Eye Can't Handle It

You may remember (if you have nothing else to think about besides my medical history...you don't, right?) that I've had some eye issues in the last year.

It's been quite lovely.

The low point was when I had a needle poked in my tear duct and I screamed and writhed in pain.  It was worse than childbirth.

(Maybe because I didn't get a chubby baby handed to me afterward as a reward.)

Since that experience last August, I've been very wary of any disturbance with my eyes.  Paranoid.  Even more than normal.

A pattern has been established.  I make Adam look at my eyes twenty times a minute and he humors me and looks and then tells me they don't look that bad.  So I have him look again.

(Don't be jealous that Adam gets to be the one that's married to me.)

I know I'm annoying but I never want to have a needle stuck in my eye again.  Ever.

So I'm paranoid.  Even more than normal.

For the last few weeks my eyes have been bothering me.  I've been quizzing Adam about their state.  He's been enjoying it and thanking his lucky stars that he's married to a neurotic woman.

I went to the Dr. for patanol.  The allergy wonder drops.

They didn't help.

I developed blisters on my eyelid.

I got a little worried.  Or a lot worried.

I asked Adam, when I wasn't having him inspect my eyes, if he thought I should go to the doctor.

He'd say, in his best long suffering voice, "Do you think you need to go to the doctor?"

Finally, Sunday, I went to the doctor.  I couldn't take it anymore.  My eyes were making me miserable.  My psychosis was making me (and Adam) miserable.

I went to the walk in clinic (because it was Sunday) and if I had the herpes simplex virus in my eyes (again), then I needed antiviral medicine sooner rather than later.

The good doctor didn't think it was herpes simplex.  He thought it was a different chronic condition (because really, can you have too many?) for my eyes.  Seborrheic dermatitis.  He said it was like cradle cap that babies get.

Wonderful. (And by wonderful I mean gross.)

He said the treatment was to scrub my eyes with baby shampoo.

OK.

So I did.  And it hurt.  But I felt happy that I knew what it was.  My eyes didn't exactly feel better though like I wanted.  I did the thing I should never do...I consulted the world wide web.  I read all about seborrheic dermatitis.  I saw pictures that looked nothing like my eye.  I read that it was either caused by a bacterial infection (in which case if I didn't get antibiotics my vision could be damaged) or by allergens.  I read that you can develop an allergic reaction and seborrheic dermatitis from something that never before caused you trouble.  It could be from make-up (my Big Beautiful Eyes!?!?!  Perish the thought!), hair products, lotion, nail products, nickel, sponges, etc etc etc.

Sheesh.

If I was allergic to one of those items suddenly how would I ever narrow it down?

And then my eyes looked worse.

I did what I should have done two weeks ago.  I called the ophthalmologist.  (When will I learn?)  I got an appointment.  I love that office.  I've never been there when they didn't make it all better. (Except for the needle incident and I've forgiven them for that.  Mostly.)

This doctor told me that baby shampoo would make my eyes worse.  He said I wasn't allergic to anything, but had sensitive skin.  He said that during periods of emotional stress (me) or anxiety (me) or if I wasn't getting enough sleep (me again), my sensitive skin had a eczema flare-up.  He said he could prescribe something but to try hydrocortisone first.

Hydrocortisone which I've had in my medicine cabinet this whole time.

I came home and rubbed some on my cracked, red, swollen eye-lids.

And felt better immediately.

When I told Olivia she told me that I should use this to my advantage.  I can see it now, "Clean your rooms!  Oh, my eeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeessssssssss!  This mess is hurting my eyes!"  Maybe it will work.

But in the meantime hydrocortisone is my best friend and the Physicians Eye Clinic is my favorite place.  (Unless you count Alfy's on nights like last night when my slow cooker didn't think dinner should be ready even close to when I thought dinner should be ready and we had buy one get one free pizza instead.)