From Heaven to Hell
Yesterday was awesome. Really, really terrific. walltack and wonderpanther and Big G picked me up late in the morning and we all went for brunch at Garden Cafe where G stood on my lap and grinned and was utterly adorable and got compliments from everyone in the restaurant, and we worked our way over to Hoboken where he and I played while walltack and wonderpanther went to a wedding. His favorite game seems to be Crawl and Climb, and he plays it like a pro. He got a bit distressed when it got to be bedtime (and I'd thought he would fall right to sleep 'cause he was resting his head on the floor while he crawled and rubbing his eyes, but no), and I had to call wonderpanther for some advice, but once he had a bottle-and-a-half and had my finger to hold onto through the bars of the crib, he drifted off and didn't make a peep for the rest of the night. It couldn't have been cuter.
I crashed on the sofabed and woke up to a happy baby playing with his happy folks, stumbled into the bathroom to put my contacts in, and noticed that my right eye was hurting a bit. Before we went for breakfast, I took the contact out, rinced it off and put it back in, but the eye still felt irritated, and I noticed that the vision in that eye seemed foggy. Annoying, but no big deal--sometimes contacts get something in them and the eye reacts. After getting home, I took my contacts out and switched to glasses. That's when I started to get concerned: The eye still hurt and my vision was still blurry. I flushed it with saline, which usually helps soothe any irritation--nothing. And after an hour and change, the pain got progressively worse, to the point where I could barely keep the eye open. I texted justducky2204 to ask her advice, 'cause after she diagnosed my genetic disorder with one look, I always trust her medical judgement. She advised contacting a doctor, and said that the symptoms could indicate a scratched cornea.
Praying that she was wrong, I stumbled my way semi-blindly down the hill to the emergency room at the Allen Pavilion (and, not for the first time, thanked God profusely that I live a ten-minute walk from a well-respected hospital with a good ER), where I was put on the rush list and seen pretty quickly by the doctor. She gave me some drops to help with the pain, and when I was able to open my eyes, she checked them out and confirmed that there was, indeed, a corneal abrasion. I was given a vicodin pill to help with the pain, which I was told would start to work in 20 minutes but really only kicked in after almost an hour. The drops they gave me only lasted for about ten minutes, so by the time I was ready to go I was close to blind again, and very scared, because while I had prescriptions for more vicodin and eyedrops, most pharmacies are closed on Sundays (and really? Hospital pharmacies aren't 24/7? Even in an emergency room?) and I had no idea where to go, and I couldn't see and I was in pain.
With what little vision I had, I texted wonderpanther to see if she and walltack were still in the area to drive me to a pharmacy, and she said they weren't, but walltack 's mom and dad were and, it so happens, walltack 's mom knows all about eye issues. So I called the parental units and they swung by the hospital to pick me up and drive me over to the pharmacy at the Riverdale Target, right across the bridge. walltack 's mom escorted me in (both of us cracking jokes about the blind leading the blind), and she was very sympathetic and helpful and Jewish-mother-y, which was exactly what I needed right then. While we waited for the scrip to be filled, we chatted about Big G and what an awesome baby he is, and she shared her own experiences with eyecare, and by the time I got the pills I felt much calmer and ready to deal with this problem. (Yes, the vicodin was beginning to work its magic.) They drove me home, I stumbled inside and immediately put drops in my eyes, updated my Facebook and Twitter status with the exciting news about my cornea, and collapsed for a much-needed drug-induced nap.
And that brings us up to now. My eye is hurting much less; I'm able to look at a computer screen again (it made my eyes hurt more before the nap); and I have an appointment with an eye specialist tomorrow morning down by the main Columbia hospital building. No idea what I'll have to do next, but at least the pain has gone back to bearable and I can keep both eyes open for now.
I crashed on the sofabed and woke up to a happy baby playing with his happy folks, stumbled into the bathroom to put my contacts in, and noticed that my right eye was hurting a bit. Before we went for breakfast, I took the contact out, rinced it off and put it back in, but the eye still felt irritated, and I noticed that the vision in that eye seemed foggy. Annoying, but no big deal--sometimes contacts get something in them and the eye reacts. After getting home, I took my contacts out and switched to glasses. That's when I started to get concerned: The eye still hurt and my vision was still blurry. I flushed it with saline, which usually helps soothe any irritation--nothing. And after an hour and change, the pain got progressively worse, to the point where I could barely keep the eye open. I texted justducky2204 to ask her advice, 'cause after she diagnosed my genetic disorder with one look, I always trust her medical judgement. She advised contacting a doctor, and said that the symptoms could indicate a scratched cornea.
Praying that she was wrong, I stumbled my way semi-blindly down the hill to the emergency room at the Allen Pavilion (and, not for the first time, thanked God profusely that I live a ten-minute walk from a well-respected hospital with a good ER), where I was put on the rush list and seen pretty quickly by the doctor. She gave me some drops to help with the pain, and when I was able to open my eyes, she checked them out and confirmed that there was, indeed, a corneal abrasion. I was given a vicodin pill to help with the pain, which I was told would start to work in 20 minutes but really only kicked in after almost an hour. The drops they gave me only lasted for about ten minutes, so by the time I was ready to go I was close to blind again, and very scared, because while I had prescriptions for more vicodin and eyedrops, most pharmacies are closed on Sundays (and really? Hospital pharmacies aren't 24/7? Even in an emergency room?) and I had no idea where to go, and I couldn't see and I was in pain.
With what little vision I had, I texted wonderpanther to see if she and walltack were still in the area to drive me to a pharmacy, and she said they weren't, but walltack 's mom and dad were and, it so happens, walltack 's mom knows all about eye issues. So I called the parental units and they swung by the hospital to pick me up and drive me over to the pharmacy at the Riverdale Target, right across the bridge. walltack 's mom escorted me in (both of us cracking jokes about the blind leading the blind), and she was very sympathetic and helpful and Jewish-mother-y, which was exactly what I needed right then. While we waited for the scrip to be filled, we chatted about Big G and what an awesome baby he is, and she shared her own experiences with eyecare, and by the time I got the pills I felt much calmer and ready to deal with this problem. (Yes, the vicodin was beginning to work its magic.) They drove me home, I stumbled inside and immediately put drops in my eyes, updated my Facebook and Twitter status with the exciting news about my cornea, and collapsed for a much-needed drug-induced nap.
And that brings us up to now. My eye is hurting much less; I'm able to look at a computer screen again (it made my eyes hurt more before the nap); and I have an appointment with an eye specialist tomorrow morning down by the main Columbia hospital building. No idea what I'll have to do next, but at least the pain has gone back to bearable and I can keep both eyes open for now.