During my visit with Lizzie today I received another letter to pass on to you. She is doing better but boy has all this created a few stories to tell. You can continue the saga below.

Alright, well, Slavo took me to the regular emergency room downtown, only to be turned away to the dreaded Roosevelta Nemocnica. It’s like a black hole basically, patients go in and disappear for days before reemerging to life as they previously knew it. I was originally supposed to have my first cyst operation here, but we came, waited an entire day in various lines for a pre-surgery screening and at the end of the day when the doctors all went home, I still wasn’t finished with my waiting. It was a nightmare.

So we arrived around 4 am and a young doctor examined my eye and said that both my corneas were scratched, and the left one was scratched badly. He even compared me to a young patient he knew of who had to have a cornea transplant. Yikes. He immediately said it was from my contacts and then asked how often and how long I wear them before reaffirming that it was from my contacts. I don’t know how after 14 years of wearing contacts daily they just decided to scratch my eyes out of no where, but this clearly wasn’t a mystery he wanted any part in solving.

He asked if I would consent to staying in the hospital and I said I’d prefer not to but he’s the doctor so if that’s what he recommends then okay. So I signed my life away three times on a contract, thinking I’d stay for the morning and go home maybe in the evening. Then Slavo began translating for the doctor (who was young enough that I’m sure he spoke perfect English and didn’t want to try) that I would need to bring my slippers, pajamas, cutlery, robe, toiletries… I stopped Slavo there and asked how long exactly I would be staying. He said til Monday. MONDAY! Thursday morning hadn’t even dawned yet (not that my eyes were really open to see it). I offered up a few suggestions that might get me out early, you know, because I am such an expert in Slovak health care, but eventually conceded to staying.

The first few hours were a sleepy blur. I was supposed to go to the nurses window every half an hour for kvapky (drops), but I ended up waiting at the window for ten, fifteen, or once even twenty five minutes. So that cut into my sleeping time quite badly. I had to wait until the late morning and afternoon when I only had to get my kvapy hourly to start catching up on some sleep.

Should you need to reach Lizzie or want to send her any well wishes please send them to Lizzie [at] burkeandlizzie [dot] com. For those of you who have already sent her letters she is quite grateful and appreciates your love. Tune in later for more updates.