Sometimes You Just Gotta Laugh...

To keep from crying. This vacation has turned out a little different than what I'd envisioned when we left at 6 AM on Saturday morning. Lazy days spent on the beach, beside a heated pool, or in a toasty hot tub. Um...not so much. Our pool is broken - it took them five days to get a guy here to tell us that. I spent on entire day in bed with a virus and then the next in a podunk emergency room.

Now, let me preface this story by saying that the people at said hospital were absolutely wonderful. Very friendly, courteous, helpful in every possible way. However, it is in the middle of nowhere and privacy laws obviously don't mean all that much to them. In the course of sitting and waiting for the doctor to see me, I think I heard the diagnosis for every single patient in the emergency room. I studied some woman's X-rayed foot and listened to a discussion about whether an instrument should be ordered (ostensibly for the man next to me trying desperately to hack up the lining of his stomach around some obstructing object - the consensus was no that they would only need it very rarely and I believe they sent said man to another bigger hospital).

I went to this emergency room because it was the closest doctor within a 45 minute drive and my own doctor is on vacation as well. Remind me to tell him that is no longer allowed. I'm certain we've all seen red, bloodshot eyes. But have you seen red and yellow bloodshot eyes? The highlight of the trip was the fact that the hospital was out of saline solution to wash out the dye they'd put in. I'm absolutely certain I looked deranged when I stopped at the CVS counter to fill my prescriptions. Not that it helped me any...I still had to wait an hour.

So, as of right now I'm not allowed on the beach because the sun and sand make my eyes water incessantly and the pool isn't working. Reading my book and watching TV also present a problem because too much hurts my swollen eyes.

While there have been some highlights - like spending time with my grandma, aunt, uncle, and cousins I don't often get to see - this vacation has been mostly a bust. Unfortunately, this places much pressure on my next trip...to Scotland :-)

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