A trip to the eye doctor...leads to another and another

November 18, 2009

For the past week and a half I have had children home from school with eye infections. Both of my school age children, one week apart with different (unrelated) eye infections. First it was my daughter. The culprit...unsafe contact lense care/use. Then one week later, my son complains of a sore eye, but his is a sty, which got infected.

Last week it was my daughter. Her eye started hurting on Friday night and by Sunday it looked horrible.

Day 1 (Monday) I took her to the doctor who quickly referred us to an eye doctor (optometrist). Luckily we were able to get in that day. The doc took a look at her eye and said it was one of the nastiest looking eyes he has ever seen. Yeah. It was uglier and nastier than those horror posters they have in the office to scare people into taking good care of their eyes! She had many ulcers on her eye and right in her line of sight. If it wasn't taken care of properly, she could lose her vision. So armed with antibiotic drops we went home with a follow up appointmen for the next day.

Day 2 (Tuesday) at the Optometrist was somewhat hopeful. There was some improvement but she still had a ways to go. So we had to get a prescription for some more drops...and another appointment for the next day AGAIN.

Day 3 (Wednesday) at the Optometrist was full of optomism. She was ready for the anti-inflammatory drops to help with the healing process and we were able to order glasses for her. So off to the pharmacy again with another prescription and we left with another appointment in two days.

Day 4 (Thursday) at home....in bed. I'm tired of the eye doctors office already. I've read all of their magazines and I feel like I know them well enough to add them to my Christmas card list...(in reality the list only exists in my mind, because I never mail them out).

Day 5 (Friday) We are back at the Optometrists again and we are very hopeful to return next year for her annual exam, BUT NNNOOOO, we need to come back next Thursday for another follow-up. Oh and the glasses are almost finished, but I can't wait around for them so I said I would return (yes, again) to pick them up in a few hours.

Days 6 (Saturday) My son begins to say his eye is sore. I was thinking it was his imagination, and he was just nervous about getting what his sister had. The eye didn't look red and he isn't a contact lense wearer, so it was probably nothing.

Day 7 (Sunday) Nothing turns out to be a sty. After spending so much time with my new friends at the eye doctors, I had learned that when you get a sty, you should apply a clean warm wash cloth to the eye to try to draw out the blockage in the tear duct (as was in his upper eye lid). So we give it a try and I drop in an eye drop to see if that would help.

Day 8 (Monday) Daughter finally gets to go back to school, but no such luck for her younger brother. His eye now looks horrible. I call the eye doctor and explain my NEW dilemma. I take my son in and sure enough, it's pretty nasty. The sty appears to be a clogged tear duct. The bacteria in there produces a toxin which has now made his eye all nasty and goopy and INFECTED also. The eye doctor explains to us that this is totally unrelated to his sisters infection and I have every right to cry!!!! Who has this kind of misfortune? WE DO! I explain that with nine kids, and three dogs, this is only slightly beyond the realm of normality for our family. Oh and by the way, here are his prescriptions and stay home from school another day and well let's see him on.....it better be Thursday since I'll already be here....YES! Thursday it is and it's one appointment after the other.

Day 9 (Tuesday) Not too much actually happened today, but can I tell you how excited I am for tomorrow?

Day 10 I anticipate hiding in my bed.