I'm writing about his a week late (story of my life) but on June 17th I strapped the girls in the car and we made the 12 hour drive to Virginia to visit my family up there. Unfortunately Brett wasn't able to come with us because of work.
My mom was at girls camp and while walking through the tent she started seeing things as a prisim through one eye. She thought it was some weird kind of migrane and took some tylonal. After a couple of hours and no improvement, the nurse on site and a friend convinced her to go to the emergency room. It turns out that her retina had started tearing away from her eye. Now I don't know all the details but apparently her doctor said that as people get older, 99% of everyone will not have any problems with this but 1% (with high risk people being those with poor eyesight--like my mom, and people with diabetes) have problems with this. It is also apparently hereditary and with my eyesight being worse then my moms. . .I am going to try and be prepared for the future. Anyway, she had emergency lazer surgery on her eye and was told not to get off her back for at least three days. Since it is summer and the girls and I didn't have any major plans for the next week we thought we'd drive on up and try and help out if we could.
Despite my moms injury, we had a really fun visit.
Emmeline loved being able to follow after Leland (I think he was ready for us to leave after the first two days. lol) Leland is Emmelines youngest uncle--he is 12, and she loves playing with him about as much as she loves anything else in this world. She also enjoyed playing with Adam, Lucy and Grandma and going outside with grandpa to see the fish in his pond. Mabel loved having a new place to explore and of course, she got into everything including the kitty food. oops. One day we were there we went to WaterWorks, a little water park that is perfect for young children to play in. Unfortunately it began storming and raining after we had only been there for a half hour or so.
Emmeline was so sad to leave but it was okay once we got home and Adam, Lucy and Leland taught her how to play tag in the rain. I also helped Lucy start preparations for her 16th birthday party. I told her she could use my pirate stuff if she wanted a murder mystery party. She loved the idea and I helped her as much as I could before I left back to Birmingham. (Her birthday is July 2nd)
I drove back home the following tuesday. My big, little brother came with me. (He is about a head taller then me, but he'll always be my "little" brother :) ). My mom got him a one way ticket from Birmingham back to Virginia for the following friday. It was nice to have some help in the car as I drove back. It was funny because he told me he thought the "take care of the babies" job was much harder then the driving job. lol. Just wait till you have to do them both at the same time Adam.
It was a really fun trip and a breath of fresh air for the girls and me. I think we were long past ready to go on a vacation. We did miss Brett/Daddy though and we were very happy to get back home to him!! Now we're all pumped and ready to go to Utah in July. (and this time we are taking Brett with us!!!)
2 comments:
Retinal detachments are much more common among high myopes (really near-sighted) people because the of the eye being so long the retina is, in essence, stretched and more likely to tear. Annual dilated eye exams are definitely recommended for folks falling into that category (that includes you, Laura :) ). In the meantime, the signs you should look for are flashes of light and a sudden increase of floaters. Some folks also describe the sensation of a veil coming over their vision. If you get any of those get to an eye doc ASAP. Time is critical in preserving vision when a detachment occurs.
I know that your family LOVED having you and I'm so glad it was so much fun. Yay for help in the car!
Post a Comment