Some Days You Gotta Laugh

My daughter had her follow up visit for her eye surgery this morning. It wasn't the best check up.  Her eye isn't healing properly and she is still in a lot of pain.  She is a real trooper too.  When she broke her finger 2 years ago - it was a mere annoyance.  She was in the middle of a football game when she broke it and of course she finished the game, her homework, her military duties, her alpha inspection, she even finished out the rest of the academic week before the idea that perhaps a medical specialist might be called for.  I remember the text I received from her that said something along the lines of "4 days ago I think I broke my finger playing football because it is all swollen and black and blue and it is crooked and I can't straighten it." To which I replied something like, yes, yes - that does indeed sound like the classic symptoms of a broken finger CAN YOU PLEASE GO TO A DOCTOR!??!  She rated the pain on a scale of 1-10 a mere 2.5  It just was a broken finger after all. She ended up going to the doctor, and yes it was broken, and yes it needed to be splinted, and yes it would have been nice if she went as soon as she broke it. She just didn't think it was that big of a deal. She is that way. So this past weekend her pain level has been way above 6 and she is miserable and I know if she is calling me to tell me she is miserable - she is more miserable than she lets on because she is just not a complainer.  The eye doctor this morning said something about a defect and the eye not healing and since my daughter had a reaction to the pain meds, they won't give her anything for the pain.  The doctor then went on to draw pictures:
                                                YOU                                                          

                                                Everybody Else

She showed her the picture several times to make sure my daughter got the point. "YOU"............................."Everybody Else"  She said it probably really hurt and it couldn't be very comfortable and maybe at the end of the week the medical department at the Naval Academy could just "rip the bandage contact off".  When she asked for a medical excuse as it was almost impossible to get to class and do her homework given that she cannot see - the doctor just said if her eyes hurt, then she can just go to class with her eyes closed.  Really?  Just go to school with your eyes closed. Hmmmmm.  My daughter is a chemistry major.  She has 3 hour labs where she mixes toxic chemicals and performs exact experiments and is expected to get precise results. She also has to copy long mathematical equations and solve them.....with her eyes closed. When my daughter got to this part of the story, I couldn't help but to start laughing.  I started laughing and then my daughter started laughing and then we both were laughing so hard we started to cry from laughing so hard. I mean really?  Sorry but you have a big defect in your eye and it probably really hurts so we aren't going to give you anything for the pain - and hey - if it hurts really really badly - just close your eyes.  You can always listen.  We then went on to laugh about the emails that have been sent to her requesting her assignments.  The emails she can't read - because she can't see.  The facebook messages wishing her well....which she can't read....because she can't see. And then we laughed even harder about the texts she is receiving that yet again - she can't respond to because she can't see them.  I told her not to worry.  I would text her every hour to make sure she was feeling better and I would text, "if you don't reply, I know you are OK!" And then I would feel better because of course she won't reply because she can't read the texts but clearly I said if she doesn't answer she is A-OKAY so all would be well!  I think our laughfest lasted at least 15 minutes.  I mean really what else can you do at this point? I think we had the right approach.  After all......Laughter is the best medicine!  Maybe tomorrow she will be healed!