I finally got to see the four local grandchildren this evening. The baby, of course, didn’t even notice the difference in my face. The 8 year old looked me over and smiled and gave me a hug. The 5 year old sat across the room for a while, then came over and touched my face, asking me if it hurt. When I told her it didn’t hurt any more, she looked relieved, hugged me and went off to play. The 3 year old, however, avoided looking at me, so I sat near her, and said, “Nana looks different, doesn’t she.” “Yes,” she answered shakily. I said, “My smile is broken and the doctor is helping me fix it. But I’m still the same Nana inside you know.” She thought about that, smiled, and I finally got my hug.

I hadn’t felt like beading with my sore eye or sitting at the computer for more than a minute or two. So, I set up a card table in a sunny window, and started a jigsaw puzzle that a friend brought over. I found I could do this with one eye, since it’s two-dimensional. And I can leave it when my eye gets too tired and go back later, which is harder to do with the beads

My eye continued to hurt whenever I left it unpatched for even a half hour, so I was still leaving it patched nearly all day. Even then, it felt dry and sorer than last week. The dry, sore eye seemed like the worst part of this illness! I put in a call to my Primary Care Physician this morning. He was not in, but the technician called down to Visual Services and explained the problem. They recommended I use a gel at night under the tape or patch. I didn’t wait for night, but started using it as soon as Hubby brought it home from the pharmacy! By evening, my eye did feel a tiny bit better. I made an apple and a pumpkin pie today. Even though I made them in stages and rested between, I was very tired.

It was Thanksgiving Day today, but we had made no special plans, since I was not up to either visiting or having my grandkids crawling all over me for hours. Hubby roasted a small turkey breast and made all the fixin’s. The house smelled wonderful! It was hard to eat a reasonable amount! I did indulge in a small piece of each kind of pie, though.

I had that Predisone restlessness all week, making me want to pace or putter around, but even a little of any activity left me exhausted! It seemed like all I was doing was taking my meds and sleeping! I was still sleeping an average of 10 hours a night and taking a 1-2 hour nap every day. My only exercise was walking my circuit around the house. I got tired doing even ¼ mile in two stages, and couldn’t seem to do more. But I felt it was important for my health not to let my muscles completely atrophy! And the walking seemed to help me fight the urge to eat! Being bored always makes me want to eat. My balance didn’t seem to improve much more as the week went by, and my hearing was still poor. The good news was that my eye seemed much more comfortable. I was still using the gel at night and the patch most of the day. I was down to 20 mg of Predisone as of Friday, and seemed to be tolerating the lower dose well.