Little Blessings

It doesn’t take a lot to make things much, much better

This was taken at 9:08 am yesterday. it’s 7:30 and still dark this morning.

I’ve been waking up early the last few mornings. By early I mean before sunrise (at 8:44 today). This morning I was wide awake around 5:30, though I forced myself to stay horizontal, cozy and under the duvet until 7.

I’ve been sick the entire Christmas week. All festive and ordinary plans were regrettably cancelled. Champagne and foie gras are still in the fridge, the unopened oysters went, regrettably, in the bin. I know: could have made chowder… but when you can’t smell or taste anything… why? At that point eating is about texture and TBH, the idea of warm, flavorless oysters is nothing short of revolting.

So, I caught the Christmas virus. It began with a scratchy throat, rapidly moving on to sneezing and body ache. I went right to bed determined to be right as rain by Christmas Day - a mere 48 hours away. Well HaHaHa. By then I was down for the count, achy & sleepy, going through a box of extra soft tissues faster than you can saw Achoo.

The day after Christmas was when the real fun began; I woke up with pink eye in both eyes Ugh… no contacts for me!

Things rapidly went from bad to worse. I looked like a 110 year old white lab rat. And I still had to walk Lenny, my grandson’s dog… which I’d been doing 4-5 times a day through this entire goopy sickness. But now, I looked like a cross between a mad woman and a movie monster with crazy, curly bed head. That I’d lost my sunglasses a few weeks back didn’t help matters.

By day 3 of flaming red eyes I called SOS Médecin. This is an amazing service available throughout France. (Probably more available in larger cities then In the countryside, but I really don’t know) I called at 7:30am and by 10:10am received the call. “Madame, c’est le médecin, je suis la” It’s the doctor, I’m here.

The man was in his early 50’s, quite slim, very neat, very severe. He took one look at me and said “oh, vous n’êtes pas confortable”. Understatement of the year, no… I am not comfortable at all. After checking a few vitals he wrote up a prescription, I paid him and he was on his way.

The pharmacist took my prescription, read it, looked at me and began to giggle. “Votre condition est tres rare” What? I have a rare condition? Apparently having conjunctivitis in both eyes at the same time is an anomaly. She handed me eye drops (every 4 hours for a week) nose spray (every 3 hours until your sniffles clear up) and Doliprane 1000 (every 6 hours until you are no longer achy). Drink plenty of water, wash your hands, stay home, and somehow manage those meds

That was yesterday.

Aside from the fact that from the 1st eye drops my eyes improved, from the first nose pshitt I could breathe and my nose stopped running. Aside from that… was the cost. I do not yet have a Carte Vitale (the French Health Care card) both the Doctor and the Pharmacist were horrified that I was paying out of pocket. The cost you ask? For the house call: 120€. For the prescription: 21€.

Probably the best 141€ I’ve spent all year That’s about US $164.. For a house call. A house call AND healing, effective meds.

I’m happy to report that waking up day two into eye drops and nose pshitt was remarkably different than yesterday. For one thing, my eyelashes aren’t stuck together and my eyes don’t itch. I can breathe, my nose isn’t dripping like a broken faucet and I don’t ache all over. Bonus: I can kinda, sorta taste my coffee!

I won’t be doing anything on New Years Eve. Those plans also must be binned because.., well, because the pharmacist said so.

Happy New Year to all of you where ever you may be. Thank you for reading along. I wish you grand adventures and excellent health in the new year.

Sun’s up now, time to take Lenny the dog out