Friday odds & ends & updates

• Eye update: I was back at the hospital downtown for an early-morning appointment yesterday/Thursday (Aug. 25th) to check on my eye with the opthamologist (11 days post-superficial keratectomy).  The appointment was for 8;  I didn't actually see her until almost 9:30.  :p  It was busy and slightly chaotic, with waiting patients lining the hallways and interns/fellows scurrying around everywhere (including the young guy who had assisted with my procedure).  She removed the contact lens bandage -- which further irritated my already-irritated eye :(  but it was a real relief to get it out (and it is a lot less irritated today, thankfully). She said the area where the scar tissue was removed is healing nicely, but it's going to take a little longer for other areas of the eye. 
• She told me to stop using the prescription drops she'd given me after the surgery --  but then she wrote out prescriptions for two more kinds of drops -- one to be used twice daily (which leaves a horrible taste at the back of my throat!) and the other four times daily. I'm also to continue with the Hydrasense (over-the-counter lubricating) drops every hour, as well as the doxycycline pills (once a day -- I take them with my dinner) and omega 3 vitamins (once a day -- I take mine at breakfast).  
• I'll be back to check on my progress, again, in another three weeks' time, on Aug. 25th. (Clearly, recovery is going to take a lot longer and be more involved than I had bargained for...!)  Hopefully by then I will see some improvement in my vision (which is still, as my sister puts it, like looking through a dirty window)... 
• I told the dr about my upcoming gallbladder removal surgery (on Aug. 15th). She encouraged me to bring my drops with me and keep up with the regime as much as I can that day. She also suggested asking the surgeon to tape my eyelid to ensure it stays shut while I'm under anasthesia, to ensure my eye doesn't dry out too much. 
• We stopped at our regular pharmacy en route home to fill the new prescriptions. The eye drops are in tiny little bottles, the 4x daily one in particular. Together, they cost almost $45, including taxes -- and that's WITH my supplementary medical plan!!  (And I'm likely to need at least one refill, probably more, before I see her again...!).  
• Tangentially related medical note:  I stubbed the little toe on my left foot on the sturdy leg of the coffee table this morning... I may have broken it. :p  I've been applying intermittent ice packs. (I'm not having a great summer, body-wise, am I??)  
• Bloglovin update: Still out (since July 14th -- more than three weeks!!).  I get a few posts on my cellphone app, but certainly nowhere near all the ones that should be there, and nothing on the laptop/website. Sigh. 
• Dh's cousin's wife -- the same couple we spent the cottage weekend with last fall -- messaged SIL & told her to tell us to save the last weekend in September for another cottage visit. Yahoo!!  :)  We all had such a good time together there last year. 
• I've read lots of analyses of the portrayals of women without children on film and in other popular culture media... this article from LitHub is one of the best and most thorough. Thanks to Jody Day of Gateway Women for flagging it!