What's Going to Work? TEAMWORK

At this point in my life, I can honestly say that I'm being held together by pins, needles, and the dedication of hundreds of caring medical professionals. Never before have I needed so many people to maintain a semblance of a functional life.

Let's count up the "ist"s,"ioner"s, and "tor"s that I see on a fairly regular basis:

• Psychiatrist
• Therapist
• Pharmacist
• Optometrist
• Opthalmologist
• Chiropractor
• Dentist
• Endodontist
• Gynecologist
• Family Practitioner
• Orthopedist (possibly soon)

If we add in Zac's list:

• Pediatrician
• Ear, Nose, and Throat Specialist

We get to the surprising number of 13. It takes 13 different medical specialists to keep me and my son healthy. The latest round of medical treatment led me to the optometrist and her partner in crime, the opthalmologist. Don't let the similar names confuse you. I found out that it's bad form to assume that they are the same profession. I had to go see an actual medical doctor, that would be the opthalmologist, to diagnose bacterial conjunctivitis in both of my eyes. I didn't have full out pink eye, but I had red, watery eyes for at least two months before finally taking an afternoon off and going to see my eye care specialist.

I'm back on antibiotics for my eyes. I put eye drops in four times a day. My chronic v problems are still lingering. An interesting side effect of taking 10 separate rounds of anti-fungal antibiotics is that hair starts becoming brittle at the ends. An afternoon at the hair salon and I came out with most of my hair gone, back to a length that I hadn't seen since I graduated college.

So, that's what's going on with me. I'm falling apart at the ripe age of 27. I rock.