Journal - Walmart Wanderings Week 6

Well I haven’t written for a while, have I? I keep telling myself that if I would just write a little a couple of times a week then I wouldn’t have to cover so much ground each time and I would be better able to remember what I’m trying to write about. Time just gets away from me, especially since I started working again.

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been working at Walmart for 6 weeks now. The first few weeks were pretty rough, as I have mentioned, with my legs being pretty sore all the time. During the last couple of weeks though, they have finally been catching up with the demand I’m placing on them. While I’m at work they don’t really bother me at all. As long as I keep moving that is. When I take my breaks and sit down for a few minutes then they hurt again when I get back up, but it only takes a minute for them to loosen up again. At home in the evenings they really tighten up on me and it hurts to walk but even that is getting better.

On the weekend of October 20 and 21 I started feeling a cold coming on. I was hoping to just get through Monday and Tuesday and then I had the day off on Wednesday. Well, I did get through and sure enough on Wednesday I felt pretty miserable. Unfortunately, I still felt pretty bad on Thursday and I had to call in sick. Thursday was one of our coldest days yet and I knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to work in the cold all day when I was already sick. But after two days of Joni’s chicken-noodle soup I was ready to go back on Friday. I expected kind of a rough day on Friday but I actually felt pretty good that day and on Saturday as well. So I got over my cold without too much trouble.

I think it was that weekend that I started noticing a red spot in my eye. That didn’t concern me very much because that same spot gets red now and by the next day it’s usually gone. This time, however, the redness didn’t go away and by Tuesday I decided I better call the doctor. This was October 30. I called Dr. Feilmeier’s office in Omaha to find out what day he was coming in November and they said the 8th, more than a week away. I told them what was going on with my eye and the nurse said I should really get it checked out as soon as possible, but instead of asking me to come to Omaha, which is kind of what I expected, she offered to call the Kearney Eye Institute and see if someone there could get me in. She called me back a bit later and said she had gotten me an appointment with Dr. Vaughan, the same doctor who did my glasses back in July, on Thursday, November 1. That was fine with me as it saved me a trip to Omaha.

I saw Dr. Vaughan on Thursday and the report was good. There was no sign of any infection, and the sutures all looked okay. I had been thinking that one of those sutures came loose again and an infection was starting since that has happened before. Dr. Vaughan said the redness was because my eye is very dry. With cold weather coming on, the air is getting more and more dry all the time, and now that I’m working outdoors I’ll probably feel it even more this winter. Dr. Vaughan recommended some lubricant drops, commonly called “tears”, which you can get over-the-counter. Joni and I stopped at Walgreen’s on the way home and picked some up, both of us thinking that we had really dodged a bullet that time.

So all was well until Monday evening, the 5th of November. At a little after 5pm on Monday, one of Dr. Feilmeier’s assistants called from the office in Omaha. She said that Dr. Feilmeier had just seen the notes and results from my visit to Dr. Vaughan and he wanted to see me right away, as in the next day. I was so flabbergasted that I didn’t even think to ask her what Dr. Feilmeier had seen that got him so anxious. She wanted me to set an appointment for the next day but I honestly couldn’t think what to do. I was totally caught off-guard and I was supposed to work the next day and everything. I finally told her that I would call back in the morning. Mind you, I already had an appointment to see Dr. Feilmeier in Kearney on Thursday the 8th. Well I though it over for a couple of hours and finally decided I would have to go. Dr. Feilmeier hasn’t let me down yet and I trust him.

On Tuesday morning I called his office and told them I was on my way. Then I called in at Walmart yet again and we got ready to go. Dr. Feilmeier wasn’t in until 1pm that day so we didn’t have to hurry too much, but it was Election Day and I wanted to stop by and vote on our way out. The polling place for our area is about 7 miles east of our house so it wasn’t really out of the way that much. Also, up until this year, I have never voted before and really wanted to do it this time. I had wanted to in 2008 but didn’t get registered in time. We left the house at about 9:30am I think, stopped by to vote, and we were on our way.

This post is getting pretty long so I’ll cut to the chase. Dr. Feilmeier said pretty much the same thing Dr. Vaughan had said a few days before. We weren’t there very long and were back on the road heading home. In some ways it felt like a wasted trip, but some things are worth being extra careful with, and one of those things is your eyesight. So I have to keep putting those tears in my eyes several times a day, but everything is fine and my eyesight is still good. Today was my day off so I got to relax and do some fun things, which I will be writing about soon.

Mark 11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. ESV

Matthew 14:31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” ESV