My Scary Day

Now that it is over and it is looking as though I am "ok", I can blog about this. But, let me tell you, yesterday, some of us were freaking out!

It all started bright and early. I had to get up to start drinking water (for a test I was "supposed" to have at 8:15). Before I even got out of bed, a dull throb behind my right eye woke me up. As I laid there, it got worse and worse. Finally, I hauled my cookies out of bed around 6:00 am and took an Aleve. Now, one of this little blue pills typically eliminates whatever is ailing me within 20 minutes or so. However, it didn't do a damn thing for the throb; it just kept getting more intense.

So, Mr. B drives me to my "other" appointment. I should have been miserable in the car with a full bladder but, I hardly noticed it because my eye was bothering me so much. We got to the clinic and they told me, "Oops, we told you today but you are really scheduled for tomorrow! Do you want to stick around and see if they can maybe fit you in?" Hello? Sit around with a full bladder for several hours? I think NOT.

We left and Mr. B dropped me back at home. By then, my eye was in full force throb and starting to creep up into my forehead. Mr. B advised me to lay down and "try to breath through the pain". Huh? Well, meditation does sometimes help. So does darvocet. I tried the meditation/breathing thing until about 10:30 am when I finally said, "to hell with this" and took a darvocet. Now, these pills REALLY take care of pain (usually) within 10 to 15 minutes.

By 11:30 am, I was calling the eye doctor to see if I could get in because something was obviously wrong. Despite the darvocet, I could still feel the throb throb throb and the pain was making me a tad hysterical. Thankfully they were able to see me at 2:15 (a long ways off, which did not help with the hysteria). I called Mr. B because I figured driving on darvocet was not a cool idea. He didn't pick up his phone so I tried my mom (who I knew was helping out Shannon with the babies (poor Shannon was also under the weather). I called a few times, didn't get an answer, so, I finally left a message (and I'm sure I sounded like death warmed over).

Finally the darvocet kicked in around 12:30 pm. I could still feel the throbbing and the pain, but, it was sort of far off and fuzzy and I didn't much care.

My mom called to say she could take me to the doctor and she'd be there in a bit. So, having an hour or so to do nothing but try not to freak out, I laid down on the couch in the sun room with Lucy (who promptly cuddled up and did her best to make me feel better).

Right before my mom showed up, Mr. B called to say he was going to meet us at the doctor because he was too distracted at work wondering what was going on with me. That way, too, he could bring me home and mom could go back over to Shannon's.

Ok, mom shows up, we get to the doctor, Mr. B is there and off I go to the examination room (Mr. B in tow).

I explained everything to the doctor. He did an exam and could find nothing wrong with my eyes and no sign of any neurological damage. Stumped, he asked me a bunch of questions, did more poking and prodding. We asked if it could be sinuses (or the jalapeno juice I inadvertently inhaled quite a bit of the day before and got all over the lower part of my face). He didn't think it was either but, after touching me on my eye-lid and me about jumping out of the chair, he thought it was some sort of infection.

Maybe sinus, but, maybe something worse. Frankly, I don't remember the technical term but it had two parts. The first, pre-orbital, means the infection was in the tissue around my eye in front of my eye (meaning, not the part that leads to the brain). Infection talk like this seemed odd since there was no visible sign of an infection, but, that's what he figured it might be. The other, the worse one, was it could have moved behind my eye in which case that was very bad indeed as it could lead to a brain infection.

The doctor put me on heavy duty antibiotics; the strongest he could prescribe. He told me to put a warm compress on the eye every hour for ten minutes. He said I had to come back the next day and maybe even Friday so he could monitor progress. He said if the antibiotics did not work and it stayed the same or worsened, I'd likely have to go to the hospital for IV antibiotics.

Ok, this was scary. He was freaked out, Mr. B was freaked out, even my ever practical and calm mom was freaked out. Me, I didn't really get freaked out until I was no longer in "danger", then I sort of freaked out!

The doctor called last night to check up on me. By the time he called, I was already feeling a lot better (and not just because of the martini, either!) I did keep my appointment today and he was real pleased with my progress and said he had been worried he'd be "baby-sitting" me all weekend. He said, "To tell you the truth, I'm not 100% sure of what exactly we are treating here, but, the fact you have no pain, no pressure, etc., are very good signs".

Now all I have to do is take all of my medication and keep a compress on my eye a few times a day for ten minutes each.

Whew!

Hey, I am relatively healthy. To go from "everything was ok" Tuesday night when I went to bed to a possibility of an immediate hospital stay and a possible brain infection was little surreal.

And a lot more drama than ANY of us needed!

All's well now.

Mrs. B