Last night after her evening bath, Miriam ran out of the bathroom, gulped, and said, "Mommy, do I have...The Pink Eye? Because I was just looking in the mirror and I think one of my eyes is pink!"
She'd been swimming at the pool for a couple of hours, so while her eyes were certainly pink, it was hard to tell if her conjunctivitis was mild irritation from chlorinated water or if it was because she had the beginnings of bacterial/viral/whatever-we-have pink eye coming on. We put her to bed to play the wait-and-see game. She was quite miserable about it—"it itches!"
Well after any pharmacy had closed I realized there might be something that might help relieve symptoms, which would help my children stop rubbing their eyes, which would help mitigate further spreading of The (Dread) Pink Eye.
We don't ordinarily go shopping on Sunday (part of how we try to keep the Sabbath holy) but there situations that typify "an ox in the mire," which basically means it's an unavoidable situation where you can justify doing something you ordinarily wouldn't. Sickness is one of the most common reasons (see here; also, why don't we have articles in the Ensign like this anymore—the title Will the Real Ox in the Mire Please Stand Up is killing me. If I don't die of pink eye I will surely die from stifling my laughter at that title. The Ensign just isn't as funny as it used to be).
After looking up eye drops for conjunctivitis I defined my "ox in the mire" for Andrew. Yes, we should have just gotten drops earlier in the day, but I was doing fine with warm compresses and saline rinses. Benjamin's eyes seem to be improving so there was no need for medication for him. I hadn't even thought of eye drops before it was too late to get any. However, if we woke up in the morning and Miriam had full blown pink eye I'd send him to get some eye drops so we could make it through the day.
In the morning I couldn't even open my eyes until I'd soaked them with a warm compress and even then my left eye was nearly swollen shut.
"Forget Miriam!" I said to Andrew. "Get me some eye drops!"
(Oh, and Happy Father's Day. Now rescue me!)
When Miriam woke up Andrew checked on her and reported back to me. "Miriam has...The Pink Eye!" he said, "So I'm going to go get some drops for you guys."
Bless that man! And bless those eye drops!
My left eye is still killing me but it's open and my right eye feels just fine. I think it's helping the children, too, even though they hate having to put the drops in.
Church today has so far consisted of watching one talk from General Conference, me losing my temper because Benjamin kept crying "Trains! Trains! Trains!" so loud I could hardly listen, and, finally, watching a segment of Thomas the Tank Engine. Seriously—that child doesn't usually watch television but he does know what "shows" are and loves when he gets to watch anything (which is usually when he's sick). Yesterday he found a Thomas the Tank Engine book that we had lying around and made me read it to him like five times in a row (or until I hid it from him). During one of our readings one of the girls mentioned that Thomas has his own show and suggested that perhaps we should watch it sometime because Benjamin would love it. And then Benjamin was like, "Trains! Trains! Trains!"
We've never watched Thomas before at our house, but I suppose there's a first time for everything.
And we have The Pink Eye, so...
She'd been swimming at the pool for a couple of hours, so while her eyes were certainly pink, it was hard to tell if her conjunctivitis was mild irritation from chlorinated water or if it was because she had the beginnings of bacterial/viral/whatever-we-have pink eye coming on. We put her to bed to play the wait-and-see game. She was quite miserable about it—"it itches!"
Well after any pharmacy had closed I realized there might be something that might help relieve symptoms, which would help my children stop rubbing their eyes, which would help mitigate further spreading of The (Dread) Pink Eye.
We don't ordinarily go shopping on Sunday (part of how we try to keep the Sabbath holy) but there situations that typify "an ox in the mire," which basically means it's an unavoidable situation where you can justify doing something you ordinarily wouldn't. Sickness is one of the most common reasons (see here; also, why don't we have articles in the Ensign like this anymore—the title Will the Real Ox in the Mire Please Stand Up is killing me. If I don't die of pink eye I will surely die from stifling my laughter at that title. The Ensign just isn't as funny as it used to be).
After looking up eye drops for conjunctivitis I defined my "ox in the mire" for Andrew. Yes, we should have just gotten drops earlier in the day, but I was doing fine with warm compresses and saline rinses. Benjamin's eyes seem to be improving so there was no need for medication for him. I hadn't even thought of eye drops before it was too late to get any. However, if we woke up in the morning and Miriam had full blown pink eye I'd send him to get some eye drops so we could make it through the day.
In the morning I couldn't even open my eyes until I'd soaked them with a warm compress and even then my left eye was nearly swollen shut.
"Forget Miriam!" I said to Andrew. "Get me some eye drops!"
(Oh, and Happy Father's Day. Now rescue me!)
When Miriam woke up Andrew checked on her and reported back to me. "Miriam has...The Pink Eye!" he said, "So I'm going to go get some drops for you guys."
Bless that man! And bless those eye drops!
My left eye is still killing me but it's open and my right eye feels just fine. I think it's helping the children, too, even though they hate having to put the drops in.
Church today has so far consisted of watching one talk from General Conference, me losing my temper because Benjamin kept crying "Trains! Trains! Trains!" so loud I could hardly listen, and, finally, watching a segment of Thomas the Tank Engine. Seriously—that child doesn't usually watch television but he does know what "shows" are and loves when he gets to watch anything (which is usually when he's sick). Yesterday he found a Thomas the Tank Engine book that we had lying around and made me read it to him like five times in a row (or until I hid it from him). During one of our readings one of the girls mentioned that Thomas has his own show and suggested that perhaps we should watch it sometime because Benjamin would love it. And then Benjamin was like, "Trains! Trains! Trains!"
We've never watched Thomas before at our house, but I suppose there's a first time for everything.
And we have The Pink Eye, so...
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