Danielle's eye

This happened once before. It was right after Danielle had returned from a trip to California with just her dad. She came home with a swollen eye.

The next day it looked worse, so I took her to the doctor. He had no idea what it was so he scheduled an appointment with a pediatric opthamaligist. That same evening of the first appointment, Camie was mauled by a dog. Spencer was 3 weeks old and we had just moved from out-of-state one week prior to that. It was one of those moments in your life when the whole world is spinning around you and you can barely breathe. A newborn, a daughter with stitches all over her face, the nighmares, and Danielle with some weard eye problem. Evan was helpful and took Danielle to the Opthamologist. He presecribed all different kinds of medications. Between Camie's 4 oral medications and Danielles several, I had to make a list and a schedule to keep it all straight. Plus, I was up all day and night with a newborn and hadn't been to church but once, so I didn't have any friends to call for help. I hardly remember any of it other then I survived. We all somehow survived.

So when Danielle's eye flared again, I knew what it was, but I couldn't remember for the life of me what medications she took last time around. I have since started keeping a hand-written medical journal (because coumputers crash). We moved away from the doctor we saw, and I didn't even remember his name. So here we go again. I took her to the pediatrician. I told the pediatrician it was a cold sore on her eye. I think she didn't quite believe me, but gave me the benefit of a doubt. She came back in and and said she needed to refer me to a pediatric opthamologist. I asked if it was Dr. M, and she smiled and said yes, why? That was the same doctor that Spencer saw two months before with his eye condition. She got me an appointment for the next day. And the next day in Danielle and I walk. The Doctor just smiled. I asked him if he had seen anything like Danielle's eye before. He said it is quite common, he sees it about once a month. He said Spencer's eye he sees about once in a lifetime, he will surely never see anything like that one again. He remembered us well. He looked at Danielle's eye and made sure it was not IN her eye. He said it really is not a big deal as long as it does not get IN her eye. If it gets IN her eye, it is a whole new ball game and very difficult. So, we needed to give her some antiviral oral medication, antibiotic eye drops, and erithromycin eye ointment to put on the fever blister. Heavy medication all for prevention, no wonder I didn't remember any of it. She will likely have breakouts the rest of her life, similar to the ones people get on their lips, just this is on her eye. And each time she breaks out, I have to immediately start all the medications to prevent it getting IN her eye.

This time Danielle was older and able to leave it alone, so the scarring isn't nearly as bad. Last time she had a red spot under her eye for almost a year. This time, a month later, and the red spot is almost gone. Hopefully it is another four years before she has another break-out.