Temporarily a Pirate

Well, I have temporarily become a pirate. Here's how it happened. On July 1st, I went to the doctor's office because I thought I had pink eye. The next day, Friday, I was supposed to go to my sister's house but thought I shouldn't because of the pink eye. Well, I was tired of sitting around by myself and I had been on antibiotics for over a day, so I decided to go anyway. Saturday was Greencreek days, and the whole family was there. My dad brought all his stuff to brew beer there at all the festivities, so I spent most of my time with him, in the shade or in the car. I wasn’t doing too bad. By Sunday however, things got a whole lot worse. Sunday morning my eyes hurt so bad I had a blanket over my head because it was too bright for my eyes, even inside. By the time everyone got back to my sister's after church, My eyes hurt so bad I was crying. I called the on call doctor in Moscow and she said problems like this could impair my vision, depending what was wrong. She suggested I go to the emergency room to get it checked out. So, off we went to the Cottonwood ER, my sister, my mom and I.

The doctor there thought I might have had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics. He took a culture of my eye to check for viral and bacterial infections, which would indicate whether the pink eye was still there or not. He also changed me to different drops and said if it's not getting a lot better by Tuesday, I should go to an eye doctor. Tuesday came around and by then I was in so much pain, I was sobbing a lot, still hiding under blankets, and basically in agony. We got in to see the ophthalmologist that day and he said I never did have pink eye. I have something called Epi-scleritis. The sclera is the outer membrane of the eye and optic nerve. Apparently mine were swollen and inflamed. Epi-scleritis means it's only on the surface of the sclera, if the inflammation gets deeper then its called Scleritis. This would obviously be worse because it's deeper, but Scleritis is also indicative of an auto-immune disease. So far, mine has not become Scleritis, it has stayed on the surface. I was prescribed some really strong non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (nsaid) type drugs to help ease the pain and the inflammation.

When I went back to the doctor Friday (this brings us to July 9th), I had a different kind of pain. My eye socket felt like it was burning. The doctor looked into my eye again and could see the muscle behind my eye was cramping and spasming. This made all the little muscles around m y eye under the skin and whatnot spasm as well, which made them extremely painful. The doctor prescribed some eye drops that would dilate my eye and also hold the main spasming muscle still, which should keep the other muscles under control as well. I was to do these drops twice a day. These drops sting really bad and make my vision all blurry. At first, on Friday evening, it wasn't really working. It hurt so bad I was nauseous from the pain! We tried to call the doctor back, but he didn't respond, so we just kept on the drops and they eventually started to help.

My next appointment was supposed to be Wednesday, but Monday morning wasn't going well. We called the doctor's office and asked what to do. They suggested added some corticosteroid anti-inflammatory drops 4 times a day on top of the other drops and moved my appointment to Tuesday. The doctor isn't actually in on Mondays. At this appointment, he prescribed a different nsaid to take orally, and said I should see improvement in about 48 hours, so the first one wasn't working right. It was just a matter of finding the one my body responded to the best.

Now we are up to Friday, July 16th. Since having started the new nsaids, I thought I was doing a lot better. I hadn't had any pain since I started them, it was great. The doctor thought otherwise. When I went to my appointment Friday, he looked in my eye and told me I now have Iritis as well. This is where the iris sticks to the cornea. That doesn't sound good at all! So he poked and prodded and checked a bunch of stuff and then came the prescriptions. He changed the corticosteroid drops to a different type and I now have to use them every hour while I’m awake. Hours go by quickly when you have to do something for every one! This drop is an anti-inflammatory applied directly to the eye, so it will help the swelling that's causing the Iritis. He also added another drop that would dilate my eye in a different way. This would still help the spasming muscle, but mostly I think it forces the iris open and helps prevent it from sticking as much, since it's moving. Good news from this visit was it still hasn't slipped into Scleritis, it is still just on the surface (Epi-scleritis).

So, at this point, here is my eye maintenance. I have to apply one set of drops every hour I am awake, three times a day (exactly 8 hours apart, so 9pm, 5 am, and 1 pm) I take the nsaids orally (which have to be taken on a full stomach), and I apply two different sets of drops to my eye, which have to be added at least 5 minutes apart. It's really annoying to get up that early, eat something, take a pill, put in some drops (which sting really bad too, by the way) and then go back to sleep. However, I think it would be worse to eat a whole bunch right before bed (say at 10 or 11) then try to sleep from the beginning on the full stomach so I can wait until 5 or 6 am to take the pills. However it is done, it's just not convenient! But, for the sake of my eye, I will deal with it. I don’t want to turn into a pirate completely and not have the use of it!

Oh yeah, and I had been staying at my parent's house in Lewiston from July 1st until today. It feels good to be home! I can't drive however, for two reasons. One, my vision is really blurry in my left eye from the drops and two, my eye is so dilated that it just waters and waters when I'm in the sun (or any bright light) and I can't see anything. It's also usually to bright and I have to cover it up. So, I'm home but stuck inside most of the day and can't see well enough to do a lot of things. I can still watch movies and cook and stuff like that, so at least I can take care of myself!

More to come after Tuesday's appointment.