EYE Decorations

You read that right...we encountered eye decorations yesterday.

I started school again yesterday, after class, as I crossed the boarder back into Nebraska I got a call. I didn't know the number so I answered as I'm always worried about the kids. I'm glad I did!q It was the school nurse. Ethan was there because in art class he got something in his eye. I was a bit confused as to how he got something in his eye that simply wouldn't budge. Regardless, I told the nurse that I'd be there in 15-20 minutes.

When I got there, Ethan and the nurse explained to me that they were doing a project using something similar to this, but white instead of black. As Ethan blew the pieces off that he had scratched to make his design, one flew back onto his eye. And it would not move! The nurse had tried to flush his eye, wipe his eye, even submerged Ethan's face in water and had him open and close his eye. It was still there.

I called our clinic and they told me to take him to an ER because it involved his eye. So, I made sure Natalie would got to the after school program if we took a long time and we headed over to the Children's Hospital. I could have taken him to a closer ER, but I've heard mixed things about it and wanted him to be taken care of the right way for something so delicate.

After we signed in, we had to wait about 20 minutes before taken back. Considering it's an ER, and I tend to wait longer at the clinic for scheduled appointments, this wasn't a big deal! I took this opportunity to torture him with trying to get a picture of the offending white fleck.

Can you see it???

Let me help by cropping it a little closer!
It doesn't seem very big...but it was really bothering him and considering what it was, it could have taken a long time for it to wear off. Not to mention I highly doubt the manufacturers would recommend ingesting that stuff in any way shape or form.

To keep him from rubbing his eye or moving his eyes a lot, the school nurse had given him a damp paper towel to cover both his eyes.

Always being silly!

A little snicker 'cause I was making him laugh.

Everyone seemed a little surprised at the foreign body in his eye. And no one really seemed to know exactly what to do at first. Eventually they put numbing drops in his eye, then dyed it so the doc could look at it with the black light. She first tried to flush it out with saline, then tried a big q-tip to wipe it off. When neither of those worked, she and two other people gently held him while she used a GIANT needle to literally scrape a thin layer of his eyeball off to get the sticky white stuff off. She then used about half a 8 oz bottle of the saline solution to flush his eye out in case there was more and to help get the dye out.

The whole time all three were telling him how great he was doing. And told me at least twice that I should be very proud of him. You have no idea how proud I was!!! He was fabulous, and even said, "That was a pretty cool experience, but I don't want to do it again!"

When I looked at his eye after, I can see where she scrapped it...its almost a little dull there instead of shiny. Very weird.

Very happy for it to be done with!

After getting some "Vitamin M" (Motrin), he chugged the water the nurse gave him.

This is the look I got when I asked him if he was going to stick stuff to his eye again! :-)

Giving me a funny look. What a booger!
(He's looking so grown up in these pictures!!! He really needs to stop that!)

Before we left, the doctor came back in to give us instructions. Keep him on Vitamin M for the next two days, get the Rx for some eye drops and put one drop in his eye four times a day (um, I'm still not sure when to do the fourth...I may wake him up in the middle of the night to get that one in), and to not watch tv or play video games tonight.

Ethan promptly said, "My mom doesn't let us watch tv or play games on school days!"

I swear the doc's jaw dropped! She said, "Wow, well that's wonderful! More mom's should be like you!" When the nurse came back she even mentioned this to her! I didn't think this was a huge deal, as its been a rule since Ethan started school, but I guess it is!

When we got home (after getting the Rx filled), Ethan asked if he could take a nap. I'm not going to say no to that! Not to mention, it will help his eye heal faster if he keeps them closed! He slept for a little over an hour, only waking up because the guy rang the doorbell to fix our heater. He did say it was hurting, but after putting the drops in again he said it felt a little better.

If this is the kind of ER drama we get while Roby's gone, its ok with me. I can handle a little eye annoyance over broken bones!!!