Blinded by Christmas

Well, Christmas has come and gone and, thankfully, I still have my vision. Well, some vision. My eyesight is absolutely dreadful, but more on that later. I'm always amazed at how busy the holiday season gets... parties and presents and family gatherings and what-not. I always get so excited about the upcoming events and then it all seems to pass in a blur. This year, the blur was both figurative and literal.

My sister, boyfriend and I piled about a zillion packages and all of our luggage into the car and made our way to the grand town of Roswell, NM, where my grandparents' happy home sits amongst other elderly alien-believers. It's not a short drive (6.5 hours or so), nor is it a scenic journey. We passed 256 tubmleweeds, 12 gas stations, one million oil pumps, and an armadillo.

Anyway, my grandparents' home is much like a New Mexican north pole. There is a life size Santa on the front porch, along with an operational train and toy car that would delight any toddler. Inside is crammed full of angels that light up, Santas that sing and dance, and little ice skaters that magically twist and turn on a plastic surface. Since my boyfriend joined us on this journey, he was rewarded with the guest bedroom while my sister and I were banished to inflatable beds in the living room. It's better than the floor... but not much.

It was while sleeping on this inflatable bed in the middle of the Christmas chaos that I awoke to a scorching pain in my right eye and through to the back of my head. I ran to the bathroom to find that my eye was blood-red, my face was starting to swell, and I couldn't see out of that eye. By no means a pleasant turn of events. I took my contacts out (something I should have done before I went to sleep... I know, I know), took a Bendaryl because my sister said that might help, and tried to go back to sleep. After praying that my eye didn't fall out or explode in my head, I managed to slide back into a nap.

The next morning the entire right side of my face was swollen, but the redness and turned to a more mild and less scary pink. My vision was horribly blurred, but the pain wasn't quite as sharp. I called my optometrist and he assured me that my cornea was not going to explode out of my head and set up an appointment for me once I returned to Texas. Within two days my vision was relatively back to normal and I was convinced that I wasn't going to die.

I have since learned that if you wear your contacts for too long, your body will start to think that the contacts are the enemy and will try to fight them off, hence the swelling. Stupid body... those contacts are the only way I can see to make sure the rest of me doesn't get hit by a bus. Anyway, I managed to scratch the lens of my right eye during that battle (hence redness and blurriness).

So let this be a lesson to you all... unless you want your holidays to be a literal blur, take your contacts out before you settle down for a long winter's nap.

I hope all of you out there had a pleasant Christmas, and I wish you a very happy new year.