Doctor my eyes (jesus fucking christ remix)

[gwyn]

Because life hasn't been bad enough and I haven't had enough fucking medical mini emergencies this year, now I have fuckin' pink-eye. I have no idea how I got it.

All this week, my right eye and then the last couple days, both eyes, have watered ceaselessly, and it often looked like I was practicing that "single perfect tear" moment. Then last night I had trouble sleeping because of all the watering, and woke up looking like my eyes had been surgically altered. I suppose I could have thought of it like Kirk being altered to be a Romulan or something, but I just couldn't believe my...uh...eyes when I saw them in the mirror. It's kind of surreal to see your normal big round blue eyes suddenly look so dramatically different.

Over the course of the morning they became redder and redder. But you know, I'm such a dimwit that it didn't occur to me I could have conjunctivitis. I've never had it, I've never seen anyone I know with it (not that people I know haven't had it, I've just never seen them with it), and my first thought was that I'd developed sudden allergies to my kitties. Or that Olive was bringing me some kind of blinding pestilence from the greater outdoors and by sleeping near my head, she'd contaminated my sheets and I would go blind.

I have this irrational and deepseated fear of losing my vision. I mean, I'm phobic about it -- years ago, a light bulb exploded in front of my head when I was pasting up my newspaper (ha! take that, kids these days), and I was so shaken up by it I couldn't work. Nothing happened to me, but it hit my phobia so bad that I was late to the printer. So of course visions of slowly sigh-eradicating diseases or toxins were going through mind when I posted a question to Metafilter about it, and a bunch of people said it sounded like viral pink-eye. I didn't want to go to urgent care because of cost and I hate that place, but I went and he said, yeah, conjunctivitis but let's try Refresh eye drops and Claritin first before you fill the prescription, and hopefully you can just tear it up and not have to use them. Considering the antibiotics issues I had this year with the cat bite, I'm all for that.

Honestly, two rounds of eye drops (most of which have ended up all over my face and neck), I'm feeling a tiny bit better, and the slight fever is going down a bit now. For a while there my eyes were really starting to hurt. I have a lot of reading to do tonight though, so we'll see how well I do with my Mr. Magoo vision.

Really, WTF universe? What did I ever do to you, you rat-fucking bastard?

Comments

[ratcreature]

Sounds awful. I never had conjunctivitis either nor had anyone I know had it while I noticed their eyes, so I can understand that it wouldn't be first on your mind. I hope it'll clear up soon.

I totally get the vision phobia. I fear that as well. Eye injuries and all sorts of stuff. (Of course I've had eye problems from birth due having been premature, and then since my teenage years have had retina issues as complication from extreme shortsightedness and the stress that puts on the retina, so I guess the risk of loosing my vision eventually from it are higher than average, so it's not totally irrational concern, but it is still disproportionately prominent in my mind.) There is just so much that can go wrong with eyes, and several quite common just from aging, so I find it quite natural to worry about them...

[gwyn]

Yeah, my dad's eyes were really fucked up toward the end, and he had so much trouble seeing, and out of all the terrible things happening to him, that was the one that both really skeeved me and broke my heart at the same time.

[jenab]

I have the same vision phobia as well.

I find I've been getting eye infections more often over the past several years but can't figure out where I'm picking them up. The only thing I can think of that's changed is that I'm exposed to so many more people when I started taking public transit.

My eye doctor recommended getting eyelid cleaners, and they've helped reduced the infections.

[gwyn]

Eye cleaners! I have never heard of this, but I must investigate now.

I sometimes wonder if the fact that I am home 24/7 now that I work here hasn't made me more vulnerable to these weird things. I had a flu earlier this year that was the sickest I've been in years and years. All my herd immunity has vanished.

[sakana17]

I caught conjunctivitis when it piggy-backed on a sinus viral infection I had. Ugh! I know how horrible and freaky it is! :( Because the sinus infection I had at the same time, I had lost my sense of smell, most of my sense of taste, and could barely see for about 4 days. Really, the stuff of nightmares!

In addition to the eye drops you might find that a warm, damp washcloth over the eyes helps when it gets gunky. The gunk is good -- it means your body's fighting off the infection. My eyes would ache when I tried to keep them open and focus for too long, and I found the washcloth helped. The doc told me that conjunctivitis is highly contagious and I had to quarantine myself at home for two weeks.

[gwyn]

Ugh, sinus infection and pinkeye? That sucks! I mean, in orders of magnitude!

I think that's what surprised me most about it -- how much it hurt. I always thought it was this thing that looked terrible but didn't hurt. And then of course, there's me with a book to do and trying to work on some Hot Dads fic.

[kirbyfest.livejournal.com]

Conjunctivitis sucks bad. I had it as a kid, then not at all until a couple of years ago, and then I had it a few times in a row. I'm sure urgent care told you to wash EVERYTHING, and wash your hands like crazy. I also went around and Clorox wiped anything I could think of; I didn't want to reinfect myself.

I did use the prescription, but I also got some natural eyedrops that I used and seemed to soothe things. They were just Target store brand.

I'm right with you on the phobia about vision loss; I've got such poor vision already, and have had so many eye issues over the years that it's just terrifying. My recent eye issues reduced me to tears, literally (they're getting better, fortunately).

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

So far, I've done pretty good with just the Refresh drops and antihistamines. It's been a weird week, though. It's weird that I worked in child care for so many years and yet never caught it or saw it.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Really agree with what Kirbyfest said about washing everything... it will definitely help keep the conjunctivitis from recurring. Really sorry you're having to deal with this and will keep my fingers crossed that you'll get better really fast.

BTW, right there with you on the going blind. I'm sort of paranoid about it, as well... I'm just way too visually oriented.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Yeah, now I'm really nervous about it coming back. Especially because I'm going to be around babies tomorrow!

[amnisias.livejournal.com]

Yea, people with conjunctivities are not very 'visible', because the look is not everybodies cuppa tea, most stay in until it clears up, I guess. :P

My fav bit is trying to open your eyes in the morning and not being able to because everything is sticking together with yellow crumbly goo.....

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I have to say that my eyes were not terribly red, I just looked like someone who went on a bender for the weekend or something with a coupla bottles of Jack and a six-pack. But man, were they swollen! And I think the thing that surprised me most was how much it hurt. They really ached and stung.

[sperrywink]

I hope you feel better soon.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I definitely am better. I just can't wait for all these stupid health crises to stop.

[mockerbee.livejournal.com]

So sorry to hear about your pink eye. How frustrating. It's a good thing we didn't try to have the T Bash at your house today.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I know, right? And I probably would have had to skip the bash after all once I found out. I mean, I went to my writing group, but I had my hand sanitizer with me and I sat in the corner.