Elias woke up today with a swollen upper eyelid. My first thought was pink eye and “Nooooooooo”. But then I thought for awhile. I don’t ever remember having pink eye, but I’m sure I did at some point. I don’t know much about it all…but aren’t you supposed to have some discharge? Elias had none. His actual eye looked fine, and he could open it and use it…it was the upper eyelid only. When I looked closer it had these purple lines…I got worried that it was injured. I called the doctor’s office, and after a talk with the nurse, the swelling had already gone down a bit, but those purple lines were still there so she wanted me to bring him in just in case.
Needless to say, Elias did not have a very enjoyable time at the doctor. He was quite thrilled to get a sticker at the beginning…but as soon as the eye examination began he was quite upset. He had to get it flushed. He had to get dye put in it, and weird florescent lights shone in it. He had to have it pried open even as he squeezed it shut and tears poured out.
During the examination he had to be held down by two people not including the doctor….and all the while was screaming, “Help! Help!” I have to admit it was so pitiful I almost laughed the first time I heard him say “help.” But then…. I knew that he was going to be ok and that it would end soon. He didn’t. I felt like the worst mommy in the world listening to those screams. After awhile, he stopped saying “help” and tried “all done, all done.”
My poor boy.
The doctor determined that is definitely not an infection or pink eye or anything like that. She is reasonably sure that there is nothing in his eye (it was difficult for her to see in there with him so upset) She was pretty positive that we would have known when it got injured if that was it…and he never complained about his eye at all yesterday and did not cry during the night. So she said it is probably a reaction of some sort. She prescribed a bit of benadryl…and then we’ll just have to wait and see. We may never know what happened.
The swelling is down a lot now. I just checked on him during his nap…he is sleeping off the trauma and the medicine. Those pesky purple lines are still there. I guess I should feel happy that we know there is nothing seriously wrong with his eye…but it sure seemed like putting him through a lot of trauma for nothing.
I remember some pretty awful doctor appointments that seemed the same way. You go to the doctor and find out that you probably didn’t need to go there at all but at least you have ruled out something more serious. You want to do what’s best for your child but then you question yourself. It’s so hard to know what is best sometimes!
Poor Elias, and poor Kimberly. So hard when they are unhappy and even though you are trying to get help for him, it is probably hurting you more. Just part of motherhood, I guess.