Friday, May 22, 2009

crazy fluke!


do you see something strange about my right eye (your left)?
definitely not a glamour shot!

here it is close up
(the pictures really don't do it justice + I've been on medications for about 6 hours)

Okay, so I woke up this morning with a really red, puffy eyeball and headache. Initially, I thought it was pink eye, but it wasn't goopy. Even more alarming, I could barely see out of my right eye because it was so cloudy!

But, like most moms, I didn't give it much thought because my busy day had already started ... Dad goes to work, breakfast for kids, dishes to be done, kitchen floor swept, bedrooms straightened, etc. By 9am, however, all I could do was lay in my bed in agony because of my headache. When I went into the bathroom to look at my eye, it was dilated and so cloudy I could see the film over my eye. At this point, I was beginning to feel alarmed.

So, I looked up an eye doctor's office and described my symptoms to the nurse. Her response was even more frightening: "You need to schedule an appointment immediately or go to the emergency room." In my mind I'm thinking, Um, okay. What the heck is wrong with me? And, of course, the worst enters your mind: Does she think I have a brain tumor? What else could cause such a bad headache and immediate swelling behind my eye? Several phonecalls and about an hour later - since Jason had taken the car today - I found someone to watch my kids and a ride to urgent care.

When the doctor at urgent care looked at my eye, he was surprised at how swollen it was. Asked me some questions: are you using new eye makeup? have you used any chemicals that could have gotten into your eye? have you had any head trauma recently? No, no, and no. At this point, he is really puzzled and walks me next door to a vision center (which had I remembered it was there, I would have scheduled an appointment with them to begin with).

The optomologist took me back, and the first thing out of his mouth is, "Wow!" (pause) "You're eye is extremely cloudy. Wow!" (I'm thinking, okay, that's not really comforting ... I hope you can figure out what's wrong with me, and that it's not too serious!)

Long story short, 4 hours later, including a follow-up appointment, 3 eye drop samples, and 1 eye drop prescription later - my eye is inflamed, (really, you think?), and is a medical fluke. (The optomologist actually said that my case is one of the rare cases that they take photograhs of and use as a case study.) It could last anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks. In other words, he didn't know exactly why my eye is swollen. Thankfully, the meds are working. Within the hour, I could feel the swelling on my eye go down. It's still a little blurry, but is no longer cloudy.

I am really grateful for the sisters in my ward who stepped up and sacrificed their time to serve me. I am grateful that I didn't have to run to the emergency room for xrays/MRI's. I feel extremely blessed as I recognize just how involved my Father in Heaven was throughout the entire process.

4 comments:

Lara Neves said...

How weird, tiffini! I hope it does get better quickly! That would scare me to death! I'd be sure I was going to blind for the rest of my life.

BandHGardner said...

Wow.

Did it hurt? I had an issue with one of my corneas once and it hurt worse than just about anything else I'd ever experienced.

I hope everything continues to get better.

Mariley Johnson said...

i hope something comes of this... a medical explanation and that you continue to feel better.

Katie and Aaron said...

Oh my goodness! That is so crazy! I love the eye doctor's reassuring words. Very professional. I'm glad you are feeling better! It was SO good to see you in AZ if only for a quick moment! I almost felt overwhelmed with so many people to see and talk to and catch up with, it was insane! We will definitely have to catch up again soon! P.S. you have a really cute house!

 

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