motion sickness

mike yaconelli, who was a co-founder of the company i work for, compared life to a roller coaster ride, "life has been up and down, careening left then right..."

i understand that sense of life as a roller coaster ride. at the moment though, instead of having mike's sense of "woohoo, what a ride!", i'd really like someone to pass me some dramamine and a 7-up....

here's a sample just from today...

yesterday, i had a blood vessel in my eye burst. this morning i felt pressure in my eye and a friend recommended i call my doctor and have it looked at since i'm flying later this week. my doctor's office finally called me back and sent me straight to the er. now in my book, you only go to the er if there are broken bones, uncontrolled bleeding, heart attack, stroke, something major. i was freaked out. fortunately, all i have is a subconjunctival hemotoma, or as the er doc put it in english--a bruised eyeball that is going to be gross looking for a couple weeks. i'm supposed to follow up with my doc next week just to be on the safe side. apparently the major concerns are some sort of eye trauma like detached retina or too much bleeding in the eye or a spike in blood pressure.

in the middle of that, i called my mom who works at an er for some reassurance. she did that well, but when i talked to her on my way home and told her what the dr said, she had the appropriately motherly response but then went onto a bitter tirade about valentine's day. i quickly ended the conversation as i didn't want to rehash my parents divorce at the moment, which can happen easily despite the fact that they've now been divorced for as long as they were married. then she called me back to apologize and then she went into a thing about some gentleman friend that she apparently had some romantic interest in, but they're in their 60's and he died about a month ago. now this was a shock. since the divorce from my dad she's said loud and clear she wanted nothing to do with men or marriage or any of it again. it's also the first anyone in the family had heard about this man being of any romantic interest at all.

i called my dad & stepmom to check in after that and tell them about the eye thing mostly so they wouldn't hear it thru the grapevine from someone else. my dad still isn't really speaking to me since we had a falling out at thanksgiving so as i started telling him i'd been to the er today he said well just tell judy and handed the phone to my stepmother. she, fortunately, is great, but it's still a bit odd that i have a better relationship with my stepmom than i do my dad. and it's been his choice to be this way not mine.

anyway, it just felt like a bit much today. it would've felt significantly worse if it hadn't been for a couple friends who came up to the er to check on me after they left work and my aunt & uncle who tend to be the only family stability i have. if it weren't for these folks, i think i'd want off the ride. but as it is, i just have a case of motion sickness. i'm hoping it'll pass soon.