Goop



March is here! Springtime temperatures are invading northern Michigan already (we had a VERY mild winter) & along with that comes all the lovely allergens. I’m going to have them year round up here but I consider it a good tradeoff because I love it here so much. I’m not going to be able to shut up about how amazing this town is.

Since I haven’t had much stress on my sinuses in a very long time I’m having all kinds of “this hasn’t happened to me since I was a kid!” incidents. Over the summer my husband & I walked into a taco place only to have my nose start bleeding. (Thankfully I didn’t bleed all over the bar & there was a nice stack of cocktail napkins right there & an understanding & helpful bartender who directed me to the ladies room.) Thursday morning I had this weird feeling in my eye. It kept tearing, but it hurt & I could feel a bump near my tear duct. I kept massaging it as I had been instructed to do by many doctors when it comes to my years of sinus issues. Later that day I realized it was having trouble tearing up & intuitively I knew I had a clogged tear duct. I need to get to the doctor before this gets infected. My luck, it probably already is. After a couple of hours of calling my doctor, not being able to get an appointment, then spending forever on the phone with my insurance company to find which Urgent Care I could go to & be covered, my eye was officially leaking pus. Great. It’s infected.

My Urgent Care visit the next morning was fine. I knew what was up, the doctor confirmed it, & I left with a dacryocystitis (infected tear sac) diagnosis & my “too strong for me” antibiotics prescription that was ready to be picked up from Walgreens before I even checked out of the doctor’s office. Drugs don’t like me. I’m not too fond of them either. Thankfully, I was able to have a doctor who listened to me & gave me an antibiotic that still sucks but doesn’t screw me up too badly like some others have. My side effects (so far) are minimal & my eye is slowly getting better. This happened to me all the time as a child. I recalled one time I had it in both tear sacs & had to use eye ointment that basically left me blind for a week. The first time I saw that movie Wyatt Earp with Kevin Costner, I was sitting in my grandma’s reclining chair & could only listen to it & make out shadows through a grey haze. I remember waking up in the middle of the night forgetting about it & screaming “I’ve gone blind!” until a family member reminded me & led me back to bed.

The most frustrating part is that I’ve got all this reading & writing to do & it’s difficult when I have to keep clearing the goop out of my eye. But I’m prevailing! (Kind of…I’m doing my best anyhow.)

I wanted to let you all know that my husband & I’s music blog has officially launched & I’m very happy about it. I have received some messages from people interested in contributing to it as well & that’s really awesome. I have also invited a few music loving writer friends to write something if they wish to. I like collaborative efforts. I also really feel music connects all of us & gives us something to connect to. It’s going to be a fun journey for us!

Here’s the first post (written by me) about an awesome band originally from Traverse City — The Accidentals — who we discovered just after we moved here: LINK. You can also find The Jam Files on Facebook & Instagram.

That’s all I have for today. I’m going to go rest my eye for a bit. I’m sure all you warm-weather lovers are very excited! I’m sorry though. I’m praying for one last winter dump up here before summer. (They’re going to run me out of town for this!) πŸ˜€

Featured image by agnes from Pixabay



Published by Jennifer Patino

Poet in Michigan.

24 thoughts on “Goop

  1. I hate it when eyes do that shit. I’m just stubborn enough to pretend it isn’t happening while it is happening, pretending the blurry, melting look everything has acquired is just a teenage phase that it is going through. All I have to do is endure and everything will eventually get back to behaving properly. Hopefully you’re on the mend and get better quickly.

    Nice look to the site and nice read. I did some environmental field work in Petoskey and arrived via Traverse City. I didn’t get to see much outside of the airport and the roads to my destination, but it seemed like a nice place to visit. Had to get used to calling those things “grinders”, though… LOL πŸ˜‰

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    1. Thank you! I’m hoping it clears up soon. It seems to be. Then I can go back to just having bad vision instead of “can’t see anything” vision. πŸ˜€

      And that’s something I can’t do. I can say “pop” & have my whole life (getting made fun of for it when I lived in Florida especially), but they’re SUB SANDWICHES! I won’t call them anything else. haha

      If you ever happen to swing through here again we will have to meet up! Also, I’m glad you dig the new site!

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      1. Thankfully, that project is in maintenance mode. But I have been tempted to visit the area on my own schedule instead of having to work 16 hours a day under the burning sun. I don’t know what they were thinking when they put a desk jockey out to record data going back and forth over a bay in a grid pattern, dropping a probe in the water at various depth intervals. I mean, I know it was in large part “live, warm body who doesn’t know better”, but it seems to have been poor decision-making on their part.

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  2. I truly hope your eye heals up sooner than later.
    I have to do daily eye drops because of keratoconus and allergies. Eyes are such sensitive body parts. Ugh!

    ”Β I have also invited a few music loving writer friends to write something if they wish to. I like collaborative efforts. I also really feel music connects all of us & gives us something to connect to. It’s going to be a fun journey for us!”

    And I’m currently working on something now for The Jam Files, and I’m super excited about it for you guys! Congratulations on it, of course!

    Feel better soon, Jennifer!

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  3. I forgot to comment on this earlier but I am quite confident you’ll see at least one more magical snowfall, my friend! My parents were married on April 7 and there was a blizzard. Also, I have many memories of snow on the lilacs and they bloom mid-May, so, be patient. I almost put the snowblower away then thought better of it πŸ˜†

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