Pink Eye, Pink Eye

The way I envision "Pink Eye."

Normally when I hear the words, "Pink Eye," I automatically conjure to mind the Dr. Seuss Book named The Eye Book. This week "Pink eye" has been the unpleasant reality of conjunctivitis. It seems that it is never convenient to have a sick child.

My woes began on Friday. I had planned on using Halle's preschool time to run off to Costco to look at Easter dresses for her without her presence. Sometimes I escape during preschool, but mostly I stay at home because that is the safest and least humiliating place to be with Sean - who is a genius at escaping and having tirades while shopping. I don't make it to Costco too often, which is good on the pocket book, so I treasure my time when I can get there to stock up on the usuals and also to look around a little. Sean was actually being somewhat reasonable and sitting in the cart (but not in the seat part). I had already acquired a few very needed items and was looking at the Easter dresses (the whole purpose of my trip) when my cell phone rang. Not recognizing the number of who was calling I was already annoyed that someone was interrupting my shopping time. On the other end of my phone was Lisa Erickson, an old family friend who was substituting for Halle's preschool teacher, Mrs. Crater. She said she was calling because Halle had pink eye and that I had better come and get her.

Pink eye I thought. Was she serious?! Halle looked perfectly fine that morning and had not mentioned any irritation or pain from her eyes. And believe me, she is not one to hide any personal or emotional discomfort she may be feeling at any time. I thought it was probably a false alarm, that she had had a few late nights, we were all recovering still from being sick all last month, and that she had probably had just a tired, dried out eye that was maybe overstimulated by the field trip they had at preschool that day to the horticulture building - where she was probably exposed to an allergen.

I tried to contain my agitation by forcing myself to reply calmly that I had just arrived at Costco, I still needed a few items that I would quickly grab, check out, and then drive back up the hill. It would probably take me another 20 minutes to get there, but that I would come as quickly as I could. Lisa assured that I had no reason to be embarrassed and that they would quarantine Halle from the other children until I arrived.

Still fuming that something had put a wrench into the gears of my "organized" day I quickly ran around Costco, trying to remember all the things that I had needed there and even thought to grab some eye drops - just in case Halle's eye was somewhat red and itchy.

When I arrived at Halle's preschool 18 minutes later (2 minutes before schedule) I was still in denial as a happy, bouncing Halle came bounding up on me. She certainly wasn't in pain and when I looked at her eye I was still very suspicious and holding onto all of my before mentioned rationalizations. But not wanting to risk infecting others, if she did have conjunctivitis, I quickly removed her from the hallway of her preschool and took her home.

At home I finally gave her left eye a good looking at and asked her how she felt. She said she felt fine, that her eye didn't hurt. Her eye was a little red, but not how I imagined pink eye should be - no pus, no watering of the eye, no pain - just a little red streaked. I figured I was right, it wasn't pink eye and that it would be better by evening with a little help of eyes drops and a nap. But by the end of the day - it was not getting better, nor did it look worse. Could it be that my "professional" medical assessment of the situation was wrong? It certainly looked that way, but by that time, it was too late to do anything about it. The Doctor's office was closed, the only other option would be to spend lots of money taking her to the urgent care doctors - which didn't seem logical seeing as she was in no pain. (I don't think I will be getting the "Mother of the Year" award again any time soon.)

I prayed that her conjunctivitis was viral and would remedy itself in a day or so. As Sunday approached, I realized that nothing had changed. Still red-streaked, Chris and I did the Sunday shuffle at church so one of us could be home with Halle. (The last thing I wanted was to have the whole primary blaming me for spreading pink eye around.)

By Sunday evening her eye did start to look a little better. Yea! I thought. I decided I would keep her home from school one more day - just to make sure - but was glad to think that things were finally on the mend and I wouldn't be forcefully homebound for much longer.

Monday morning - shock and dismay. As I went to check Halle's eye, I noticed that the other eye was now infected!!!!! And this one did look like pink eye. It was red, swollen, pussy, sore, itchy, etc. So as soon as the clock clicked to 8:00am I was on the phone calling the doctor's office for an appointment and by late morning my little girl finally got the medical treatment she needed - antibiotic eye drops that she gets to take every 4 hours. They say it will take another 3-5 days to clear up.

She has been pretty brave through all of this - not complaining and enduring the dreaded eye drops (which for Halle are worse than the disease itself). And tomorrow I get to take her back to the doctors for her pre-scheduled immunizations so I can register her for kindergarten. I did try to talk them into giving Halle her immunizations today - but that was not allowed as my appointment today was an "emergency" appointment only. I would still need to come back for a "well" appointment to get her immunizations. Or in other words, we would like to bill you as many times as we are able to.

I will probably be calling the doctor at 8:00am again tomorrow as now Chad seems to have a case of the "Pink Tongue" disease. He has had nasty canker sores on his tongue for over a month now that we just can't seem to get rid of. He is still awake (9:58 pm) and crying as I try to finish this blog. I hope our doctor gets a nice vacation or buys himself an new car from of all our visits.

So now that everyone knows the kind of germs we are harboring at our house - I am sure you will be avoiding the Caviness family like the plague - and I won't blame you - I am ready to escape too.

A really bad picture of Halle's "Pink Eye."