The Eye Saga Continues

Well, I’m sorry to say that my eye saga continues. Last evening before I went to bed I inspected my problem eye and discovered that for the first time there is a patch of pink now on the white below my iris.  Well, that’s one of the symptoms that’s supposed to send you to the phone to call the ophthalmologist.  So I told myself that if it wasn’t gone the next morning, I’d call.

Then, during the night, I woke up to find my eye running with some kind of discharge. It felt like I’d just put eye drops in but I hadn’t. I also had these mysterious bumps showing up on my forehead in a vertical line starting at the eyebrow of my affected eye. They didn’t hurt, weren’t red, but they were weird… Were they related? I was somewhat alarmed…

Discharge from the eye is another reason to call the doctors.

So the next morning (ie, this morning) I got the phone numbers for three eye clinics and set to calling. One didn’t open until 8, the second didn’t open until 8:30 but the third had someone who actually answered the phone. I told her my situation, but she had no openings with the ophthalmologists, only the  optometrist at 10am. “An optometrist,” she said, “can do anything an ophthalmologist can do except surgery.” I grabbed it to hold as a last resort, but told her I was going to try to get in to see an ophthalmologist somewhere else first if possible.

A few minutes after 8am I called Eye Clinic #1 . Its answering machine told me that if I was calling during office hours I should leave a voice mail message and someone would return my call before the end of the day. Not what I had in mind, but I left a message. Then I waited a bit, tried again and got an actual person that time, but as soon as I said what I wanted she connected me to the voice mail thing again. 🙁

By then I could call Clinic #2. They had actual receptionists, but the receptionist could do nothing. She told me that she would have one of the doctor’s technicians call me sometime to find out the story on my eye, and that person would decide if I should see a doctor or tell me what to do.

Meanwhile, my hubby, who really thought I should see an ophthalmologist and not an optometrist, had done a bit of online research and come up with a list of places, one of which was Eye Clinic #4.  I called them, gave the receptionist my spiel and midway through she said I could have a 3:30pm appt with one of their newbie doctors. (Well, she didn’t say “newbie,” I just looked her up afterward and discovered that she was). As the receptionist was taking my info, I heard her asking someone else if they were scheduling the 3:30 slot and moments later she asked me if I could come in at 4 instead of 3:30.  Well, that would screw a lot of things up with my day, but okay. I wanted to see an ophthalmologist, and at least it was an appointment.

I then called Eye Clinic #3 back, and canceled my 10 o’clock appt with the optometrist.

Not long after that, the technician from Eye Clinic #2 called — while I was outside hanging up the laundry, of course. So I had to call him back. I was expecting another message left and a return call, but he came on the line immediately. After listening to my probably way-too-detailed recitation of what all had gone on with my eye and also the weird bumps on my forehead, he told me… ahem… that it sounded like dry eyes.

Again? That’s what I’d been told last week.

Apparently it’s “endemic” here in Southern Arizona this time of year, and he said lots of people are suffering from dry eyes. He himself had to use eye drops constantly throughout the day. Every one of my symptoms were consistent with dry eyes, he said. The pain and scratchiness, the pink area (a sign of irritation) and the tears that had suddenly run out of my eye in the night (also a sign of irritation). Nor did he think it an infection from my having contaminated the tip of the bottle of eyedrops once when trying to administer them. He recommended I just start using the drops as needed — all day long.

What he was more concerned about were the mysterious bumps on my forehead. He thought they were shingles.

WHAT?!!!  Shingles????

He thought I should see my primary care ASAP.  That I should cancel the 4pm ophthalmologist appt in favor of a primary care visit. “You have bigger fish to fry right now” he said when I asked if I should do just that. Then he went on about shingles and how they could appear one day and suddenly cover your whole forehead the next and hurt really bad and if you don’t deal with them right away… you could have them for a loooong time.  Gulp.

Soooo. I called may PCP, talked to his nurse who said he was out of town today, and fully booked tomorrow. But she would talk to him when he called in that afternoon and get back to me.

And around 2 she did. She asked me if the bumps hurt. I said no. She told me that if they were shingles they would hurt. The doc doesn’t think they’re shingles, but something else.

Something else? Like what?

“Some sort of skin infection.”

Eeuw.

So of course now my mind is going every which way:  what sort of skin infection? Where would I have gotten it? What is it going to do? What will they treat it with? Will I be allergic to it? (I am allergic to three major antibiotics already)

But I have an appointment to see my PCP on Friday, now. So I’ll find out then. And once again I have to wait. The Lord loves to make me wait. Probably because I dislike it so much. I like things resolved. I want to know what’s going on and to take action. I don’t like to have to trust…  Which is surely why He gives me so many opportunities to do so.

Needless to say, I didn’t get any writing done today.

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