Not So Manic Monday-ish

Today was the official start of Spring Break, so I celebrated it in the way that any good college student would:

I slept until noon.

Surprisingly despite all outward appearances, I'm not really the type of guy to sleep until noon I just *look* like a slacker. Then again, this isn't too surprising given that I stayed up until about 4:23AM before unceremoniously passing out with my laptop on my chest.

For the typical Monday I'm used to, I'd say this was a really good change of pace given the fact this weekend was craaaaaaaaazy... and I really mean crazy, I'm still waiting for it to have been a dream.

I got back to my parents' house on Friday and basically from there I have been coping in a weird hellish reality, it's only just now that it seems to be slowing down.

I'm not really going to beat around the bush-- this weekend was the biggest bipolar rollercoaster of utter crap and then by the end of it everything really started to look up again--thank god.

I came home to have everything in my life changed and drastically at that. These past few weeks at school have already been hell so I've been a little too stressed to realize the things that were happening under my nose which I'm both grateful for and at the same time pretty shaken by how much can happen.

About 2 weeks ago my dad woke up one morning with floaters in his eyes and shook it off. He's never been one to trust doctors, so much so that he only just started going back regularly this year after almost 7 years without being looked at. Given the fact it's been seven years I'm not surprised that on top of everything that happened my dad has high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a series of other heart related problems-- but it's still a lot to accept that he's not invincible anymore. The doctors started him on a few new drug therapies to get him healthy again, but they never mentioned what was going to happen next. Over the next few days he'd apparently been noticing some weird stuff happening-- his heart beating faster, more floaters, twitching, and a lack of focus to his sight.

Finally one of these days my dad woke up to realize his eyesight in one of his eyes was completely gone.

Fast forward a little until my arrival home and I find that my dad has been seeing a number of specialists, doctors, therapists, you name it--he's been to visit them.

From what I've been told her suffered a stroke in his eye, the clot that dislodged caused severe retinal damage (see: Retinal Vein Occlusion). The doctors have given us a million little things from the medical standpoint, but none from the personal standpoint.

Basically my dad is legally blind now, he's never going to regain the sight in that eye, and we've been so blandly told that he could lose sight in the other eye, he could lose the functionality of the one eye he has (see: glass eye) and we're not sure what this means for the financial future of this family-- and yet at least we have that fact, we're a family.

I hate being the super serious guy about this, depression has never sat attractively on me, so I'm going to try and not talk too much more about this-- but I just needed to get this off my chest and to dispense some advice because it's the best I can do with this experience.

If I've learned anything it's about appreciating your parents, your family, your friends-- all the people in your life who matter. Get to know these people in your life, because you never know when you're going to lose them, I got lucky in the case of my dad, but given the nature of his health it could have gone so much worse. So really, if you're reading this and you have a parent, sibling, grandparent, whatever-- whoever matters to you... don't take them for granted because you never know when those tomorrows run out.

Also to anyone who was there for me through this-- thank you, it might not be much in the case of the content of words, but then again-- I've never been the most eloquent speaker when it came to things like this. It really means a lot to have the people that I've listened to and advised finally turning the tables on me-- go figure, I can give advice with the best of them but can't take it *ironic*

Now it's 5:50PM and I'm watching NCIS waiting for my dad to come home *exciting!life*

Hopefully the rest of the week improves, but for now... I'm back to lazy *retreats to cave*

-Pax