Sunday was just an odd day.
It all began with a 5:00am phone call from my neighbor, but I’ll get to that in tomorrow’s post.
We had lots to do, and wanted to get to it so we stayed up and set to work. Painting, hanging a new shelf, finishing Friday’s laundry, watering the covered beds, mucking out the goose chalet, with plans for later to go to the grocery store and stock up on provisions.
That was the plan.
Well, in the middle of mucking a breeze came up and something got into my eye. Going into the house I couldn’t find anything, and besides it didn’t hurt anymore. So I assumed it was out. So, back to work! However, later in the shower my eye started hurting again and I automatically rubbed it.
Big Mistake!!! Isn’t there a first aid directive that states never to rub your eye when something gets in it?
Now, I am in pain and begin cupping shower water in my palm to try to wash it out. I did this several times, but my eye is still killing me. I quickly finished up and got dressed, then told Bob I needed to go to urgent care. The brand new Urgent Care facility has closed its doors! So it’s on to Huntsville Hospital. (Suddenly, a $35.00 co-pay jumps to a $250.00 co-pay.)
The reception desk says they will get me right in to the eye clinic, and they did! Sitting there in the darkened room I am thinking about how much we move our eyeballs. Have you ever noticed how much your eyes move? It is involuntary and I am trying desperately not to move my eye. Finally a sweet nurse comes in and puts drops in my eye for the pain. Wha-hoooooo! the pain is instantly gone and I can see again!
She smiles, leaves the room and comes back with a little pouch of saline solution and says, “I’m going to stick this little contact thingy in your eye to irrigate it, OK honey?”
Looks like a suction cup from an octopus tentacle, doesn’t it? Thankfully, the drops kept me from feeling this torture device.
So I’m resting my head on a towel, with my eye over the sink, and this cold solution is going in. It doesn’t hurt, but the dribble of the solution is tickling the outside edges of my eyelid. I want to rub my eye! Now the solution is running into my ear and the towel when suddenly this song from the 40s pops into my head. Laughing I told the nurse about it and she says, “Oh, you mean tears in your beer?“
“No, it’s ears not beer,” I said, and sang the first line…
I’ve Got Tears in My Ears by Homer and Jethro
“I’m certain it’s beer,” she said. Well, now we all know it’s ears. 😉
Well, now I’ve been medicated, irrigated, and my nurse goes off duty. Two hours later the medication is wearing off, Bob is irritated, and I am getting agitated! Finally, after sitting in the dark for two and a half hours, the Dr. comes in and flips on all the lights, pulls open my eye and puts a yellow dye stick in there. Can you feel the burn? She turns the lights back off and looks into my eye with a black-lighted magnifier and says,
“There’s a big scratch on your cornea, but I don’t see anything in there.”
I ask for more pain drops and she said, “You’ve had the prescribed dose for a 24 hour period and we can’t give you any more.”
I’m thinking, “WHAT? My eye is killing me again and you can’t give me more?” I’m angry now. I try not to move my eye.
~.~
Last night I was looking into the magnifying mirror and trying to put the antibiotic drops in. I see a small speck the size of this —> . Sticking my finger into my eye to get it out, I touch it, and it sticks to my fingertip.
Wondering what it was?
It was a soggy $250.00 piece of straw.
Image courtesy of Ten Plus Hay. Please click the image to be taken to their site.
Life on the Farmlet 
the straw that broke the co-pay’s back..hope you are on the mend!
I am. Thank you, Charron!
Well, I’m glad you were able to at least get the straw out of your eye and it didn’t do any more scratching! Hope you’re feeling much better. 🙂
Yes, much better! The eyelid is a bit swollen, but there is no more pain today. Thanks, April.
I love our NHS. We may have physical pain but we don’t get additional financial agony as we go along. I know we have to pay for it somehow but at least we don’t have to sit in the dark thinking about it.
I hope you eye stays better.
True enough, thanks, Tom! 🙂
Have you suggested the eye doctor has an eye test? You poor thing 😦
Annie, I think that has possibilities… and I could administer it. 😉
Oh. My. God.
Can you say “incompetence”?
FYI, there’s an inexpensive powder you can get at the pharmacy called Boric Acid; that’s historically been used for healing/cleansing all kinds of things: on the face for acne/pimples or as an eye wash solution for infection, pink eye (or something like your little escapade last night):
Deb, I know exactly what you are talking about, and it used to come with a little blue glass eyewash cup too! I wish I had one of those little eyewash cups. I love the color of them and they make cleansing your eyes a cinch!
I know they’re not the right shape (or size): but would an egg cup work at all?
No, definitely not going to work. The old ones were oval or football shaped. Ours looked like this:
Yup, and I know exactly what you’re talking about, ’cause my grandma had one of those eyewash cups! The same blue as the old Alka Seltzer bottles? Oh boy, cobalt blue with that kind of buttery sunshine yellow you see in old French kitchens is my favourite colour combination – just SO cheerful and clean looking: )
And yeah!! Just like that one of yours! Well, it’s not quite as dark as the seltzer bottles – but pretty close (You should know that this was a REALLY old memory; )
😉
There’s nothing worse than an eye injury! When my hubby got glass smashed in his eye the ambulance had to drive really slowly to the hospital with no sirens because our eyes move with noise and they needed to keep him from moving his eyes to stop the cutting. It was horrible. I’m so glad you found the piece of straw – can’t believe they didn’t see it (maybe the eye doctor needs glasses!) That’s an expensive piece of straw…
Oh! That sounds terrifying! I hope his vision is OK now!
