love is better than coffee

Last week was my week from hell (and I know for many others, it was a week of tragedy). I had felt like I was hit with the gusts of a thousand plagues; I had the flu, a cough, a cold, the whole works. The one day that I did go outside last week was to go to do a small bit of Christmas shopping and mail out my Christmas cards; and it was on that day that I was reminded of the goodness in people, that infectious Christmas spirit (this was the day before the shooting in Newtown, which dampened my spirits, and my condolences go out to all those affected). 

But from the girl who randomly complimented my coat as I was getting off the bus and she was getting on, to the nice salespeople at Chapters and Starbucks, to the lady at the post office who took off tax, to the bus driver who said, "Hello! How are you doing today?" I had a genuine smile on my face, and was also a little resentful that I was homebound most of the time and couldn't go out and see that Christmas spirit more often. I was also missing The Boy, my friends, and my sister like crazy (my sister can't come here for Christmas anymore, but I will come visit you, don't you worry! And umm, Christmas Eve Skype date, please?). 

And then it all came to a head on Sunday morning. I had slept in and my parents were already out, and I found myself starving since I usually don't sleep in until 11:30am. I ate brunch and realized that I wasn't chewing properly and it was hard to drink. I went upstairs to brush my teeth and realized that I couldn't move the left side of my face. I tried to smile at myself in the mirror and my smile was coming out crooked. I couldn't properly close or wink my left eye, and it felt like I had been shot up with Novocaine  It was paralyzed. And I was terrified. The first thing I did was call The Boy at work, who started going through all the options and told me to get my parents to come home right away. 

As soon as my parents came through the door I cried out, "I can't move the left side of my face!" and we immediately went to the hospital; by some stroke of luck, I was in and out of there in half an hour and the nurses and doctors were so incredibly kind. Aside from my food poisoning/dehydration in Hungary a year and a half ago, I hadn't had to be admitted into a Canadian hospital since I was born.

Fortunately, it's not a stroke. I have something called Bell's palsy, which is the inflammation of nerves causing temporarily paralysis in the face, usually either brought on by a cold or because it runs in the family (in this case, both, since my grandma had it once). I was put onto steroids and have an ointment for my left eye that gives me blurry vision but allows my eye to not dry out, and it should be back to normal in two weeks or so. But it was such a frightening feeling, not knowing what was going on, not being able to voluntarily move my face which normally is so expressive. On the other hand, I know it could have been much, much worse. 

It's really been in these last few days that I've realized that love is better than coffee. From the outpourings of well wishes from best friends and blog friends, to the random surprises from The Boy who gave me flowers and a bag of candy to make me feel better, to the little things like my mom making me breakfast and showering me with hugs ... when scary things happen, as scary as they may be, love is one of the best things to respond with. It might not make the scary thing go away, but it eases the pain. 

To end this wall of text, I hope that you've been having an AMAZING December so far, full of great times with family and friends. Since I'm most likely going to be homebound on and off for the next couple of weeks, I'll definitely try to post more often. For now, here's other things that brightened my otherwise dismal week:

(1) Mail! My new favourite shirt from Kym @ herro hachi, and Christmas cards from Tasha and my sister. Thank you so much ladies :) 

(2) Watching a pretty sunset on my one evening out of my house. 

(3) A get-well soon package from The Boy with flowers, strawberry kiwi juice, and chocolate.

Now to brighten up this post:

What's made your December bright?

And what's better than coffee (or your favourite indulgence) for you?