Okay now read line 8...

Ever since my boys were born, I have been learning what sleep deprivation can do to your body and mind. It's amazing how it effects you. I find myself forgetting words in mid sentence, unable to focus and some days just plain stupid. Saturday was one of those stupid days.

It's a story I would have shared with Julie if I could have gone down to her office and dropped into her chair. Looking at the round hanging Japanese paper balls above her computer I would have told her just how crazy my Saturday was and we would have laughed at what happens when the nice male nurse asks you to read line 8.

I thought it would be a good idea to send my 3 yr old son Nathan to the high school football game with my husband. They could sit with our neighbor and see their son play. It would give them something fun to do and I would get a few quiet hours at home with my 5 month old Evan.

Everything was going great until I decided to give Evan a bath and get him ready for bed. We were starting out well...the litter pan didn't stink and I was all ready to run the water when Evan start flailing his hands about. I held on tight to be sure he didn't fling himself too far and suddenly I saw a flash of light as his hand hit me right in the eye. The right eye. So it was a quick trip to the changing table while I tried to regain my vision. Sure enough, he had scratched my eye! Not bad enough to blind me, but enough to put an end to his bath. Instead I put him in a sleep sac, got his bottle, headed upstairs, turned on the white noise machine and felt sorry for myself while he ate a bottle and fell asleep.

The next morning, after several phone calls, fussing and fuming, I was off to PrimaCare for an 11 am appointment. Never without my pump, I went early, used one of their rooms to pump and then waited in their lobby for what turned into an hour and a half. I sat with my eyes closed, listening to Daddy Daycare on their TV and again feeling sorry for myself. Our college friend Eric was coming for a visit and I was missing it so some Doc-in-a-box could look in my eye and say "yes, you have a scratch on your eye". Oh, thank you very much...I wondered what that pain in my eye was.

At last, ready to just walk out, they finally called me back. The nurse was nice, asked lots of questions and then took me to the dreaded eye chart. I don't know why they scare me, but I have always been afraid I wouldn't read one right.

"Okay, cover one eye and read line 8." So, I covered one eye, looked at the chart and thought wow, those numbers are small...that looks like an 8 and I started reading out the small letters. Then he said "Okay, now cover the other eye and read line 8" So I did, wondered why I'm reading the same line, wishing I had memorized what I read last time and read the same line again. There was a pause and then he said "Oh, I see what you did, you read line 9. Well, if you can read that one your eyes are fine."

So I looked back at the chart and that's when I saw the big 3 inch tall numbers running down the right side of the chart! I had been squinting at the left side where they had little gray circles and was trying to make numbers out of those. When I couldn't make them out, I quickly guessed at what might be the eighth line and started reading.

I guess the obvious is lost on me!