Sick & tired

Well, I never made it to Manhattan. I have a recurrent eye disease, (Thygeson's or SPK), nothing communicable or life threatening, just inconvenient & painful, which tends to recur when I am stressed or over-tired. It has decided to flare up again, probably as a result of insomnia mixed with constant worry about writing my book.

My last bout was when I was working as a fashion editor, trying to simultaneously do my job and cover the collections single-handed, due to grievous under-staffing and a recalcitrant, obstreperous assistant. Working twenty hour days, one night I fell asleep bolt upright on my sofa, still wearing my contact lenses, within seconds of walking through the door. Next morning I felt the tell tale irritation & photo-sensitivity, and missed a day of the shows as I was processed through endless consultants at the Manhattan Eye & Ear Hospital.

A week of eyepatch wearing at the Milan collections, $600 (& that was just the insurance deductibles), and a course of corticosteroids later and I was no longer broken, just broke.

So I take this thing seriously: any hint it's returning and I'm back in my glasses, in a darkened room, artificial tears to hand. I'm hoping I've caught it in time, otherwise I reckon it's cheaper to use my airmiles to go back to England (25000 miles & $374 in taxes) to see my consultant there than it is to see an American eye doctor three times (beginning, middle & end of treatment) and get prescriptions here without medical insurance.

Nothing makes you appreciate the NHS (National Health Service) more than getting sick in America.