Pain in the....um....Eye

For a few months now, I have experienced a scratching sensation in my right eye. Some days it would be barely noticeable, other days it would feel like I am constantly being poked in the eye with a splintery stick. On those days even light would cause my eye to ache so much that it would constantly water and turn an alarming shade of red. To other people it would look like I am half grieving over some devastating personal loss (the other eye being completely oblivious and thus not watering at all). Shortly after it started I went to the optometrist and was told to not wear my contact lenses as it sounded like an infection, and that it would clear up by itself in a few weeks.

Alas, it did not, and after two months of not wearing contact lenses the pain and irritation still persisted. So I returned to the optometrist, who decided to run a few more in-depth tests. She looked deeply into my eyes (with a big machine, not romantic in the least) and declared that she could not see anything out of the ordinary. Thereafter she turned my eyelid inside out, which was just as uncomfortable as it sounds, and declared that she had found the infection, as my inner eyelid was inflamed and red. As she could not determine what kind of infection it was with her equipment, I was referred to an eye specialist. Unfortunately I could not get an immediate appointment with him because he was fully booked for two weeks.

But, finally, the day of my appointment arrived and I was shown into the eye specialist's office. They did an eye test wherein they found that, unsurprisingly, I could not see very clearly with my irritated eye. I could have saved them some effort there! Next, the eye specialist used a much more powerful machine to look deep into my eye and declared that there was a microscopic piece of plastic lodged in the single celled layer covering my cornea. It had been there for so long that it had been covered by that single layer, and that was the cause of the immense irritation. He put some sedative in my eye and told me to hold still, as he was going to use a needle to try and pry it loose. Never in my life had I focused on a spot on the wall more than in that moment. I had visions of me flinching and him having to book me into hospital to remove the now lodged needle from my eye.

Thankfully that didn't happen, but unfortunately the needle had no success. So he took another little device and, after applying some more sedative, started it up. It sounded like a dentist's drill and he told me to keep still again. It was only after this device had successfully removed the piece of plastic that he informed me that it was in fact a small drill, and that he had drilled through the single celled layer in order to get to the offending piece of detritus. A contact lens was fitted which would protect my eye and I was given a prescription for antibiotics that I had to apply every 4 hours. Then I was sent home with instructions to have some pain medication on hand. That confused me as, apart from a lot of blurriness, my eye didn't hurt. Unfortunately a short time later the sedative wore off and it felt like someone had scraped sandpaper over my eye. The pain was immense! I sat in the dark, almost vampirically afraid of light sources, for two days. Then it was time for my follow up appointment, during which the contact lens was removed and I was told my eye is healing beautifully.

Now, two weeks later, the pain is gone and, apart from a slight blurriness, my vision has returned. I am still using eye drops every four hours, which is rather annoying, but at least I can get on with my daily routine without looking like I have just returned from a funeral. All-in-all this was a very unpleasant experience, but I thank the Lord that all is well! And with that, I will be "seeing" you soon......