Corneal Abrasions and Such

Hmm...it would seem that this time, I have a pretty good excuse for being away from the blog for so long.  Last Monday night, after giving our little man a bath, I was helping Jack dry off when his tiny fist full of fingers met my left eye.  At full force.  Did I say anything about multiple fingers?  Because I meant to.

Bless his little heart.  He felt so horrible, but ohmygoodness did it hurt.  Immediately, my eyes welled up with tears, and I was doubled-over with pain.  My eye was watering like crazy, and my nose got so stuffy, but I pulled it together, and I was able to get Jack to bed (although Daddy read Jack's story).  It watered on and off for the rest of that night, but it wasn't too horrible.  I tried to blog that night, but when I turned on my computer, it was way too bright for me to even look at.  I decided to go to sleep, and that it would feel better in the morning.

Not so much.  Something woke me up an hour later and instinctively tried to open my eyes.  I realized that I could not, in fact, open my left eye.  It hurt so bad and felt like tiny pieces of glass were hiding underneath my eyelids.  I learned that when one of your eyes won't open, the other one doesn't open well either.  It's called a sympathetic response, and the brain gets confused and tries to close the other eye.  Makes it rather hard to see...so I felt my way to the basement where Brad was doing some work, and once he saw me, he knew we had to go to the emergency room.  Unfortunately, at that point it was already 11:30, and we didn't want to have to wake the babies up and take them with us, so Brad called his parents and they got up and headed over right away.  {Have I ever mentioned that we have the best family and that we're so lucky both of our families live so close to us?}

Lucky for me, the emergency room wasn't busy, and when they hear that you think you're blind, you get in pretty quickly.  The doctor numbed my eyes with drops that stung, and then put a dye in my eye to see whether or not there was an abrasion.  There was definitely an abrasion, but I could tell by her immediate response that it was pretty bad.  Some eyedrops, antibiotics, and painkillers later, we were headed home.  The eyedrops they gave me at the hospital helped me to be able to open my eyes, but I had to wear my sunglasses out because the lights were causing serious pain.  Unfortunately, once I got home, the numbing eyedrops wore off, and I was in the same amount of pain that I was in before we got to the hospital.  I decided I was probably going to have to take the painkillers after all.

The next morning, I tried to get up with the babies, but I still couldn't open my eyes and was nearly blind, so I had to wake Brad up and he took over with getting everyone to school while I stayed in bed.  I literally slept all day on Tuesday, thanks to the painkillers.  The few hours that I wasn't sleeping, I just stayed in bed with my eyes closed in our very dark room.  Taking my eyedrops was excruciating.  On Tuesday afternoon, when we realized that my eye wasn't getting better, Brad called and made an appointment for me with the ophthalmologist on Wednesday.

Getting ready and to the ophthalmologist on Wednesday wasn't easy.  The painkillers definitely made me a little loopy, and more than a little tired.  I think I fell asleep in the waiting room.  However, I'm now in love with my doctor because he was so calm and gentle, and he quickly determined that every time I was blinking, I was pulling away the cells that were trying to heal.  He put a bandage contact lens on my eye, and the difference was like night and day.  I could blink.  I could see.  It was fantastic.  Blurry, but fantastic.

I returned to work on Thursday, but I had to wear sunglasses all day.  I couldn't drive, so Kimmee was kind enough to pick me up, take me to work, take me to my appointment to have my lens removed, take me back to work, help me pick up Jack, and bring us home.  {Thank you, Kimmee:)}  On Friday, I only wore the sunglasses for a few hours, and this weekend I've been pretty good.  I'm still taking my eyedrops, but the light sensitivity has gone away, and it no longer feels like there are bits of glass in my eye.

I think it's the worst pain I've ever been in.  In fact, I'm pretty sure of that.  So horrible...I wouldn't wish it on anyone.  The only good news is that the cornea heals very quickly, and I was thinking today that it's so weird how out of it I was a few days ago compared to how I felt today - crazy!

So many good things to blog this week - hopefully, I can get caught up since it's spring break:)  Yay for the schedule of a school teacher!!!