The Adventures of the Blind/Low Vision/Visually Impaired (BLOVI) Girl- Volume 11
This week I am going to deviate from my normal format and focus on the battles I have fought at the end of 2010, a year that kicked my butt, but one I ultimately survived. As Gloria Gaynor says it best, “I will survive. For as long as I know how to love I know I’ll be alive.”
The BLOVI versus the microscopic head lice: After returning to school fresh off a three week illness, my daughter contracted head lice. As soon as she got home from school, I sprang into action, knowing the importance of getting ahead of those egg laying machines. After stripping all the beds, washing, and spraying down all the mattresses and upholstery, I next planned my attacked on the actual lice. I also had to remove all her stuffed animals from her bed (about 12) and put then in a hot dryer and then close them in a plastic bag for 20 days to suffocate the lice. My daughter was horrified and was concerned that they would not be fed. So I had to promise to feed them fruit salad every day. Luckily, I got a call from a friend who happened to know everything about killing lice- I now call her the lice whisperer. First I eschewed all the normal lice killing chemicals in favor of mayonnaise. According to the lice whisperer the mayonnaise drowns the lice while leaving your hair super shiny. So, as my child held her nose and made gagging noises, I covered her entire head in tons of mayo. It takes a while for the lice to suffocate, so you sleep with mayo head on lots of towels. The next conundrum was how I was going to see the bugs and nits when I brushed out the next morning. So I brushed out her hair with that little lice comb (which is the same as a flea comb) and my assistant looked at the comb using my hand held 8X magnifier so there was no way we were going to miss anything. After the brush out I washed her hair with dandruff shampoo, because the lice whisperer said the lice did not like that. Then you are supposed to put gel and hairspray because lice don’t like sticky hair to jump on and it also freezes any lice on the hair so they can’t move and make you itch. After one more brief mayo treatment, the lice and nits were gone. Score one for mommy, suffocater of lice.
The BLOVI versus pneumonia: A few days after winning the lice battle, I woke up with chest and back pain and unable to move. I thought it did not seem right to have chest pain while breathing and coughing. By the next day I was running a fever and could not sit up without getting dizzy, so I knew I was dehydrated. I ended up at Doctors Care where they said I still had bronchitis plus a UTI. After three attempts to get an IV started and two bags of fluid, I was still dehydrated and my new antibiotic made me sick. The next day my doctor told me to go to the ER for a chest X-ray. The ER was an adventure-even though I was the second one in there I waited almost 2 hours, continuing to dry up and cough up a lung. At one point I thought about lying in the middle of the floor like I passed out, because I heard that works to get you seen. But in that time I got to learn about what ailed the others waiting, including a man who could not poop. What was funny was that his daughter kept telling him to eat apples and bananas and bread, all foods for the opposite of constipation. I just wanted to yell out “eat prunes”, but I would have interrupted their prayers for poop. I was put in a room that had somehow lost its bed, so I was in a recliner. A chest X-ray confirmed thee pneumonia and I had more fluids and an IV antibiotic. Then I was sent on my way. Pneumonia is no joke. I spent two more days attempting to cough up a lung before I was able to get out of bed.
The BLOVI versus assembling toys: Every year I buy all my presents for Christmas the year before at a half price sale. This means when I bought them I was a sighted person that did not consider the difficulty in assembly and teaching my daughter how to play with them. Wrapping gifts was not a problem, because I could not see how badly they were wrapped and I figured people would cut me some slack. So, as you know instructions are now all in pictures, so there was no one who could talk me through it and I could not see the pictures blown up. What terrified me the most was the Playskool plane. I still have post traumatic assembly syndrome from the zoo I put together last year, it had 1200 pieces, 31 steps and took me 10 hours. A friend with Playskool assembly experience came over to help. We anxiously opened the box and were relieved that there were only 9 steps and less than 20 pieces. I was actually able to put a few things together. The piano was easier. I then realized I had to learn how to use all her toys. She got a VTech laptop computer and I can not see the screen or the keyboard. So I used my magnifier to memorize where all the keys were while my mom read me the instructions. My next toy to tackle is the Lite Bright, which I was a master at when I was 8.
The BLOVI versus the cataract: Because of my eye trauma I not only killed my retinas, I developed a cataract that has been rapidly becoming opaque so that my whole field of vision is blurred. I was told my eye needed to be stable for 6 months before they could operate and that means the end of January. I had my retina doc call my cataract doc and he was out. So I talked to the staff who said his first available appointment was Feb 1 and that he was already booked into March for surgery. The kicker was that, even after begging, they would not put me on the surgery calendar until I was seen in Feb, meaning it could be April until surgery. Now that the blurriness is so bad in my left eye, I am reading with it closed and it is slowing me down. So, I decided to have my other docs make personal pleas to the cataract doc and it worked, I got in to see him his first day back in the office and I have surgery in February. Dr. Croswell, Dr. Efron and Dr. Huff all rock. They understand how important it is to maximize the vision I have left.
At the end of the most challenging year of my life I have learned much and grown as a person. I have learned that people have the ability to be highly flexible, adaptable, and resilient. I have learned that it is true that what does not kill you makes you stronger. I have learned that having a positive attitude and outlook is more than half the battle in overcoming adversity. The other part is to continue to live your life and have a sense of humor. I have learned to ask for what I need, realizing that some people will come through and others will not. I have learned to forgive myself and others and to be grateful for the caring and support I have received. I have learned that I am truly OK with myself and can allow myself to experience a range of emotions and keep myself safe and grounded. I may have not learned this if I had not lost my sight. I am hopeful and excited about the future and I have big plans for 2011, which will be the focus of my next blog. Happy New Year and make the next year great.
