Oh, the eye!

Saturday, May 27, 2006

A few years back, I noticed that my left eye was tearing up quite frequently and I was having to wipe away excessive tears that weren't going away on their own. If there was a ceiling fan on, the AC running, or a car fan blowing on me, I got teary-eyed. This precipitated my move to going make-up free as the burning that would result from these tears and the subsequent eye makeup that got into the eye made it even worse.. the tearing, that is.

So, after a few months of this irritation, I woke up one morning to find my eye swollen nearly shut and looking pretty horrid. Obviously, a small amount of freak-out had to occur as it also felt like I'd been punched in the eye. At the moment, I didn't quite realize that the tearing from the previous months and the special-effects look I was now sporting were related. All I knew was I went to bed normal and woke up looking like both sides of a before and after shot.

Got my hubby to drive me to the eye doctor. His first comment -"did you break your nose at some point in your life?"
Me: Umm.. no? Why?
Him: Well, you're sporting an awfully large nose and wide bridge for a female who hasn't had nose damage.

Gee thanks. I know I don't have a "dainty" nose but nothing like giving me a complex about it!

But I digress. He poked around and declared that my tear duct was blocked and I needed to have it cleared. Their solution? Give me some eye-numbing drops (what a weird feeling that was) and then take this long and extremely thin needle and put that sucker right into the tear duct and press the plunger to flush it with saline.

Ok, I'm not the calmest person on the planet, but come on. Show me one person who wouldn't be freaking out at the sight of a needle coming right at their open eye. Not like it could be closed for this procedure! And beings that it was my eye, it's not like I could look away or just turn off my vision. I'm not proud to admit it, but they had to hold me down. Hurgh.

Once the torture was finished, he wrote me a script for drops and cream and sent me on my merry way. A few days later all was well and I figured that was that. Until it happened again - about 6 months later.

This time I found a new Dr to go to. Dr number 1 was slightly lacking in tact and diplomacy after all.

But much to my horror, Dr #2 performed the exact same procedure. Gack! He was at least polite and gentle, but still. It's so NOT my idea of fun to have needles poking around my eye area. Wrote me new scripts and I was outta there.

Until the next year when once again, you guessed it - SAME thing happened. Went back to Dr #2 who ran through the same old same old only added as I was leaving, "if this happens again, you need to see an eye specialist for surgery to correct whatever is causing this to happen." Great. Eye surgery. I definitely feel better now.

Fast forward 2 years and here I am, once again with weepy eye. Only now we live in AZ, not VA, so I had to start all over. This guy was on top of things though and said that he was going to refer me to the University Medical Center for a consult with a specialist there. More eye drops and here I sit - waiting for the swelling to go down and the redness to subside. Can't leave the house as I would likely scare anyone unfortunate enough to look upon the ickiness that is my left eye.

Although, since it's swollen nearly shut, how fun would it be to make hubby take me somewhere and when I'm looked at (as I would no doubt be) quietly state, "he didn't mean to hit me." Haha!

I close with this...

I swear I do not lie. Cross my fingers, hope to die, stick a thousand needles in my eye.