Choroidal Nevus!

I have had no casual surprises lately.

I also have a freckle in my eye. And yes, the optometrist was very nonchalant about it.

The bf had a freckle cut out of his eye, with a local anaesthetic - he was awake and watched the surgeon SLICE INTO HIS EYE.

It was a pressure issue, apparently.

My brother has listeria, a bacterial blood infection most likely caused by eating contaminated smoked fish, like lox or white fish (which he loves), or deli meats. I visited him in the hospital, and he seemed okay. He's had to stay in the hospital for about three weeks, though, to continue I.V. antibiotics. I knew listeria was rare, but I didn't realize how serious it could be. The other day, I casually looked it up and found out 25% of people who get listeria, and there are only 2,500 cases in the U.S. in a year, die. I was very surprised by that. He's doing okay now (so far, so good), but he is in one of the higher risk groups, since he takes a kind of steroid for his Crohn's disease, which, I think, can weaken his immune system (NOT a doctor). I don't think he knew he wasn't supposed to eat lox, etc.

Scary stuff.

Oh ((((pips and pips' brother)))). I hope it works out okay.

Ooo, goo, ewww!

(sorry,, couldn't resist)

Wow, bad timing. I was responding to goo's story, first. Pips, I'm so sorry to hear about your brother!! I hope he recovers quickly.

Oh Pips! All the best to your brother!

Speedy recovery to Pip's brother.
This year I learned 2 interesting things about my body: I have a heart murmur but apparently it's not a big deal, and I have an extra bone in my left big toe, which could be a big deal needing surgery (though I don't know why after 27 yrs it's only now a problem).

"She has freckles... in her eye, she is nice..."

Oh no, Pips! My brother has his PhD in microbiology and studied listeria for most of his academic career. He just got a job at the FDA continuing his food-safety work. Good luck to your brother and speedy recovery.

On the subject of eyeballs, I opted for the extra fancy eye exam last week when getting new glasses, and they used this big machine to take a scan of the back of my eyeballs. I wish they could have emailed me the pics or something, they were so cool - ethereal red and green with spiderweb veins and stuff.

I was visiting my gyno about the critter in my cooter (self link) and found out that the uterus is only about the size of a lemon when not inhabited by an alien life form babby.

Re: listeria, I just found out about it and it's relationship to diabetics (compromised immune system). No more deli meat for me (I don't eat fish, so no worries there).