Eyes
My son woke up this morning with pink eye.
It worsened rapidly; a thick repulsive display of green muck collecting in the corners of his eye and oozing henceforth down his cheeks - his eyes clouded by the aggressive infection.
I took him to the doctor. "Lots of open-eyed, warm water baths, followed by drops". The nightmare begins....
My son screams the neighbourhood down when a snow flake dares upon his face, so can you imagine the drama in attempting to syphon some water into those swollen, blood shot things? "Is it going to hurt?" he asks. Yes or no,...it doesn't matter which way I answered, he wasn't going to like it.
They say animals smell fear, well I guess he could detect my anxiety, as I lurched nearer with the first cup of H2O, for he tensed up and tempted to push me away.
I reasoned with him, talked about it being for his own good, that is would help clear the infection quicker, that he wouldn't be able to go to his pre-school valentines party if his eyes didn't heal in time. And when all else failed I used guilt..."you don't want your friends to get that infection do you"? I sank.
Yes he wanted to go to the party, no he didn't want his friends getting the infection, but no, he wasn't going to allow he near his eye, under any terms.
Force was the only recourse. I doused his eyes in the water and scraped away the pusy residue, now crusted all over the place. Gross!
He screamed. He wailed. He Howled. He attempted to run. He hated me. Now for the drops...are you KIDDING me!
I was instructed by the pharmacist that I was not allowed to have the tip of the medication to dip into his eye, or I would have to throw the entire bottle away.
I weighed the likelihoods of actually administering the precious medicine into the eyes of a violently resisting boy - it just wasn't gonna happen.
Exasperated I rang the doctor, requesting alternative healing methods... there were none.
I don't know what I am going to do.
4 comments:
I've had the same trouble with my little one, it's a harrowing experience. I feel for you and your son.
I don't know if this is the correct thing to do but I have done it when nothing else works; I have soaked a cotton pad with sterile contact lense solution followed by putting a few drops of the eye medicine on it, then gently wiped the infected eye (after cleansing it first). Obviously, if both eyes are affected, you'd need to use separate cotton pads for each eye.
At times, it's been the only way I can get any medicine anywhere near the right spot but it has helped.
Mind you I'm not a doctor and I'm not saying do it, I'm just saying I have done it.
Best of luck chicky
Thanks for that suggestion...it was certainly better than the doctor's, when I rang back for advice - she offered me NOTHING.
This is my first pink eye experience, so I am not very up with the what-to-dos.
Sorry - never had pink eye so don't really have suggestion.
We used to wash our eyes with Optrex which had a cool eye bath - you can get them at pharmacies - which might be good for a "game" for him to wash his eye?
Poor mite. And poor mum.
I've had to fight mine too, and it is one of the worst, worst experiences... They scream, they kick... and you are in tears because you need to make them better, but they won't let you.
Saline solution on a cotton pad is what I've used as well. Is that what contact lens solution is? And use a separate pad for each time you wipe. And make sure you wash _your_ hands thoroughly after doing it, or wear those latex gloves. I'm pretty sure you have to make sure you wipe from the inside to the outside too.
You kind of need the two parents - one to do the holding down, the other to administer. And I know all too well that that doesn't necessarily happen when the daddy is away at work.
Other than that, some sort of bribery and corruption? Go for broke... desperate measures. Try googling to find suggestions for how to get eyedrops administered to a kicking, screaming kid?
Only idea I found so far was that if you can just get it in the inner corner of the eye, then when they blink, it will work its way through the eye.
Good luck, I know it's a shocker...
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