Glitter Eye Incident - Part 12! I'm back bitches!

So it's been a year since I lost my eye to glitter

Those of you who took the insane journey with me in real time are all nice and caught up. If this is the first time you're meeting me then you may want to take a moment to read the saga from the beginning :

Part 1: http://imgur.com/gallery/Rtexn
Part 2: http://imgur.com/gallery/YIcft
Part 3: http://imgur.com/gallery/yDXag
Part 4: http://imgur.com/gallery/Caayi
Part 5: http://imgur.com/gallery/abW4l
Part 6: http://imgur.com/gallery/PnMW4
Part 7: http://imgur.com/a/sCJhM
Part 8: http://imgur.com/gallery/JpwvO
Part 9: http://imgur.com/gallery/ZEzS9
Part 10: http://imgur.com/gallery/yX598
Part 11: http://imgur.com/gallery/WMPBJ

And that, ladies and gents, is why in this house we say FUCK GLITTER

On the bright side

I now do an AWESOME Fetty Wap impression. For those of you who were going to make a Fetty joke in the comments, sorry!

I mean, still try though. There are bound to be some that I haven't heard before and I'm pretty much down for anything that makes me laugh.

Things are not all gravy, though

I wish I could say I got the prosthetic and lived happily ever after with no issues. That's not the case.

Prosthetics require a little bit of time to adjust to and the soft tissue is still settling at the 1 year mark.

In my case I am dealing with what is called "Upper Lid Ptosis". In other words, shits droopy yo.

You can see in this pic my natural eye (the side without the nosering) is much more open. I have huge eyes and we kind of knew this could be an issue as giant anime eyes are harder to make prosthetics for and harder for the soft tissue to heal up with.

The prosthetic does move, but not as far to the sides as my natural eye does. So I can get a good picture at the right angle but speaking to me in person it's a little odd since one eye goes one way and the other lays back in the cut and just chills.

I tend to just style it with my hair covering my left eye. It's not like I can see out of it anyway so it's not really reducing any visibility.

Also, this shit happens

The prosthetic is a piece of acrylic sitting on top of muscle and Erica-insides that aren't used to being touched. It's also not breathable or any of that good stuff. Which means theres rubbing. So much rubbing.

Which leads to irritation and infection. It's not uncommon that it does this glamorous swelling and crusting combination.

Getting it refit should help alleviate some of this.

Also, that's pus

It does this sometimes, too. The irritation behind it puts out pus if it gets infected. The pus has to go somewhere so it works its way out from behind the scleral shell.

"Scleral Shell" is the fancy name for the prosthetic eye cover thingiejig.

Speaking of Rubbing

See that thing in the inner corner area? That's a hole. The current prosthetic is wearing a hole in my soft tissue from constant scraping in that area.

Like I said, a refitting should help alleviate some of this stuff. I'm trying to work with the insurance companies on getting it covered, but you guys remember the super happy fun times the insurance company gave me last time.

(by "super happy fun times" I mean they denied paying for the prosthetic in the first place because it wasn't a medical necessity, just a "cosmetic preference".)

I do leave the scleral shell out sometimes to allow it to air our and breathe. But that's INCREDIBLY uncomfortable for me since the feeling of the inside of my eyelid rubbing on the muscle directly is not something I find pleasant.

At all.

Hey while we're on this picture I need to clear something up. I've seen my pictures used on Instagram by some people who want to claim that using a specific brand of makeup caused this.

THAT IS 100% NOT TRUE. This was a freak incident caused by craft glitter and mold coming together into my eye to make horrible moldy babies in there thusly fucking my shit up.

If your makeup has mold in it or craft glitter in it, or moldy craft glitter in it please don't use it, though. I thought that went without saying but I guess not.

It's not all bad, though!

I mean, I live in Florida and I get to chill in the sunshine wearing shades a lot so plenty of people don't notice it one way or the other.

Also Florida. And sunshine. And my hair is growing back!

And the front camera on my phone is jacked up since I drop the thing like 8 times a day. That's not your screen. Stop wiping your screen. Those dots are in the picture.

And this...

I had quit performing about 7 years before I lost my eye. I was too short (I'm 4'10) and too fat and too geeky and too funny looking and wrongwrongwrong.

Then I lost my eye and very easily could have lost my life. Over glitter. I am generally an upbeat person but when you've always thought you were a sideshow freak in the looks department and now the reflection you're looking at is a bald fat cyclops - well it messes with your head.

A friend helped guide me back to myself by reminding me the music was what i had always loved. I'm married to a man who supports all of my unconventional habits and hobbies and has no problem parenting the children (you'll note I said parenting and not babysitting, you can't babysit your own children people!) while I do shows or go to rehearsals or go on tour.

Years ago I walked off stage because I was short and fat and awkward and weird and not like everyone else.

I didn't get any taller.
I didn't get any thinner.
I didn't get any more normal, shit if anything losing an eye made me even more of the odd one out.
I'm not like everyone else. I never will be.

But there I am, up there with the band back doing the things I love to do. Back in studio cutting albums. Back doing shows. Back to making music. Back to myself and my love.

So yeah, I lost an eye but it was the suckerpunch that I needed to remember who I was. (If you didn't read that last line and immediately thing of Mufasa in the clouds like "Remember who you are Simba" then you're doing life wrong.)

So that's my update for now! It's been a year, it's still not right, I'm still struggling to pay for it or get the stupid insurance company to pay for it... but while all of that is going on I'm still happy and living life and doing my thing.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/minimonster1437/
GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/ndkox4
The band: https://www.facebook.com/ASKUaskultura