Nichols Family Notes: Fun Monday (for Gracie, anyway)

Hello, all! Hopefully today is the real start of spring, and that nasty cold weather is behind us for good. Unfortunately, I'm not able to really enjoy the bright and beautiful sunshine, as I have iritis in my left eye. I woke up last Friday morning with a very red, extremely painful eye. I got to work okay (of course it was dark) and lasted about four hours at work until I just couldn't take the bright lights of the showroom any longer and had to leave. I went to my optometrist, Dr. Harrell, thinking I had another corneal scratch (this would be my fourth corneal issue in as many years). He said it was so inflamed and irritated that he couldn't even tell exactly what it was, but he treated it like a corneal scratch anyway. I got a suspension eye drop that was half steroid, half antibiotic. I took that drop in my left eye every three hours all weekend long, for the most part staying in our dark bedroom to keep out most of the light. Three days later, my eye was worse. So I went to Dr. Harrell again today, who decided to refer me to an opthalmologist, Dr. Snook (whom I saw for my second corneal scratch two years ago). Dr. Snook and his partners have three locations: Plano (where I saw him the first time), Lewisville (directly behind my work and a stone's throw from where I had my surgery in December) and Denton (close to the Denton hospital). I had to go to Denton for him to see me today, and he is AWESOME! I just love him, as I did two years ago. He looked, said I had iritis, which is just a severe inflamation of the iris, so he gave me another, much stronger steroid drop to use every two hours and to cut back the antibiotic drop to three times per day. He dilated my eyes twice (said I'd be dilated til tomorrow) and then he numbed them up with these awesome numbing drops (which are the only reason I'm able to look at a computer screen right now). I will have to miss work tomorrow, as I still can't drive yet and probably won't be able to until Wednesday morning, but he is very confident that this steriod drop will do the trick pretty quickly. He is so cool, very quick but to the point and he is so knowledgable and loves to explain things so that you really understand what's going on. I love that in a doctor. I'm going to make a list over here on the right-hand toolbar ----> so that everyone can see the great doctors we have. I research all of them and make sure they stand up to serious questions from me before I will list them so if you or someone else needs a great recommendation, just come look here.

Okay, now for some Gracie pictures! She stayed home from school today just to play and spend time with Sherrie and I. She had an awesome time! She is losing more and more of her "baby-ness" every day, turning so quickly into a little girl that I can't keep up. Her facial expressions are priceless and so grown up. She runs, jumps, climbs, bounces, and giggles all the time. Just in the past week or so she has really started to learn and say a lot of words. Her favorite words seem to be "bubble", "dog", "bath", and of course "Daddy" and "Momma". She also gives her toys sound effects, which is so funny when she runs through the house yelling, "Baa-aa-aa!" at her sheep toys! Her hair now has a soft, beautiful little flip over and behind her ears, her bangs come down to her eyes and the back of her head is a little mass of soft blonde curls. She's lost so much of the baby "rolls" all over her body, and stands so tall! She also has almost all of her teeth already, her canines finally starting to poke through. What a big girl!