Trials and Tribulations

By the time I was in 4th grade, my desk was right next to the teacher's desk, very close to the blackboard. I once again failed the eye test, and even though my desk was close to the blackboard, I still had to have my classmate tell me what was written on the board. I also got very good at remembering what the teacher said as she wrote on the blackboard. My parents sent me to a new eye doctor who specialized in helping children. It was so funny - he put me in this room and asked me to look at the dangling ball that was on the ceiling!! And I looked and I looked - no ball!! The doctor came in the room and say "Oh My!" and asked "can you read the top letter on the eye chart?" Once again, I looked but didn't see an eye chart! Again, he said "Oh, My!!" I went through a whole series of tests for the next two and a half hours, and was instructed to come back the following morning for more tests. Two weeks later, I finally had my first pair of glasses. They were bifocals, they were pink and sparkly. I was so happy and just amazed at the world around me. All the way home, I kept staring out the window. Suddenly trees didn't just disappear up into the sky anymore! Lawns consisted of individual blades of grass. When we got home, I sat on the swing and went back and forth, back and forth, enthralled with the new world around me!!! My mother thought I was being silly at first, she didn't realize how blind I really was! But she was very apologetic when she realized that I wasn't kidding. When I was called in for supper, I went to the bathroom to wash up. I crawled on top of the toilet and then the sink so I could see in the mirror! There was my face - eyebrows, eyelashes and all! I could finally see myself as everyone else did. How ironic it was all those years Paul had been my charge - he couldn't hear and I couldn't see! I was his ears as he was my eyes!

The next day when I went to school, I was finally able to push my seat back away from the teacher's desk and sit among the rest of my class!!! I didn't have to ask for anybody's help.
I could look across the room and see the color of other student's eyes. It was all I could do not to stare!

Another thing that caught my eye was food! Suddenly it looked better to me, more appealing!! Therefore, my appetite picked up as did my weight. I actually began to get pudgy!

When I started junior high, I developed allergies, asthma, and began to have numerous kidney infections that were very painful. I also began to have more serious bouts of bronchitis. I had a really deep cough that my Mom called my "barking dog cough." My eyesight continued to worsen, and when I was 15, I was told that I might be blind by the time I was 30 or 40, but that there were new advances every year.

When I was in high school, I hurt my hand playing baseball. I twisted all of the tendons in my left hand! That was the first time I can really remember a doctor saying "oh, I have never seen that before!" He said "I have seen a few tendons twist before, but you managed to do all of them in your hand!!" This was also the beginning of my developing arthritis when I was 17.

Thus concludes my trials and tribulations of my childhood. Some ailments would go away, and others would worsen. Such is life! Se la vive!!

It's been kind of a disappointing week; two more weeks of IV antibiotics and more doctors appointments in the near future. And more testing to come to determine whether I have another form of arthritis and possibly lupis. Both of which are additional forms of auto-immune diseases which is already a "favorite" of mine. More pokin' and prodding' to come! Woo Hoo!!! Will keep you posted! Back for more next week.

Love Always, Darci

P.S. Yes, I still have the rash all over my body, and making good use out of that back scratcher from the dollar store. Now I'm really done!