Our First Halloween!!!

It's almost Halloween!  This will be the girls' first Halloween because they don't celebrate it in Australia.  I really don't know why because it is the only holiday in the whole year that is actually FUN!  Easter, Christmas, Valentine's Day--really, they all suck.  Big heavy meals, forced visits with family, tensions running high, not to mention the buying of crap just to buy something.  Halloween is all about being crazy and silly, stepping out of your comfort zone and just having fun!  The inclusion of heaps of lollies, candy and sweets doesn't hurt either! 

And it's not an expensive holiday--growing up we almost always made our costumes out of old clothes, cardboard boxes and our imagination.  We used grocery bags or pillow cases to collect our loot.  This year, I made a witch costume for me--how appropriate, you say, the girls won't even think you look any different--and Hubby is going to be a vampire.  The girls are set on being princesses despite my pleas to be a big fuzzy pumpkin or a poky little giraffe or cute ladybug.  Remember, they are new to this game and don't really get the whole costume thing.  We also bought a few pumpkins--$3 each here, where I am sure they were charging $25 at Wollies last year???--and carved out scary faces and put them out on the front step. 

Now, I know, what about all this candy?  With childhood obesity emerging as a pandemic, and all the other fat-related issues making headlines, how can we endorse a whole holdiay devoted to collecting and eating chocolate and sugar?  Because it is FUN!  And because I am pretty sure obesity doesn't occur due to ONE day of eating sweets.  How about the weekly take away, the chocolate bribes to tidy up the toys, the driving to school instead of walking and all the other unhealthy day to day habits?  It's an entire lifestyle that creates an obese family, not one day.  Please keep in mind, I am saying this while finishing off a chocolate Timbit that we bought for the girls after our trail walk this morning--so no soapbox here.

And Halloween is just SO MUCH FUN!  Happy trick-or-treating everyone!!!!

PRK Laser Vision Correction Surgery--My Experience

I've been on the road to blindness since I was about eight, when I realized I couldn't see the digital time on the VCR in the basement.  Turns out I was near-sighted and I quickly became the owner of some horrible ugly pale pink plastic glasses.  I hated wearing glasses and only put them on in class when I had to and never wore them outside.  When I outgrew the pink frames, I thought I would channel my inner Sally Jesse Raphael and go for some huge red rims.  Fashion in the eighties was bad on so many levels.  By grade eight I had talked my parents into contact lenses, and I wore them habitually until July 2011.  Not the best for the eyes.

Then a few months ago, I took the plunge and underwent PRK laser vision correction surgery.  PRK stands for something very long--basically, the surgeon used a brushy looking thing to rub some cells off my eyeballs, then a laser to reshape my cornea and voila, I could see!  As soon as I sat up from the surgery--which took a matter of seconds, I could read the time on the clock on the wall and could see every detail on the face of the smiling and helpful nurse.  And no pain!  Yet.  The literature at the doctor's office said most people don't experience any pain, jus some discomfort.  I was one of the people who had pain.  I'm talking moderate labour contractions type pain.  I went through my Tylenol 3's like candy and begged for more at my first follow-up visit.  The eyeball numbing drops were suppose to be used once a day--my three bottles were gone by the end of day two.  Apparently I don't cope with pain well.

Those first two days were rough--lots of pain, very swollen eyes, so much that my husband had to open the drug bottles for me because I couldn't read the labels.  Barely slept as I kept waking up in pain after the drugs would wear off.

Then, all of a sudden, my eyes were fine.  I felt a bit cross-eyed for a week or so as my eyes continued to heal, and I was quite sensitive to light for about a month, but now I can see perfectly! 

It is still weird though--waking up in the middle of the night and being able to see the time on the alarm clock; going on holiday and not worrying if I've packed contacts, saline and glasses; being able to lie on the couch without crunching my glasses.  For ages, in the evening, I kept thinking I had forgotten to take my contacts out, but I hadn't!

So was it worth it?  For sure!  I only wish I had done it sooner...