Re: [gardeners] Wednesday
Margaret Lauterbach (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 19 Feb 1998 07:26:57 -0700
At 09:48 PM 2/18/98 -0500, you wrote:
>It's great to be able to garden vicariously along with you, George. Spring
>is still weeks away here. I haven't even started seeds yet.
>
>We haven't thought much about the garden lately anyway. My daughter, Danya,
>who is developmentally disabled and lost the sight in her left eye to a
>virus two years ago, is now battling the same virus again in her right eye.
>The virus is herpes simplex, the same one responsible for the cold sore,
>which can become a vicious, destructive force in the eye. There is no cure,
>just a fight to get it under control this time before it does any damage to
>what little sight she has left; she is legally blind already. She has only
>been on her own and in her own apartment for four months and was doing so
>well that this seems so dreadfully and particularly unfair. I wasn't going
>to say anything to the list, but somehow you all seem part of my extended
>family and while I want to share gardening enthusiasm, just now it just
>helps to be able to think about something else for a few minutes at a time.
>I can't quite concentrate and drift so fast that I fear planting one thing
>and labelling it something else. Not that I'm not capable of doing that at
>the best of times. :-/ So, please plant hope and try not to let life
>interfere with your plans. Cheryl
Cheryl, I'm so sorry. I have herpes simplex and was sitting here feeling
sorry for myself (sorrier for my husband, because I'm a bitch on wheels
when I first break out), but I've never had it in my eyes. I know it
resides on the mid-brain, and comes out during times of stress, but it hits
my lip, mouth or inside my nose. In her eyes is truly scary. It's pretty
much an untreatable condition, to the best of my knowledge. I took that
expensive medication (forgot the name, but not the effect of eating my way
through a landfill, every second a different taste in my mouth and none of
them good) when I had herpes zoster (shingles), but it didn't do any
permanent good as far as the herpes was concerned. Damn! Just hope and
pray for the best, I guess. Hugs to all of you, Margaret