This post is going to have nothing to do with Scotland. It's going to recap the Eyepocalyse of 2013, as my loving husband calls it. Get ready for an awesome recap of the last week and a half.
Sunday: Went to church with a headache. Told our church about Scotland. Wrote a fun blog post. Got to hug every single person in church that day (Best. Day. Ever.) Tried not to think about my eye.
Monday: Saw Jurassic Park in 3D. Probably a mistake, but it was there that I noticed my vision was a little crazy. By that night, my eye was throbbing. Couldn't sleep well.
Tuesday: Got to work, couldn't see. My coworkers helped me laugh through two hours of wearing sunglasses, and my boss sent me home. Not really sure how I drove home, but I took the long way through City Park and pulled over 4 times to pray and donkey cry in people's driveways. Clay took me to a walk in clinic, and they said, "Well, darn, ya got pink eye!" and I said, "uhhh... I'm not showing the normal symptoms of pink eye. I've had it before, this doesn't feel like pink eye." and he said, "Blah blah blah, get this really expensive medicine, it will fix EVERYTHING."
Wednesday/Thursday: Went to work, not any better. Expensive honey-like eye drops not helping at all. Eye started to cloud over, to the point where I could only see shapes/colors.
Friday: Clay took me back to the doctor. Doc took one look at my eye and said, "Ooh! Uveitis! You need to see an ophthalmologist right now! It's a matter of sight or blindneeeeeesssssss!"
So begins my crazy day. Found the eye doctor at probably the biggest hospital complex on the planet (with one eye). Sat in the waiting room for 2 hours. The eye doctor put 15 eye drops in my eye and bombarded me with rapidfire questions (all while buzzing around the room on a rolley chair, putting random eye drops in and shining colored lights in my eye - just imagine. it was a circus.):
Have you been losing weight? (a little but not really)
Any recent bug bites? (no)
Any coughing? (well... a little)
AND EVERYTHING STOPPED.
Do you do any volunteer work? (uhhh... I work at Chick-fil-A?)
YOU NEED A CHEST X-RAAAAAYYYYYY!
You might have tuberculosis! It's a common cause of uveitis! You need to get it done immediately! Get these two eye drops and put them in your eyes! One's a steroid! One will dilate your eye! See you Monday.
Chest X-ray took 5 minutes. They sent me on my way, telling me the eye doctor would contact me with the results.
That's really how it all went. Just as a side note. Clay had to go to work after taking me to the first doctor, and my boss, Tom, picked me up and took me everywhere I needed to go. He waited at the eye doctor for me and at the X-ray place, and then took me to Walgreens and home, before telling me not to worry about work until I got better. God put this man in my life for a reason, and if you say your prayers tonight, thank God for Tom Maloney.
Soooo. Since this is already way too long. I'll recap. I don't have TB. My sister, the registered nurse, has never heard of uveitis. Thought I needed to rat her out. The eye has progressed a little. Went back to the eye doctor and they made me get bloodwork. Just to rule out the other common causes of uveitis (which are apparently Lyme disease, cancer, HIV, and some others). They took 16 vials of my blood, which was no fun, but I did get to eat the nurse's jelly beans because they didn't have anything else and apparently, I turned a lovely shade of pasty green. Blood work comes back later this week. I'm on a low dose of steroids, so don't make me mad.
More to follow. Just wanted everyone to know so I don't have to spend years going through everything. And if you'd like a real picture of what my eye looked like, this was when I could finally open it myself.
Hope this was as much fun for you to read as it was for me to live it. Actually, I don't. Because this was not fun. AT ALL.
Carm
Hope this was as much fun for you to read as it was for me to live it. Actually, I don't. Because this was not fun. AT ALL.
Carm
1) didn't know you had a blog going! Soo going to figure out how to subscribe and get updates
ReplyDelete2) you've found the best way to over come this crazy part of your adventure to Scottland...humor! I'm glad that you're keeping upbeat during this.
3)...think you'll see Mel Gibson running around in a kilt yelling "this may take our lives but they will never take our FREEDOM!!"? Cuz that would be funny. Well, Mel in a kilt is funny in and of itself.
4)I'm praying for your eye to get better! And it's a good thing you didn't check it out on webmd...they may told you had testicular cancer or something
;) Lurv ya!
Shame on the first doc for not putting you behind the biomicroscope and checking the anterior chamber for signs of uveitis on the first visit.
ReplyDeleteTB can be an origin for uveitis, but it is not the most likely culprit unless you are in an area with a really high rate of TB. Many infectious and auto-immune conditions can lead to uveitis, yet often the cause is unknown and only local treatment (in the eye) is needed to get the patient back to normal health.