My eye went to Chile and came back with a disease

On Wednesday, we had inventory at work. This means a very long day of counting, recounting, scanning, verifying and other monotonous tasks. It should have been easy, but about halfway through the evening my eye started to throb. I couldn't see anything. I kept asking people, "Do you see anything?" The pain was just unreal. I have never been hit in the eye, but I am pretty sure this is what it would feel like. Around my eyeball itself felt like someone took a knife and sliced it open. Every time my eye moved there was stabbing pain. When I made an expression that involved my eyes, I would feel like I was kicked in the stomach. It was ridiculous.

I was sure I hadn't hit it on anything. Yes, I am a klutz and it is very easy for me to have a few bruises consistently. And having a random pain is not uncommon, but my eye???

The only thing I could come up with was maybe my cat had kicked me in the middle of the night. Izabel tends to crawl up on my chest and lay on me like a shawl - with her feet by my neck and head and her head on my stomach. She occasionally steps on my windpipe and other painful parts. I have figured out how to sleep through this 15 pound cat crawling up on me and walking around til she finds a comfy place. So it is possible she kicked me . . . . right?

When I finally got home from inventory it was early the next morning. I took the opportunity to flush my eye with lots of eye saline. Hoping it was maybe a stray cat hair in my eye or something that would disappear in the night. But in the morning it was still throbbing and stabbing pain.

By mid morning, I gave up and called the doctor. Thankfully they got me right in.

When I went in the office, they had me perform an eye test. Oh yes, the one where they have a four foot letter E. WHO MISSES THAT? I couldn't see past the third line. And I had lasik!! I was praying it wasn't anything serious.

By the time my doctor came in, she had this look like she just knew what it was. She performed a few tests, flipping my eyelid around, putting eye drops in and checking for foreign objects. She made a lot of "hmmms", but I am sure she knew what she was looking at.

She finally says, "Heidi you have a Chilean eye."

"WHAT?" What could that be? It sounds like a foreign disease. Did my eye have an affair I didn't know about? Who was this handsome beauty who made my eye stray and come back with a disease?

She explained a bit about it, but overall what I heard was . . . . we don't know what causes it; we can't do anything to fix it and it will eventually go away on it's own.

UHM WHAT?

Why do I always get the diseases that doctors know nothing about and can't cure?

Her answer was, "Well I could numb your eye?"

Seriously?!?!? That sucks. I'd rather suffer through the pain.

I asked the Nurse to write it down, so I could research it. It not a Chilean eye. It is called a Chalazion. Normal eye glands swell up from crap and it becomes ugly.

So here I am with a defective eye. It is a bit cloudy and my vision is off in the far side of my right eye. It is swollen and red like a worm crawled up and took a nap in my eye. I lived through a day of work before giving up and hitting the pharmacy for over the counter eye gel. Oh relief. It really helps. The pain is not so severe. It doesn't stab me when I roll or move my eye and blinking doesn't make me want to pass out.

The morning my boyfriend was coming to visit for the weekend the song in my head was, "Will you still love me tomorrow?" I feel like the guy from Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Yes, I am feeling sorry for myself. Or at least I was.

Now a couple of days later, gel in the eye and a heating pad for the eye couple times a day. I am doing okay. I love it when people are talking to me and then stop, at which point they have realized my eye is gross. They stop and swallow, then slowly raise their hand to point at my eye. And then proceed to ask me, "Your eye . . .?"