And The Eyes Have It

What a week these past two days have been! At least that is what it feels like. We've had our share of issues in the last 24 hours and all of them are surrounding our eyes.

First there is me. I've been having weird flashes of light from my right eye for the past 3 or 4 days. They are all in the corner of my eye. It really just looks like someone is holding one of those sparklers over to my right. I can't tell you how many times I would spin my head around to see what was happening just over my shoulder. Of course nothing was there and the sparkley lights were now occurring somewhere behind my back. If I had been my dog, I would have turned my body toward the lights and ended up simply chasing my tail. But I digress.

So I went to the eye doctor yesterday. I will pause here for a brief moment to tell you how amazingly wonderful this visit started out. I took the girls over to a sweet friend's house so they could nap there while I took care of my eye. The initial wait at the doctor's office was bliss! I leisurely checked Facebook on my phone and read e-mails. Then I pulled out my book to read. All while watching the other poor parents wrestle with their babies. I was SO GLAD to not be them! So fast forward 30 minutes and I have dilating drops in my eyes and can no longer read or play on my phone. That is where the REAL waiting began. Then the fun was over.

So the doctor found some spots on my retina that indicates some sort of inflammation. Um, okay. Why are my retinas all inflamed, I ask. He says it could be either a virus, or a parasite. What? Seriously? A parasite? I am officially ooged out. He said if it is the parasite, it was likely something I came into contact with as a child. These things apparently lie dormant for years and years. Lovely. So how much rubbing alcohol can I pour directly into my eye to kill this thing?

Now I have an appointment with a retina specialist on Thursday morning to see what our next step will be. Michael's is taking off the morning to stay with the girls so I will be child free, but am no longer excited about it since I know that my eyes will likely be dilated and I won't be able to do anything but twiddle my thumbs.

This brings us to this morning.I am cutting up watermelon and look up to see Claire has awakened and meandered into the kitchen. I say, "Good morning, sunshine!!" To which Claire calmly responds, "There is something wrong with my eye." I look over and see this:

Immediately I know the problem. Yesterday, as I was buckling the girls into their car seats to take them to my friend's house for naps, I saw a mosquito just under Claire's eyebrow. I swatted it away, but it had already done its job. Within 30 minutes, she had a little red, typical mosquito bite bump. Oh well. By bed time, it looked no different to me and I had truly forgotten all about it. But apparently something happens to mosquito bites on the eyelid in the night hours. I really had to practice my Mommy Poker Face to not reveal to her just how freaked out I was.

So we go to the doctor and they said it is already starting to get infected. Good grief! So we are on antibiotics and Benadryl and hoping that does the trick. They said that if it doesn't get better quick, they will need to give her a shot to prevent the infection from getting into her eye cavity. Here is Claire happy as a lark in the doctor's office.

She obviously has no clue that a shot is even a possibility. And I plan to keep it that way.

I will say that it is incredibly hard to take a sweet girl out in public when she looks like this. I am getting strange looks from every person we pass by. I find myself wanting to hang a sign on her that says, "No, my Mommy didn't hit me, I have a mosquito bite."

So she is all medicated now and we are just waiting to see if it gets any better. She had a hard time taking the Benadryl. Apparently it tastes pretty bad. So I bought some Oreo cookies as an after medicine treat. Sarah got to partake in this part and REALLY enjoyed herself!

Now we are home and the girls are watching a movie. What is it about having a sick baby that makes me want to throw routine out the window? I feel so bad for her. I want to give her cookies and candy for breakfast, lunch and dinner and watch movies all day long. But we won't. Well . . . . maybe the movie part.