Well, I definitely wasn't expecting to take so much time away, but life has a way of knocking you for a loop—both good and bad—when you least expect it.
Let me give you a little backstory about why my eye strain was, and still is to a degree, so bad.
Back in 2023, I started the year off the way I usually did back then: by hiking on New Year's Day. I was finishing one of the loops at Buffalo Track Canyon Nature Trail when I came across a huge sheet of ice. Now, if I'd been smart, I would have turned around and found another route. But being stubborn, I decided to try skirting around the edge.
Huge mistake.
The moment I stepped onto the ice, my feet shot out from under me. Because I was wearing a small hiking backpack, all of my weight landed squarely on my lower back. You can tell from the picture below that I hit hard enough to crack the ice, and it took everything I had to keep more than my foot from sliding into the water.
I made it home and, for about a week, I was sore but otherwise okay. Then, one morning while bending over to turn on the shower, I heard a loud pop and was immediately in excruciating pain.
Within a few weeks, simply walking became difficult. But I still had to work, so I dug deep and kept going, taking baby steps even when all I wanted to do was sit down and cry.
For nearly three months, my doctor insisted it was just a muscle strain and that I'd get over it. Meanwhile, my mobility kept getting worse and the pain kept increasing. Eventually he ordered an MRI, which showed that the disc between L5 and S1 was completely pinching the two nerves exiting on my left side.
He referred me to pain management, and ever since, 1,600 mg of gabapentin has been my lifesaver, along with the occasional SI joint or epidural injection. I won't get into the early side effects of gabapentin—that's a story for another day.
Then, just as we started talking about surgery that fall, life threw me another curveball.
At 47, I had a heart attack caused by a 95% blockage in my right coronary artery.
Thankfully, I made it through with no permanent damage, but that immediately put any plans for back surgery on hold.
I won't go into what the blood thinner did to me over the following year because that's not really the point of this story. My eye issues are. But everything that came before is relevant—I promise.
Over the next several months, I started itching constantly without any visible rash. Within a year, I was literally digging furrows into my forearms and thighs from scratching so much. It appears everything my body went through in 2023 sent my immune system into overdrive, and I developed atopic dermatitis, better known as eczema.
Last year I started seeing a dermatologist, who put me on Dupixent, a biologic injection every two weeks.
And wow, did it work.
Within the first month, I was almost completely itch-free. It honestly felt amazing.
For a few months, I was finally enjoying life again.
Then my eyes started becoming a little less happy.
They became sore, constantly bloodshot, and just never felt right. After reading that Dupixent could cause eye inflammation, I scheduled an appointment with my dermatologist.
The morning of that appointment, I woke up with my left eye completely red and a pupil that wouldn't dilate.
My dermatologist's office happened to be on the first floor of a building with an ophthalmologist on the second floor, so I went upstairs hoping I could make an appointment.
Fortunately, they squeezed me in.
The ophthalmologist started me on a strong steroid eye drop, and when I returned three days later, she confirmed I had developed iritis.
That was the end of my Dupixent journey.
Over the next six months, I bounced on and off steroid drops and medications to control my eye pressure, but my eyes have never really been the same. They're much drier now, tire out quickly, and eye strain can take weeks to settle down once it flares up.
I'm trying to rest them more, but that's easier said than done when I manage a dental office and spend most of my day staring at computer screens.
I'm learning to adjust and build healthier habits...I'm just not very good at sticking to routines.
Which brings us to today.
Stopping Dupixent wasn't a problem at first. It took several months for the itching to gradually return, and until about two months ago it was manageable.
Then the hives started.
I've never dealt with hives before, but over the last month they've made my life miserable. They'd cover large sections of my body or appear in multiple places at once. They usually disappeared within a few hours, only to pop up somewhere else moments later. My skin would become hot, itchy, and if I scratched what looked like perfectly normal skin, within minutes I'd have raised welts.
I'm currently on day two of oral prednisone, and thankfully it seems to have almost completely stopped the hives. I'm also taking three cetirizine tablets a day, and I'm hoping that by the time I finish this two-week course of steroids, the antihistamines will have built up enough in my system to keep the worst of it from coming back.
Now I just have to figure out what my next step will be for controlling the eczema.
So that's been my last couple of months.
All of that has been happening while I was also promoted and moved into a brand-new dental office that has had more than its fair share of growing pains. And that's not even mentioning my fuel pump failing, followed just a couple of weeks later by my brakes deciding they no longer wanted to be part of the team.
Needless to say...life's been busy.
I haven't been reading much besides romance novels—mostly paranormal, urban fantasy, and mystery romances—most of which I probably won't review. I've watched a lot of TV, binged a few shows I'll eventually write about, and caught up on more movies than I care to admit.
But I am back, even if I'm easing into things.
Missed y'all.
