I can see clearly now

the pain is gone

I had envisioned what my 4th of July was going to look like this year... Decorate my front porch in the finest 4th of July fashion, neighborhood breakfast/parade, hike to Bell Canyon Waterfall, lay by the pool, delicious barbecue, fireworks... I was going to do it all. My eye however had a different plan and it didn't include any of these fun filled festivities, especially the ones that involved sunlight or bright colorful bombs bursting through air:) Here's how my Holiday played out...

Last week I was living my life free from any kind of medication, not even an occasional Tylenol ... I just don't need it... then suddenly one day I found myself on all of these!

Eight different meds... 5 pills, and 3 different drops. Some of the pills I take once a day and others I take two and three times a day, with a grand total of around 20 pills a day. One of the drops I use 4 times a day while the other two are every two hours. There are so many different drugs and times that my doctor made me draw up a chart to keep track of everything which I thought was a silly idea at first, but quickly learned that I would have been totally lost without it.

Now I know that this post is a little lengthy so you can stop right here if you want...but here's a little heads up... if you make it to the end you can consider yourself my best friend for life:)

My ears have been plugged for a couple of weeks now...ringing and full of pressure. I couldn't stand it any longer and went to Insta Care last Saturday. They told me my blood pressure was a little high and that there was some fluid behind my right ear drum but they didn't look plugged. The doctor sent me home with an antibiotic. Sunday my face felt swollen and was hurting a little bit and by that night my right eye felt like it had sand in it.

Monday: I made an appointment with an ENT Specialist and had Jake go buy me some drops for pink eye.

Tuesday: My eye was killing me and it felt like it had been poked really hard... you know the feeling when it hurts so bad that you can't open it no matter how hard you try... ya that one:) Anyway I was feeling pretty sick and was starting to think that it was something besides a bad case of pink eye, so I made another trip to Insta Care that night. When they took my blood pressure they couldn't believe how high it was.... 212/116! no wonder I was feeling so sick! The Doctor looked at my eye and said I had 2 lesions on my cornea, wrote me out a prescription for high blood pressure, tylenol with codeine for the pain (wasn't strong enough) and an eye drop.

Wednesday: My eye felt even worse but I got up and went to the specialist to see about my ears. He ran some tests, looked in my ears and prescribed a steriod and suggested I see a Neurologist about the pain behind my ear and the back of my head. When I left his office I considered going over to the ER about my eye but found an eye doctor in the same complex so I walked in and asked if I could be seen that day. The receptionist took one look at me and asked if I could come back at 2:00. When I returned they ran some eye tests which I failed and then the Doctor cleaned the entire surface of my eye with a Q-tip and told me I had an infection on my eye that was the same virus as a cold sore... so basically a cold sore on my cornea! He prescribed two more eye drops and another antibiotic and told me to take them in addition to the ones I was already on. Luckily I happened to mentioned that I had just been prescribed some steroids for my ears which he immediately said he didn't want me to take. He called my ear doctor and they both agreed to have me hold off on that medication for awhile. Apparently steroids can make this particular strain of virus spread like crazy...ahh dang it! He then told me to come back and see him in the morning. I honestly don't know how I drove home since by now my good eye was super sensitive to any kind of light and I could barely keep it open, but as soon as I got home I curled up in a ball on the couch with a ice pack and now instead of sand it felt like I had shards of glass under my eyelid....OUCH:(

Thursday: When I woke up and opened my eye everything was blurry and it scared me. Both eyes were hurting and extremely sensitive to the light. I don't know if it was from all the drops I was using or the fact that my left eye was doing all the work (probably both) but I was glad I was headed to another appointment. After driving with only one eye that was even barely open (I'm tough but not very smart!) I made it to the office where I failed the eye test, miserably this time. After cleaning off the entire surface of my eyeball the Doctor told me that the infection had spread into my line of vision and was very concerned about it so he wanted me to come back again the next morning. I drove home and went straight to bed feeling as sick as I did the day before and praying that I wasn't going to lose my vision in that eye.

Friday: Waking up I immediately blinked my eye a few times checking to see if my vision had improved. It was blurry but it seemed a little better. I quickly jumped in the car for my 5th trip to the Doctors office that week, anxious to see what the Doctor had to say. After the same old routine he told me that it looked like the drugs were finally doing the trick:) He asked me to come back Monday morning and I left feeling relieved knowing that he didn't feel the need to see me for two whole days:)

Monday: I walked into the now very familiar Doctors office feeling like it was such a normal part of my morning routine, and when he looked up and saw me, he smiled and I knew it was going to be good news:)

Monday Night: My eye is still swollen and a little sensitive to light, but today is the first day since last Monday that I have been able to stand to look at a computer screen for longer than a second. I am finally on the mend and already planning a bigger and brighter celebration for July 4th 2010!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!