I know it's been awhile since there has been a new issue of Carol's Corner and this probably won't be a long one, but I want to keep you abreast of why that's been and just try to impart a few words of wisdom and inspiration, so let's get the picture portion over and get down to it. I adore this picture that my daughter-in-law took while we celebrated Thanksgiving at their home with both of our families. I most definitely am going to print this one up and frame it. Purple is my most favorite color and this just looks so awesome with this outdoor backdrop. The winner of naming this ensemble was Jo Ellen Jatczak with,”So Much To Be Thankful For.”

I chose a mix of jewelry and accessories for this. I use a silver toned necklace and and my newest favorite pair of shoes in a dark toned silver. Then there was this matching bracelet and earrings of multi colored stones in a silver toned setting. And of course I used a lavender FitBit.

 

 

 

The BandCuff in this pretty blue, is a new one I got recently and brings out the small blue areas that are in the top. I have to point out the adorable name tags that my daughter made for our dinner. Aren't they precious?

It's always fun to wear this purple watch. It just blended very nicely with this whole ensemble.

So now onto why I have been missing for so many days. It all started the day after Thanksgiving. As usual I was up till the wee hours of the morning, so around 1:30 in the afternoon I woke up and was horrified that I could barely see out of my right eye and it only went downhill from there. I started getting the most excruciating pain in the eye. My husband wasn't home but was able to reach him on his cell phone, thank God for that. I told him he had to get home as soon as possible. By the time he got back to the house I was in the worst pain ever and totally frightened. I knew the Eye Center was probably closed but he got the messenger service and the doctor called my husband who explained what was happening. She thought she knew what it was and asked if we would come to her home. Now that was a no brainer. It was around 20-30 minutes away and as time went on the pain grew progressively worse. I had to cover my eye all the way there. The light made it even worse. I have a pretty high pain tolerance but this was beyond the pale. I have come to the conclusion that eye pain might be the worst ever with mouth pain coming in second. When we got there she lead me to her bedroom, had me sit on her queen size bed and proceeded to pull out of her closet one of the pieces of equipment that you always see at the eye doctor's. She commented that people thought she was nuts when she did that, but boy was I ever glad. She could see that I was in too much pain to even open my eye, but was able to long enough for her to put a dose of numbing eyedrops in my eye. Talk about immediate relief. She looked at my eye and said it was exactly as she thought. I had an abrasion on a large portion of the cornea. An abrasion is similar to a scratch but much larger. She said it made my eye like a piece of sandpaper. She then took one of her contacts out of her closet and put it in my eye. They call that a bandage contact. It protects the eye and makes it so the pain is not as bad. It was funny because she kept thanking ME for coming to her house. I told her I should be thanking her because I would have gone anywhere. She prescribed an eyedrop that was part strong steroid and part antibiotic. I had to put one drop 4 times a day in my eye. There was some pain after the numbing drops wore off but nothing remotely close to what I had experienced earlier. By the next day I started to feel a lot better. I had to see her on Monday and my eye was back to normal. She removed the bandage contact and said to stop the drops. I have to use a refresh gel drops in my eye before I go to sleep. Praise God, I really was scared. My eye doctor is one of the good and caring ones that's for sure.

And then that was only the beginning of my health sagas. I think this probably all started with sinus issues I had been having. By Friday night it felt like someone had a dagger stuck in my throat. This didn't stop for two days and the sinus issue kept getting worse at the same time. I couldn't sleep because I couldn't breathe and hardly got relief even with a decongestant and humidifier, and then the coughing fits started. For the past two days I have been in bed until tonight. Anyone who knows me knows this is something I rarely do. Tuesday I never even got dressed. Early Tuesday morning I finally got to sleep after taking a sleeping pill and never got up till 6:30 at night. My husband wondered why I didn't call him all day. Yesterday I called him when I needed something and to ask him to fix me something to eat. I remember waking up a few times to use the bathroom but went right back to sleep. What was really funny was when I want downstairs at 6:50 and found him still there. He forgot it was Wednesday and that it was church night, so he rushed off to make it on time. He usually goes half an hour early to open up and set up for the pastor who is 45 minutes away. People might have had to wait to get in tonight.

There have been a lot of downsides to being this sick, but some upsides were that I got as much rest as was possible under the circumstances, caught up on some tv and DVR watching and lost some weight in the process. I hope I am on the downward side of this cold. Time will tell.

I have decided that I am not even going to attempt to exercise till at least Monday, that is except for dancing Saturday night.

So let's talk about a few things. I hope all of you who celebrated Thanksgiving had a blessed one. If you over indulged remember Holiday's are meant to enjoy. Stop feeling guilty when this happens and just remember these days are not an every day occurrence. Forget the guilt and move on from there. You can make course corrections as needed. As we have just entered an extended holiday period just know you aren't going to be perfect, far from it probably. But in between events you can double your efforts, whether it be from diet, exercise or both. Stop the stressing and the guilt and get ready to enjoy the holidays as they were meant to be enjoyed. Enjoy the time with friends and family. And on those shopping days you should be able to incorporate a lot of walking into them. Work the walking in as much as you can. The holidays should be a magical and happy time. Don't let stress and guilt ruin them for you. Neither one ever does us any good. Enjoy the events that you are part of and plan how to compensate in between them. You can get through this holiday season without major damage as long as you prepare for it. So what if you add a few extra pounds as long as it isn't exorbitant. You can easily get that off once the holidays have ended.

Then there is the issue of sickness, especially with the changes in weather this time of year. I had not been really sick in a long time and for me colds are my worst enemy. Something that really has been clarified for me more and more is that you have to rest even when you don't want to. Let your body be your barometer. If it is screaming at you to rest, then you need to rest. If that means you have to give up your exercise regimen for a certain amount of time, then so be it. Don't be in a hurry to get restarted until you know your body is ready for it. If you try to before your body is ready, you might just have a setback which will just make it that much longer till you can resume your exercise program. Learn to recognize the signals your body is trying to send you. Heed what it is saying and you will be so much the better for it. That is one of the things I have been working on. Before this, you might have found me trying to keep on going no matter what, but this time I listened to my body and acted accordingly. And until I feel 100% again exercise is just going to have to wait.

So stop the stressing, stop the guilt, when you get sick listen to your body and get set to enjoy this glorious holiday season no matter what it is you celebrate. They are meant to enjoy. Till next time, God Bless.