Keep moving forward,
Beth (BLOVI) Medlock
This week I am going to deviate from my normal format and focus on the battles I have fought at the end of 2010, a year that kicked my butt, but one I ultimately survived. As Gloria Gaynor says it best, “I will survive. For as long as I know how to love I know I’ll be alive.”
The BLOVI versus the microscopic head lice: After returning to school fresh off a three week illness, my daughter contracted head lice. As soon as she got home from school, I sprang into action, knowing the importance of getting ahead of those egg laying machines. After stripping all the beds, washing, and spraying down all the mattresses and upholstery, I next planned my attacked on the actual lice. I also had to remove all her stuffed animals from her bed (about 12) and put then in a hot dryer and then close them in a plastic bag for 20 days to suffocate the lice. My daughter was horrified and was concerned that they would not be fed. So I had to promise to feed them fruit salad every day. Luckily, I got a call from a friend who happened to know everything about killing lice- I now call her the lice whisperer. First I eschewed all the normal lice killing chemicals in favor of mayonnaise. According to the lice whisperer the mayonnaise drowns the lice while leaving your hair super shiny. So, as my child held her nose and made gagging noises, I covered her entire head in tons of mayo. It takes a while for the lice to suffocate, so you sleep with mayo head on lots of towels. The next conundrum was how I was going to see the bugs and nits when I brushed out the next morning. So I brushed out her hair with that little lice comb (which is the same as a flea comb) and my assistant looked at the comb using my hand held 8X magnifier so there was no way we were going to miss anything. After the brush out I washed her hair with dandruff shampoo, because the lice whisperer said the lice did not like that. Then you are supposed to put gel and hairspray because lice don’t like sticky hair to jump on and it also freezes any lice on the hair so they can’t move and make you itch. After one more brief mayo treatment, the lice and nits were gone. Score one for mommy, suffocater of lice.
The BLOVI versus pneumonia: A few days after winning the lice battle, I woke up with chest and back pain and unable to move. I thought it did not seem right to have chest pain while breathing and coughing. By the next day I was running a fever and could not sit up without getting dizzy, so I knew I was dehydrated. I ended up at Doctors Care where they said I still had bronchitis plus a UTI. After three attempts to get an IV started and two bags of fluid, I was still dehydrated and my new antibiotic made me sick. The next day my doctor told me to go to the ER for a chest X-ray. The ER was an adventure-even though I was the second one in there I waited almost 2 hours, continuing to dry up and cough up a lung. At one point I thought about lying in the middle of the floor like I passed out, because I heard that works to get you seen. But in that time I got to learn about what ailed the others waiting, including a man who could not poop. What was funny was that his daughter kept telling him to eat apples and bananas and bread, all foods for the opposite of constipation. I just wanted to yell out “eat prunes”, but I would have interrupted their prayers for poop. I was put in a room that had somehow lost its bed, so I was in a recliner. A chest X-ray confirmed thee pneumonia and I had more fluids and an IV antibiotic. Then I was sent on my way. Pneumonia is no joke. I spent two more days attempting to cough up a lung before I was able to get out of bed.
The BLOVI versus assembling toys: Every year I buy all my presents for Christmas the year before at a half price sale. This means when I bought them I was a sighted person that did not consider the difficulty in assembly and teaching my daughter how to play with them. Wrapping gifts was not a problem, because I could not see how badly they were wrapped and I figured people would cut me some slack. So, as you know instructions are now all in pictures, so there was no one who could talk me through it and I could not see the pictures blown up. What terrified me the most was the Playskool plane. I still have post traumatic assembly syndrome from the zoo I put together last year, it had 1200 pieces, 31 steps and took me 10 hours. A friend with Playskool assembly experience came over to help. We anxiously opened the box and were relieved that there were only 9 steps and less than 20 pieces. I was actually able to put a few things together. The piano was easier. I then realized I had to learn how to use all her toys. She got a VTech laptop computer and I can not see the screen or the keyboard. So I used my magnifier to memorize where all the keys were while my mom read me the instructions. My next toy to tackle is the Lite Bright, which I was a master at when I was 8.
The BLOVI versus the cataract: Because of my eye trauma I not only killed my retinas, I developed a cataract that has been rapidly becoming opaque so that my whole field of vision is blurred. I was told my eye needed to be stable for 6 months before they could operate and that means the end of January. I had my retina doc call my cataract doc and he was out. So I talked to the staff who said his first available appointment was Feb 1 and that he was already booked into March for surgery. The kicker was that, even after begging, they would not put me on the surgery calendar until I was seen in Feb, meaning it could be April until surgery. Now that the blurriness is so bad in my left eye, I am reading with it closed and it is slowing me down. So, I decided to have my other docs make personal pleas to the cataract doc and it worked, I got in to see him his first day back in the office and I have surgery in February. Dr. Croswell, Dr. Efron and Dr. Huff all rock. They understand how important it is to maximize the vision I have left.
At the end of the most challenging year of my life I have learned much and grown as a person. I have learned that people have the ability to be highly flexible, adaptable, and resilient. I have learned that it is true that what does not kill you makes you stronger. I have learned that having a positive attitude and outlook is more than half the battle in overcoming adversity. The other part is to continue to live your life and have a sense of humor. I have learned to ask for what I need, realizing that some people will come through and others will not. I have learned to forgive myself and others and to be grateful for the caring and support I have received. I have learned that I am truly OK with myself and can allow myself to experience a range of emotions and keep myself safe and grounded. I may have not learned this if I had not lost my sight. I am hopeful and excited about the future and I have big plans for 2011, which will be the focus of my next blog. Happy New Year and make the next year great.
Keep moving forward,
Beth (BLOVI) Medlock
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