It is crazy how far back the fold around your eye goes. I can honestly understand how it could have been ‘lost’ and then resurface later. (This happened to a child in preschool once with sand. The sand came out the next day and the mom was so angry that she pulled him out of our school!)
Yup, a very expensive speck of straw!
Lynda there’s something screwy with the cftc 10 site. The one you told not to re blog your posts. Every post on it is a re blog and nothing to indicate who the blog belongs to. Could it be a fishing site? (phishing) Do you know if there is a way to notify WordPress about it?
Yes, I checked him out before and he doesn’t write ANYTHING of his own. I’m not sure what his game is, but I know it makes me angry, and I know that WordPress doesn’t care. Apparently, there are thousands of us out there who are not happy about this reblogging feature. I did it a couple of times but I wouldn’t think of doing it again, because now I know what it feels like to be on the other end of this. It really is best to ASK permission first!
LOL! Don’t even need to listen to the vid to hear this one…
“I’ve got teeers in my eeers
From lyin’ on my back
Cryin’ over yooou… ”
But I will when I get home…
‘Cause I LOVE this song!
Hahahahahahaa! You know it? Fantastic! 😀
Oh my God Lynda, thank you SO much for sharing this song! I realised right away that it wasn’t these fellas I’d heard sing this song, it was my Grandpa’s voice I could hear as if it was yesterday! But, what you couldn’t have known was that my Grandpa died 40 years ago, and just lately I’ve been trying to remember things about him (with little success): but – as soon as I heard this song – BANG! There he was!! WOW, tears in my eyes, thank you!
I’m glad you liked the song, but you couldn’t have known… that it was almost that long since I heard it on the radio. 🙂 It was written in 1947 I believe, and then was wildly popular in the 60s for a time. I don’t recall who sang it then, maybe Homer and Jethro, but not sure.
You know there is a reason for every little thing… I’m glad this song went straight to your memory of your grandfather. 🙂
: ). Healing hugs full of love to help that eye feel better right quick!
Yup; written in ’47/recorded by Homer and Jethro! And our Mr. Barlow was a truly busy fellow…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Barlow_(songwriter)
Wow! That is some…..expensive….piece of straw. But I don’t blame you for going to the hospital. Eyes are very precious and it could have been serious.
(reminds me of my $301 trip to a private hospital because I thought I’d broken my wrist due to the big bump, extreme pain and inability to use it – I should have just taken lots of analgesics & waited another 24 hrs OR gone to the public hospital ER dept & waited in the long queue).
Yup, medicine is big business! I don’t think it is fair that if there no Urgent care I should have to pay such a high price. I understand that the high deductible is supposed to weed out those who don’t use their own physician, but sometimes in a real emergency you just have to be seen now, not on Monday! 😐
You poor dear! Nothing hurts like getting something in your eye, and then a whack to your wallet, too!
Eh, my eye is already much better… it’s the wallet that well take time. 😉
Thank you, Patti.
I know the pain that you ae feeling. Been there and done that , only mine was simply dry eye that caused the scratch. It was a saturday am and I was lucky to get to the MD eye ciinic that I use. A pain med was dropped in my eye and it stopped the pain immediately, MD came in and even gave me a RX for Vicodin even though he said I would probably not need it. I was given eye drops with dexemethosone and directions on how often to use the med. It was wonderful service and I was lucky not to need to go to the ER That MD needs to be reported to the hospital director. That is sort of malpractice. A scratch to the cornea is extremely painful. That MD should get her just dues at some point in her life. I am glad that the straw came out of your eye so soon. Now all you need do is buy some safety glasses to use when you work outside. They are worth the little bit of money.
LOL! You and my husband! He said the same thing. SAFETY GLASSES.
Sad but true…
I own a pair for when I am using the riding mower. I just never imagined that I would need them for goose house mucking. 😛
Seems it never fails, when moving firewood up to the house, that the wind will pick up and fling something in your face and there’s nothing that would/could stop it (except perhaps a pair of safety goggles):
My goodness Lynda what a terrifying experience.. and I understant what you mean as it happened once to me and I remembered how it is painful.
Hope you ae alright now.. I love the country song verymuch.
Have a nice day
I am, thank you, Chantal! I’m glad you liked the fun country song too. 🙂
You are handling the fact that the straw was missed much better than I would! Good for you (and glad you’re feeling better!)
Thank you, Laurie!
I can understand missing that speck of straw. What I really didn’t get was having to wait 2.5 hours for the pain medication to wear off before being seen! Oh well, bygones, eh? 😉
I worked for an optometrist for several years, and he said he never messed with anything IN the eye, and sent patients to an ophthalmologist 20 miles away. Ophthalmologist’s are the eye experts, general doctors are not.
Corneal abrasions (the scratch the doctor saw) are horribly painful. As you discovered, rubbing only makes that worse! You did the right thing, flushing the eye gently. Generally, debris will rinse out or to one of the corners. The eye’s heal fairly quickly. By the next day people often have no pain at all!
Sorry you had to endure pain in the eye, and in the pocketbook… not to mention the frustration and anger of it all. What a lame day that was!!
It started well enough, it just didn’t end so hot. Your right about the eye healing so fast! It was still very red, and the eye lid was swollen the next day, but basically I was not hurting and that was the most important part! 🙂