I have been tasked with sharing this letter to our friends and family. Please read below:

I’m writing to you on this fourth day of February to officially say that my New Years Resolution of staying healthy has gone awry. I ran my little heart out from January 1st through 12th, well on my way to 100 miles for the month; I was up to 51 actually. But later that day my cyst came back for the fourth time. It was not abscessed like the previous occasions, and in an effort not to make it so, I surrendered my 100 mile goal.

In the two week period leading up to my surgery to extract the entire gland (which supposedly had already been done twice), my cyst went away on its own. And maybe that would be a good thing if it were never to come back, but most likely it is just a waiting game until next time.

Fortunately, my surgery was supposed to take place on the day that our friend Ben arrived so I was able to enjoy his presence in Slovakia and not only from bed-rest. We all went to Krakow, had our first couch surfing experience, and had a great time.

Here’s the real deal of what’s going on now.

Tuesday night I dreamt about eye pain and I awoke to moderate pain and redness in both eyes. I, of course, wore my glasses all day Wednesday, and went about the day assuming it was some sort of pink eye. I decided that if it didn’t go away over the night, I would go to the doctor the next morning.

But on Wednesday evening, Burke and I tried to watch some tv show and I had to close my eyes because the pain in my left eye was so great. At 10 pm I decided just to go to sleep. I slept nearly uninterrupted until Burke came to bed around 12, and from then on I counted down the minutes until I was planning to go to the doctor at 9. I tried to sleep but woke up every twenty minutes with shooting pain in my left eye. After about 3 hours of this, the pain became even more frequent and I was waking up to run cold water in my eye ever six or seven minutes. At that point I decided it was more than just pink eye. We texted Slavo and he called back right away, ready and willing to take me to the doctor at 3:30 am.

I think that’s it for this post. Check back for the next installment all about what it’s like here in this communist-project hospital. Which, if I’m lucky, may be the last post on the topic because the doctors said my right eye was “upelne lepsie” (completely better) and the left one is on its way. As they say here, Heep Heep Hooorah!

To clarify a bit. Lizzie was accepted to the hospital with a scratched cornea. They are keeping her for continued treatment and observation. At this point, Lizzie has spent two days at the hospital and will be there all weekend . I will do my best to get her thoughts and words to you over the weekend. In the mean time Niči and I will do our best to hold down the fort in her absence.  Should you want to send Lizzie a letter you can reach her at Lizzie [at] burkeandlizzie [dot] com (I will be sure to download her emails tomorrow before I visit her).