The air that I breathe

Ladies and gent,

I am sporting a new look. Yes, I am at home and I am wearing a mask. No one is holding a gun to my head. I'm doing this out of my own free will. And no, I have not lost my mind. (I'm sure this thought is on some of your minds)

Yesterday I had a what I call the 4th worst day of my life, medically speaking. The night before I knew something was very wrong. First of all, I went to bed early like around 10ish. Usually I sleep at 12 midnight. Before I went to bed, I wanted to relax by looking at some craft books. This is something I do a lot. I enjoy looking at embroideries and stuff I would not make in this life. When I felt so tired looking at the pages, like literally whacked, I decided to just sleep it off.

Well, morning came and I didn't feel any better. The problem was my eyes. For a while now I had been having issues with my eyes. As I have sensitive eyes, I didn't think much of it. But the past 2 weeks, the headaches have been coming back and this week, the headaches just wouldn't go away. This wasn't the usual food triggered headaches or the migraines. It was like a enormous weight on my eye sockets and temple. The pressure on the eyes was just horrendous. I can't even describe it to you. Like I wanted to gorge my eyes out. It got to a point where I had problems keeping my eyes open the whole day.

I really should have gone to see the doctor sooner. But to see an eye doctor, I have to go to see a GP first to get referred. The waiting time at the clinic is very long and that really put me off and that's why I had been dragging it. Finally I made up my mind to go on Tuesday no matter what. As it turned out, my condition became so bad I had no choice but to go anyway.

After a 3 hour wait I finally saw the doctor. I had a test done on my eyes and when the results came back very shortly, the doctor told me I had to go to the A&E department immediately because she was worried I had glaucoma. What! I almost had a heart attack from hearing what she said. And before I give you a heart attack, let me assure you I don't have glaucoma.

So I went to the A&E department at the hospital, dragging hubs along. The hospital visit was surprisingly easy. I barely waited before a doctor saw me. He examined my eyes and his diagnosis? Not glaucoma. However, he thinks I have sinus infection which is affecting my eyes. And the sinus infection? It's from my allergy.

Now, between glaucoma and sinus infection, I'm very happy to choose sinus infection. The doc has put me on a course of antibiotics and also arranged for me to see an eye doctor next week to confirm that my eyes are fine. Hubs who has a distrust of docs thinks I should go see an eye doctor immediately. But I want to see if the medication works. Already this morning I feel 10% better. 10% may sound very little but yesterday I wanted to gorge my eyes out. Today I was able to read the newspaper without feeling any discomfort.

Unfortunately, I have to stop my allergy medication while I'm on the antibiotics. Good grief. How will I cope? So I finally decided the best thing for me is to take the doc's advice and wear masks. I used to get really angry if anyone were to raise this solution with me. Well, after the shock from "I may have glaucoma" to "it's a sinus infection", I'm pretty much game for any solution. By the way, don't you think there ought to be a law against doctors telling patients they may have glaucoma based on very little evidence? I mean, holy crap! I could have died from fright.

The mask is surprisingly comfortable. I've worn it last night and today and I feel really normal. I believe my estate having the cleaning and repainting really tipped my allergy over the edge. I think it's going to take more than a week for the repainting of my block to be complete. It would be wise for me not to spend so much time at home. Looks like I may be spending my days at the library.

Since this year I know my allergy had been getting worse mainly because of the smokers smoking in the stairwell next to my flat and the people living in my block who choose to burn incense paper  below my flat. In the name of exercising their right to smoke and practice their religion, they are slowly killing me. Don't I have the right to clean air? I was thinking I should move to a higher floor but I doubt if that's a solution. As if moving home is a simple thing in Singapore!

Anyway, I can't wait for next week to see the eye doctor to confirm I really don't have glaucoma.

p.s. Hope I haven't traumatized any of you with this post. I'm fine.