It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye

I have been on an unexpected furlough this past week, having had surgery on my cornea. Not fun. Here's the story...

About 3 years ago I poked myself in the eye with an eyeliner brush, a particularly stiff type of makeup brush. I usually use eye pencils, so I was unfamiliar with this tool. That saying about teaching an old dog new tricks...well, that goes for eyeliner brushes. I now stick to eye pencils.

Eye See You Print by josephev

I scratched my cornea pretty good and had to go see an eye doctor. My cornea never healed properly and developed little cysts which kept rupturing. Sounds painful? That was nothing compared to what I've been through this past week!

After the cysts ruptured for about the 17th time, I finally decided I'd had enough and went back to the doctor. He recommended resurfacing my cornea right then and there, promising me I'd be able to drive home. Piece of cake. Yeah right.

The procedure wasn't painful, just uncomfortable. Someone shines a bright light into your numbed eye, holding your eyelid with a pair of tweezers. Then the doctor comes at you with what looks like a mini dremmel tool. Gross. I had to do a little tap dance in the chair to keep my mind occupied before I passed out. I'm too visual and may as well watch the entire procedure as my imagination makes it out to be worse than it often is.

Eyelash Necklace by jessitaylor

The problems started afterward. I barely made it home, my eye was so blurry I had to close it which then affected my depth perception. By the time I got home the numbing drops had worn off and I was in pain.

The doctor gave me a prescription for pain medication, but I'm usually pretty tough and don't need it. That was not the case this time. My eye was hurting so bad by that afternoon it felt like someone was jabbing a knife in it over and over. I tried Advil but that didn't touch the pain.

Now on to round two of my week of torture. Ding.

I took the pain medicine but it made me nauseated, so I stopped it. The next day I called the doctor back and he wanted to see me. Apparently I wasn't supposed to be in this much pain. I went in and he checked me and sent me home with some pathetic eye drops for the pain. They did nothing!

Cousin Harry by AlteredIndustries
This is totally what I looked like!

That night I was hurting so bad I was pacing the house for hours. I finally decided to take the pain meds that made me sick, choosing nausea over the pain. Big mistake. I was up for 5 hours, sick as a dog every 20-30 minutes. After my system expelled every last trace of the medicine, I felt much better and miraculously, my eye didn't even hurt!

Most of the discomfort the rest of the week was muscular, from squinting so hard and my 5 hour ordeal. My eye is still blurry but is well enough that I can now see the computer screen, so I'm back in action!

I go for a follow up visit with the doctor tomorrow and let me tell you, he's going to get an earful! I gave birth all naturally and that didn't even come close to the pain I was in this week!