Blah. I have to get a new car. Does anyone feel strongly about a particular vehicle? 

Emma Lendt just had the most satisfying shower of her life. 

The shower head seemed to be standard and nothing fancy. Going to knit and read for awhile, I’ll investigate in the morning. Euphoric.

For my birthday I decided I wanted to go white water kayaking. What I did not want for my birthday was a dislocated shoulder and a second blind spot in my eye. 

A few years ago I earned the first blind spot, as I adoringly call them, after being exceptionally stressed for an extended period of time. While looking at cloudless sky, I suddenly saw stars which then congregated and became My First Blind Spot. It’s been with me ever since, through thick and through thin. 

This second spot I received as a result of kayaking on Tuesday. My dog hates to swim, so in an effort to help him cross the (freezing cold!) river I had him sit on the deck of my kayak. We made it swimmingly- pardon the foreshadowing pun- over the first little rapid and I was feeling very good; graceful, balanced and capable. Into the second rapid we plunged and when my dog overcompensated as we slid over a rock, we flipped. Aware that my dog was underneath me and the kayak, I was making an effort to stay out of his way so he would be able to safely make it back to shore.  The kayak was on top of me for about a minute, while I struggled to right myself in the water. The water was shallow, and my right arm was making an effort to hand roll us upright but my left arm wasn’t moving. I heard a snap resonate through the water, was aware of feeling (pain) returning to my left arm, and was again able to move both my upper limbs. 

After wet exiting my kayak, I hauled it up the hill toward safety and somewhere I would hopefully never have to use my arm again, while my friend completed the short stretch of creek we were going to do. I waited in pain for him to rescue me and my gear with his Jeep and popped some Ibuprofen, dreading the few weeks I wouldn’t be able to boat until my shoulder healed. 

The following morning I woke up and made my way outside with the dogs, aware that I had a spot in my eye that was similar to the kind  you get when you look directly into a bright light. This spot occurred to me as being odd when I realized it was overcast and no lights were on in the house, even if I had wanted to look directly into one. 

I called an ophthalmologist and explained the situation: not emergent but definitely of concern. I obtained an appointment for the following Monday. 

I explained the correlation I’d found between extreme stress and these technicolor blind spots and after an OCT, pupil dilation, macular examination and a few other tests, I was given no definitive answer and a concerned and urgent suggestion to have an MRI to rule out any optic neuritis. I told him, in the name of science!, that yes, I would love to get an MRI, but there was one catch: today was the last day my health insurance was in effect as I’d recently (last week) changed jobs. 

After a wonderfully helpful secretary pulled some strings at local hospitals, I was on my way for my first MRI. 

Being that my eyes were still dilated I couldn’t read a thing, but managed to find my way to the emergency department of the hospital where only a small amount of pleading and explaining landed me someone who knew where I needed to go to have myself irradiated. 

Everyone I encountered was so nice, a lady even helped me fill out paperwork!, and the MRI itself was only mildly scary: some of the noises that went on in that machine seem like they have the ability to illicit a Vietnam-type flashback. A half an hour passed (not so comfortably) when, at 2/3 the way through the test, the technicians paused to give me the contrast dye IV. I haven’t had issues with contrast dye in the past (I’d had a CT after being bitten by a dog a few years prior), so I wasn’t particularly nervous about this. Also, to be honest, the presentation of the test by my ophthalmologist and the onset of the test had been in such quick succession that I didn’t have time to become appropriately unnerved. 

10 more minutes passed and I felt fine, until I suddenly felt very heavy. I opened my eyes in an attempt to gain some perspective and was surprised to see that I was still lying straight, instead of being pulled strongly and unevenly to the right as I felt I had been. This feeling stayed with me until the end of the test (only five more minutes), and I was grateful to be done. 

I don’t have any results yet. I’ll hopefully be cleared of any concussions and swollen dendrites on Tuesday during my follow-up appointment, which had better be inexpensive due to my novel insurance situation. Now all I’m left with are memories, a mild sore throat and some gastrointestinal upset, compliments of the MRI contrast dye. Whatever happens at least I’ve got two friends in my left eye. 

I had a wonderful post written about my day, involving eagles and lost rabbits and kayaking and dogs sitting on kayaks for 4 miles because they don’t like to swim (Shiver.) 

and then I logged out of Tumblr instead of posting the type. WOOPS. 

Definitely not writing it again, though. enjoy.