Noooooo Loki!

How do I begin to tell you the tale of our past week? It’s been a doozie. Let me just start at the beginning.

I wake with Loki on the bed gnawing away at something. I go to see what it is and remove a fairly large piece of plastic. Hmmmm, I wonder what that was? Who knows, this pup gets into everything. Not quite certain, I shove it under my pillow and drift off again. The next thing I awake to is my daughter’s voice, “Mom, Loki has your contact lens case”.

That startles me awake. My brain lifts out of its sleepy fog as I slowly begin to realize what that mangled plastic must have been! No, it can’t be, I left it on the bathroom counter. I’m not one to be haphazard with my contact lenses.

I jump out of bed with a knot of dread in my stomach. I begin finding pieces of my contact lens case everywhere while saying over and over again, “No Loki, no, no, no, Loki, why?”

I’m in complete and utter shock. I’m asking the kids how the dog got my lenses? Who was in the back bathroom? How in the world did he get them off the counter. My shock quickly turns to despair.

I slump down on the toilet seat and start sobbing, “I want to go home, I cannot believe the dog did this, I can’t drive the RV without my contacts, why did this happen” along with other blubbering of a distraught person. The weight of the world has been on my shoulders for five months and it’s all slipping off in this one breakdown.

The carnage – my lenses are mangled in there somewhere.

It’s like that one final piece, you know, the straw that breaks the camels back. I knew going out on this trip was going to be hard at times. I’m a single mom on the road. I don’t get breaks. But this is the moment when it feels everything I’ve been trying to hold up comes crashing on down.

Let me just sum up how bad the situation is for you. Due to my eye disease, my lenses are custom fitted. I cannot walk into just any doctor and replace them. Only certain doctors can fit me and order them.

My doctor is in Virginia and I’m far from home. I have ONE backup lens. The lenses the dog chewed up cost $1200! Some of that was covered by insurance. But that is retail on my lenses. I’m in a pickle and trust me, I know it.

Once I regain my composure I start to try to formulate a plan. First I call Costco Optical, maybe their eye center can get me in on a Saturday and assess the damage. They refer me to Lens Crafters. I do manage to get a same-day appointment. However, I know my chances are slim.

I mosey on over there and they do their basic pre-exam. Then it’s time to see the doctor. I tell her my dilemma and she gives it to me straight. She says, “I could do an eye exam on you but chances are pretty good that I’m not going to be able to order a specialty lens for you.” If she doesn’t do the exam, she won’t charge me anything.

Surprise, surprise. I knew it was going to be a shot in the dark. We decide to follow-up with each other on Tuesday. My task is to call my doctor on Monday and she will attempt to get the contact lens prescription from them. Then she’ll see if they can order the lens.

We follow-up with each other on Tuesday and the doctors suspicions are confirmed, she cannot fill my prescription. I’m referred to a doctor who can and I give them a call. But things are going pretty slowly with them. They have delays getting my prescription from Lens Crafters (even though they faxed it twice) and I won’t know much until they have it in their hands.

So here we sit, extended out another week at a pretty expensive RV park. I can move the beast with one eye but I really need to stay until I know the outcome. The lenses could take anywhere from one to two weeks. And they’re not even ordered yet <sigh>.

See guys, life happens, even on the road. And when it does, it has the capability of severely complicating things. But just like living in a stick and brick house or living anywhere for that matter, you have to find the good. Because just like my mother taught me, it’s always there. These are the pluses.

• If I had to be stuck somewhere, southern California in February is not a bad place to be :-). It’s a lot better than our last stop (thank goodness it didn’t happen there!). Yes, the rent is very steep but………
• The people here are very, very nice. From the people I’ve met at the dog park offering names of good eye doctors to the people bagging my groceries. Everyone has bent over backwards to help me out. My vision is literally in the hands of strangers and I cannot say enough about their kindness and understanding. Lens Crafters isn’t charging me for my pre-exam! That’s pretty darn cool.
• We’re in a spot where there is a lot to do and see. And at least I have one contact lens. Can you imagine if I hadn’t thought to bring a backup? I have glasses too, but with my eye condition, they’re pretty much worthless, I have to wear contacts to see.
• I didn’t kill the dog (this is a joke people). In fact I didn’t even touch him. I looked at him and sobbed, “Why did you do this to me Loki”. Now of course I know he has no clue what I’m saying and he really didn’t intend to ‘hurt’ me. I honestly think the lenses got knocked off the counter and he thought it was a water bottle.
• I really don’t have anywhere I need to be at the moment and this shouldn’t delay the timing of our return too much (hopefully). It’s kinda nice to sit still for a little bit. We’ve been going at a pretty fast pace for a while now.

It wasn’t me, I swear!

There you have it folks, the good, the bad and the ugly of my past week. In my next post I’ll share our San Diego Zoo trip with you as well as our whale watching expedition. By the way, does anyone out there want a little white dog? He only weighs 18 pounds but boy does he have a strong jaw ;-).

Now would be a good time to cheer me up and make my day. If you’re ordering anything from Amazon in the near future. I’d really appreciate it if you’d click on my Amazon Link and help this blogger out. Thank you! I really do appreciate it.

{HUGS} from the Crew!