'm just happy to have a white eye again.

Plan B goes like this: I'm heading to Calgary to intern with Sidewalk Citizen, my friend Aviv's bakery. I'm super excited to get to help he and Michal out with a new business, especially one with a philosophy, owners, and products that I admire so much.

I'm also happy to report that on my way home I have a four day lay-over in New York, where I'll be visiting my good friends from UNISG who are interning there. Carey (who has lived in New York) drafted the world's best to-do list for me which offers about 8 different options for my afternoon snack alone. I'll also stop in Vancouver for a few days and soak in the English-speaking Canadian-ness of it all with my friends there. It's nearly been a year since I was home.

So that's the story. It's been a frustrating and disappointing month, but such is life. India's not going anywhere and I'll get there eventually. Though I already knew it, I've also been reminded that I have the most wonderful, supportive, and sympathetic friends and family ever.

For now you may join me in cursing my left eyeball and keep your fingers crossed that I'll get to put my contacts back in soon. I really, really dislike wearing glasses and have been squinty and confused-looking for far too long....