Monday, July 16, 2007

Update: not so sicko

So I went to the opthamologist (sans referral) and she said I don't have pink eye. Logically this is a good thing, but now I am kind of embarassed (and want a refund on the 5 hours I spent calling doctors' offices and waiting in them).

4 comments:

rockstarjenny said...

This begs the question--why was your eye red? and perhaps oozing? (not to assume that your eye oozed, but you seemed to fear giving coworkers oozing eyes).

Anonymous said...

I had the exact same thing happen earlier this summer! Was sure it was pinkeye, and it was allergies. Which is kind of a shame, since the antihistamine eyedrops don't work nearly as well as antibiotics work on pinkeye...

TA said...

Hi, former captain indignant, great to hear from you!

I would really doubt the doctor's assessment of no pink eye, except she seemed so sure of herself. The symptoms were: eye pink, watery, woke up with crusty stuff around it. (Eww.) Not really oozing, that was more poetic effect. But it was exactly like how I remember having pink eye as a kid (I have a vivid memory of it b/c for some reason I tried to hide it from my mom for days by getting up early and cleaning it out.) But, the doctor looked around with a special opthamologist light or something, and said it was allergies. She also lectured me about how to take off my eye makeup, which was weirdly embarassing.

Tim Carnahan said...

I actually had pink eye as an adult, like five years ago. I have no idea where I contracted it. If I did, that person would get an eyeful of fist sandwich.

Aside from discovering that I'm allergic to sulfa, which prolonged the infection about five days, my bout of pink eye taught me that it, like other childhood illnesses (I'm looking at you, Ear Infection) is REALLY lame to get as an adult.
That means, it was twenty times worse as an adult than when I was, like, eight.

Pink eye isn't just watery eyes and crust. That's just what we remember from the past, because our childish brains were good at carving out unpleasantness.

Pink eye involves a filthy membraneous fluid that covers your eyeball. That swamp plays host to disgusting, infected matter that drifts all over the surface. This muck fluid makes the entire eye itch and burn like crazy.

It's like your eyeballs are suffocating under a film of greasy pus that is constantly spewing out of your eye sockets. Putting a hot wash cloth on your face provides a little relief, but not as much as the thought of a good brillo padding across the corneas.

Not to gross you out, but I rarely get a chance to discuss my 2002 pink eye episode. It sounds like you didn't have it.