Pink Eye, How I Hate Thee

Ah yes. After working a month in the Peds ER, I have contracted that oh-so-frightening infection known as pink eye. (Technically, viral follicular conjunctivitis - but pink eye covers it pretty well.) Bright red eye, itching, burning, tearing, swollen eyelid, eye crusted shut when I wake up in the morning, sore throat from all that drainage running down my throat, the works. And it's apparently highly contagious, which is why I haven't been allowed to work...

For the record, I have NOT wanted to be stuck at home with this infection - I have tried to work but continue to be told not to be around patients, other residents, etc., by DOCTORS... I was sent home from my ER shift on Wednesday morning with my bright red draining eye, then went Thursday evening for my overnight ER shift and was sent straight to the Eye Foundation Hospital's ER for an evaluation. That doc grounded me from work until it got better or until seeing my opthalmologist. No improvement over the weekend so I saw my doc today, who says come back Wednesday and no work before then! So I can't be back at work until Thursday at the earliest. SO frustrating. I will have missed 7 days of work just because of an eye virus! :(

Christmas Lights? It's November 10!

While driving home from dinner last night, Matt and I passed a house in our neighborhood with Christmas lights up, and lighted reindeer with Santa's sleigh in the front yard. Now, really, people... don't make me go into my rant about starting the Christmas season before Thanksgiving...

Early Mornings

3:30am, and I'm wide awake! (Trust me, this NEVER happens... I'm such a sleeper!) My sleeping schedule has been a bit messed up after switching off of the night shift - yesterday I woke up at 5am, also wide awake. I didn't go to bed until 11pm, though, so you'd think I'd be tired....

Anyway. My usual routine is that I am a very sound sleeper and have a hard time waking up to any kind of alarm (unless I'm on call at the hospital, when any little thing wakes me up), and usually am very groggy for awhile - at least until I get a shower - before being anywhere near glad that I'm awake. (I don't think I'm a mean or grouchy person in the mornings, though Matt might say otherwise, having a more honest perspective on the situation - I'm just quiet and don't like to be bothered, and am easily bothered first thing in the morning!) So my early morning awakenings recently have been quite a change. It's been nice, actually - I like having time in the mornings to relax, drink a cup of coffee (or hot chocolate in tonight's case), have my quiet time, get some things done around the house, and not be rushed to get out the door. That's my dream of the kind of person I would like to be - it's just not who I usually am right now - so, while strange, I'm actually enjoying this off-schedule-ness!