I Am Jack's Detached Cornea

Brian finally went back to work this week after being home the whole of last week with a detached epithelium, the first layer of the cornea. This is the 2nd time this has happened. I hope we don't have a 3rd time.

The first time this happened, we treated it as pink eye for 2-3 days, with no improvement. Finally after days of suffering, we saw the opthamalogist who took a Q-tip and scraped the old, loose cornea away, patched it up and away we went. Except Brian couldn't stand to have the patch over his eye. After 3 very long days and nights, the patch was removed and everything seemed to be mended.

Fast forward a few weeks, and 3am on a Saturday finds him bouncing off the walls of the bedroom with more excruciating pain in his eye. After getting through the night, there were hard decisions to be made. The doctor couldn't be reached, so we decided to go to the ER in Fort Worth. But take the kids? My last trip to L&D for contractions proved taking them anywhere like that was a very bad idea. Could we call someone? Who knew how long we would be there? So we called Brian's mother to come all the way from Beaumont so I could take him to the emergency room.

There, we were told that the cornea was not detached, there was just an abrasion on the eye. Another patch, pain meds and instructions to follow up with the doctor on Monday. For all this, I see they are billing our insurance $1100.

Thankfully, Brian's mother stayed through the weekend. She took care of the girls while I took care of Brian. And took care of the yard, did the laundry, bathed the girls, and swept and mopped the kitchen, prepared meals, went to the grocery store.

Monday, we waited 2 hours to be "worked in" to see the doctor at which time we were told that he can be reached at home after hours. At his house. With the number listed in the phone book. I guess we'll know for next time, and hope that next time never comes. He also confirmed what Brian already knew...not only was the corena detached again, but it looked like it had never reattached in the first place. Blast. Then, Dr. Terrell, doctor who can be reached at home on the weekends and after hours, took a needle and proceeded to do vile things to Brian's eye.

The few days following that were horrible for everyone. Brian couldn't see a thing, he was in terrible pain that narcotics barely took the edge off and not getting any sleep at night which meant I wasn't getting much sleep either. I don't know what I would have done if I'd been on my own with the girls, too. I think I would have been melting down every quarter of an hour.

I get so frustrated with my inability to do it all and be everything to everyone. I find in these situations that I become even more selfish than usual. But maybe I can blame it on being very pregnant. It's all I can do to haul myself around.

Brian is finally doing better and back to taking care of me so all is right in the world again.