www.FactOfLife.com

Everyone suffers with some kind of "thorn in their side" right? This is not shocking to anyone who knows me well but I have one called: Photoptarmosis.

Photoptarmosis is a condition of uncontrollable sneezing in response to sudden exposed to bright light.

This confession is inspired by this real life story from this morning.

I just got a call from the back of the building (200+ feet away), Scott, one of the material testing engineer's said one phrase: Bless You!


**Thanks Dad (and Grandpa) for the "loud-full-body sneeze" gene!

*** to be fair Scott was walking down the hallway towards his office when I sneeze but still he would have been 200 feet away at least!

It doesn't really bother me like it used too.... remember I hated one of my teachers (Grade 4 - Geography) for centering me out once when I sneezed! He made some really mean comment about how loud it was and I was going to blow away the whole classroom... It really hurt.

But It's just a fact of life... 27 years (heading into my 28th year of life in 15 days!) of loud sneezes and 60 more years  to come.... 

The story goes:    
 The day my parents brought me out of the hospital; May 8th, 1986 I sneezed, and I've been doing it ever since. 

Another story:
My brother will tell you he was in the shower one day when he heard dad sneeze. Dad was outside.

Now Wikipedia says that this is hereditary, which I believe, however my dad recently said he just inherited Photoptarmosis from me.  I don't think it works that way!

What can I do about this awful thorn I've been dealt? Well use it as a great excuse to collect oodles and oodles of Sunglasses! 

I generally buy 5 or 6 pairs when I go to the dollar store, and keep 3 or 4 in my car, one in my purse, there's usually 2 or 3 pairs laying around our apartment. Mom feels bad that I inherited this from her husband's side of the family and buys me really nice pairs of Green Sunglasses whenever she can find them! 

When I don't have Sunglasses on they're almost always on my head!

It isn't uncommon for me to hop in the shower or go to sleep with a pair of sunglasses on my head! It also isn't uncommon for group photo's to see me sneezing in the photo! Sucks when everyone else looks good, everyone's eyes are open and I'm sneezing!

Another story:
A friend, Megan McColough from my childhood broke and lost so many pairs of sunglasses of mine that I finally had enough and swore from that day on to only ever buy them from the dollar store!

**Hey at least I don't have this sneezing issue! TMI right!?