Tuesday, February 23, 2021

More Self-Health Discoveries

 Not sure why this is the year of “Christine” health discoveries... 

I had my annual eye exam and each year I pay extra out of pocket for Optomap - traditional eye cameras only get about 45˚ of your eyes, while the Optomap gets a 200˚ picture. It helps early detection of other underlying health issues.

The past two years I’ve had tiny small spots on my retina from minuscule hemorrhages. They’ve been consistent and not growing so my OD isn’t concerned. However - this year a new large one appeared. My OD was concerned and referred me to the Cincinnati Eye Institute and wanted me to get bloodwork to cover off on any other health abnormalities. Great. 

At CEI, I had a full range of tests including a salt water “dye test” where I had an IV of salt water as they took photos of my retinas. This would help them see the blood vessels in my retinas. 

Twice the OD asked if I was born premature - ? Nope - full term! Well, it turns out my retinas never fully developed in utero - !! The OD showed me the photographs of my eyes - the blood vessels don’t reach the edges of my eyes, which is causing lack of blood flow and in turn these tiny hemorrhages! 

He said there’s nothing to do about it and it isn’t going to cause any long-term problems, it will just be monitored every year. 

That’s my latest health story! 

This is not my eye, but the red dots towards the top are what my hemorrhages look like. 


Thursday, February 4, 2021

Remote School and Looking Forward

We are now about six months into remote school for this year. We had to decide by the end of October what we wanted to do for the second semester. Because, you know, we had a COVID crystal ball. 

We chose to keep the girls remote. Hannah mainly because she cannot wear a mask terribly long and she’s actually doing better than I think in person - because she has a dedicated caregiver for 100% one-on-one instruction. 

Nora, however, I wish we’d sent back – but she loves her remote teachers. She is extremely distracted at home by everything. We’ve tried multiple desk locations, all the tricks... She’s consistently missing assignments and rushes through them. We’re always butting heads. 

Four more months of remote school. 

Summer camp registration was already this week - ! The girls loved it last year and they are capping enrollment at 150 kids. We are sending the girls - they will have been secluded from their classmates 15 months... It’s time to release them with their masks on. Which is a worry for me - Hannah wearing a mask all day at Summer Camp. I hope the exemption note from the pediatrician continues to work for us. 

We have chosen safety as a priority for our family, but I can see now that being in the classroom and somewhat with peers may be worth the risk. I couldn’t rightly predict that back in October. 


Pandemic Christmas 2020

Whoops - way behind here. 

Pandemic Christmas was... quiet. We got outside as much as we could. We’ve definitely used our Cincinnati Nature Center membership the most this winter season than anytime we’ve ever had in the past seven years!

We did manage an outdoor visit with my family as temps reached 50˚ a couple days after Christmas. And we were away from our caregiver long enough that we were able to visit Nana & Papa around the New Year. 







We made another large, lovely meal together. 

Luckily we already had a tradition of going to Coney Island’s holiday light display as well as driving around to see lights in other neighborhoods. One house even had a walk-through display! 








Our good friends set up a video chat for New Years that included some snacks and a beer flight for the grown-ups - such a fun and thoughtful idea!





Hoping Christmas 2021 will look a little more normal...