Eye Trauma

The sound of the fan kept me sleeping soundly in my bed until another sound awakened me. It sounded like one of my children crying. I looked at the clock...5:00 a.m. I wondered who was crying, and more importantly, why. I got up, slowly walked down the hall and looked in the kids' bedroom. Cole was standing in the middle of the room crying. I asked him what was wrong and he told me something was in his eye. We went into the bathroom where I looked in it and found nothing, but we rinsed it with cold water. I gave him a cold rag to put on it and told him to go back to bed. I figured he had had an eyelash or something in it that irritated it. I thought it would get better if he just rested. He came in my room around 9:00 a.m. and his eye was red and swollen. He was holding it and moaning. I still could find nothing in it. He said it hurt every time he blinked. I am so sensitive that every time I saw him blink and his eye would start to water, mine would too! At about 11:30 a.m. I decided that there was nothing more I could do, so I took him to the E.R. First they asked him to read the eye chart on the wall. He did fine with his left eye, but with his right eye he didn't make it past the 2nd line of large letters. The doctor came in and at first said she thought it was going to be pink eye because of his age. "However," she said, "it could be possible that he scratched his eye while he was sleeping." Apparently, some people don't close their eyes all the way while they are sleeping, and they can cut (scratch) their cornea on their pillowcase or sheet. She had to put some drops in to numb his eye...which burned at first and made him not too happy. Then she put some yellow medicine in and turned off all of the lights. The medicine glowed when under a flashlight and would stick to any part of his eye that was cut/scratched. Sure enough, at the top of his iris there was a cut. So, now that we had a diagnosis, we had to talk about the treatment. They would deaden his eye again (with drops), dilate his pupil (with 2 sets of drops) and paralyze his iris (with drops). Let me tell you that after about the 4th set of drops Cole was telling them "NO". I felt so bad for him. He was in so much pain and so very tired. We got it all done, and his least favorite part is that he has to wear an eye patch. He is very sensitive about things, and I don't think he wants anyone to see his eye patch. The doctor said it should be healed in 24-48 hours, but if not we have to go to an eye doctor. Cole is sleeping soundly on the couch now, thanks to a dose of Tylenol with Codeine. I am not one to take my children to the hospital or doctor for just every little thing, but I am glad I decided to go this one time!