Pink Eye
When it rains it pours. First I got the cold that moved our Halloween party for our play group. I got better, we had the party, went trick-or-treating, made it through the weekend, and then my boys got the cold. They got better, we had a good weekend, and now I have pink eye.
Monday afternoon I thought something was up as my eye was very irritated, but when I woke up yesterday morning and couldn't open my eye, I knew what it was. Took a few minutes in the bathroom with a wet warm cloth to open things up. I called the doctor and they were able to get me in at 2:30pm.
Although my "dry eyes" aren't too bad on an average day, add pink eye to the mixture and I could barely blink without it feeling like someone had poured sand in my eye. Very gritty and painful. My vision was also very blurry...which is pretty normal with pink eye.
I have one of those nice ol' country doctors who has a family practice. Has the baby scale from the 1950's in the examination room. Comes in and has a conversation with you, takes his time, and educates you in the process. Not the doctor for everyone as some people want to get in and out. I, however, owe it to him for my very early diagnosis with Sjogren's, so I'll be a patient as long as I can still drive to see him.
He walked in yesterday afternoon and asked me how I was doing. I replied, "not too bad, and you?" His response: he had spent the last few hours waiting for the mail to come. My response: I was just at the post office and wondered why there were no cars in the parking lot. We both said: Veteran's Day. Duh.
He then asked me what brought me in, so I looked at him and said, "I think I have pink eye." He asked me when it started, I filled him in on the morning with the eye stuck together. Mentioned that my husband looked at me and said, "whoa." The doctor commented that all men should look at their wives and say "whoa" every now and then. I clarified it was more of a "whoa (I want to run to the bathroom and wash my hands" vs. a "whoa (don't you look beautiful)." We both had a good laugh.
I also mentioned my husband's offer to help me open my eye, and that I had declined and opted for the wet warm cloth. The doctor said that was a good one, as separating the eye would usually result in pulling out some eyelashes. He then asked me if we've been sick lately. Seems that pink eye and the cold run together. Sometimes one member of the family will get the cold, another will get pink eye. So, this is still lingering from our colds the past few weeks. However, he also filled me in on how there's like 22,000 different viruses that cause colds and only about 18-20 different viruses that cause pink eye. Once you have one of the viruses, you won't have it again. So while you can have cold after cold, it's always a different cold. Same thing with pink eye, once you have one case, you'll never have that same case again. However, that doesn't mean you can't pass it to other people.
He then proceeded to ask me if my kids were in daycare. Please keep in mind what I'm typing below is directly from my doctor, not my beliefs. I responded that I'm fortunate to be at home with them (thanks to my husband). He went on to explain that if it were the 1950s where most women were home with their kids and my kid had pink eye, we'd leave the doctor and then not leave the house for the next 5 days. My kids would stay home from school for a full week to ensure not only that they were better, but no one else got pink eye. Now a days, since many women work and there are pressures (both from the employer and those women put on themselves) to be at work, parents feel the urge to load their kids up with Tylenol and ship them off to daycare. Then they go into work and wait for the call from the daycare saying something's not right. This enables them to "show up" at work, so at least they "made the effort." Then they take the kid to the doctor, get the prescription for antiBIOTIC eye drops (keep in mind this is a virus) and go home for the rest of the afternoon. Daycares, to cover their rearends, stipulate that the child has to be on medication for 24 hours before returning to daycare. However, since the antiBIOTIC drops just soothe the eye (take away the redness) and prevent secondary infections (like sties) they don't prevent the pink eye from spreading. It takes 4-5 days for the virus to run it's course. You're technically able to "share" the virus the 3-4 days before you are at your worst, and then 4-5 days afterwards.
So, his insight is that doctors are now just there to cover the legal issues rather than get the families to take care of their children. Afterall, most kids with pinkeye return to daycare the next day and it typically spreads like wildfire. The daycare's response: they're all on medication. That phrase takes care of everything. If you're on medication (even though it won't treat a virus), you can't pass what you have along. FALSE.
His advice to me: stay home or take my kids out to all of our play groups and get togethers and pass out his card. If the adults are my age, there's a 50/50 chance they've already had this virus and won't have it again. Most kids haven't and if there's enough contact (or their resistance is down) they will get pink eye...or the cold caused by the virus. My thought: I'm staying put. Nothing worse than passing things around, and I'm one of those Moms who hates it when sick people leave their house because they feel they have to. Like all of those sick co-workers I had during my pregnancy who would I'd overhear telling people how they felt like crap, and a) would go home early, b) didn't have any more vacation days to take sick time, c) had to get something out so they came in even though they felt lousy. Thought they were troopers, but from my perspective they were just incubating and passing along their misery to the rest of the workforce.
I left the doctor's office with quite an education and that prescription for drops to soothe my eyes and prevent the secondary infection. As they don't make me unable to share my misery, I'm canceling all activities for the week. Also makes me think more about how I should keep my kids away from anyone who has been sick within the past 3-4 days, not just the last 24 hours.
My eye is feeling better, and it's looking like it's just my left eye right now. Woke up able to see this morning, so that means 4 days from yesterday is Saturday when I can be out and about. Now I have to start canceling our dates for the remainder of the week.