Eye problems.

Sometime in January, when we least expected it to happen, Jeff and I went to bed early, and SLEPT IN the next day . . . 

I don't know if you realize what a big deal this is.  

We are talking possibly more than 8 hours of sleep. 

Normally, this would be a subject to celebrate,

BUT

Jeff forgot to take his contacts out before embarking into slumberland. 

The next morning, his eyes looked like this:

OUCH!  Red, swollen, and sore . . . but we thought, woops, he just forgot to take his contacts out, not a good idea, but hey, it should clear up with a break from said contacts and wearing his {duct taped} trusty glasses . . . 

But the pain didn't go away. 

In fact, it got a lot worse. . . 

We consulted with my brother {Optometrist} and a good friend {Ophthalmologist} and both let us know it could actually be a big deal . . . a possible corneal abrasion that could permanently affect his vision.  

Oooh, that sounded bad. . . Scientists kind of need their vision . . . 

This happened on a Friday to Saturday {weekend of course}, and we had been given advice that if his vision seemed to be changing, we needed to be seen immediately.  

Sunday morning, Jeff woke up in pretty bad pain.  He normally gets up pretty early on Sundays now {5:45 or so, see, sleeping in, very big deal at our house!}, and I woke up to the light quietly on in the bathroom and Jeff mentioning he was going to drive himself to the emergency room. . . 

Um, no . . . 

I got up and quickly dressed to take him in. 

We waited a decent amount of time. . . Jeff just huddled away from the light under his coat and 

waited . . . 

And then he was finally seen . . . by  someone who might not have known what they were looking at, and told it looked like a corneal abrasion.  He was prescribed some antibiotics and the option of pain killers, and we headed home. . . 

I took the kids to church, and texted Jeff to see if he wanted me to go and pick up the pain killers?  {None of the pharmacies we tried on the way home from the hospital on a Sunday morning were open yet, before 8 . . . }  

After debating back and forth, he decided that yes, it would be nice to have some relief from the pain he was feeling . . . 

He thought the eye patch helped him relax, I thought it made him look very pirate: Argghh!!!

He spent most of the rest of the day having strange dreams and trying to sleep through the pain. 

The next day, we saw a great ophthalmologist, who said it looked like something was there, but it was healing nicely, and didn't think there would be any permanent damage . . . 

and yet . . . 

his vision did not improve any more. 

No more pain, but when he went in six weeks later, the best they could correct his vision was to 20/40.

But, there is still hope that it was actually a latent virus that is causing the vision impairment, and he is on a new medication that is supposed to clear it up. . . so if you have some extra time in your prayers, and want to add my scientist to them, we would love that.

***

Since we are on the subject of eyes . . . 

I guess I needed to have an issue of my own.  

Vision is completely fine, but one day, I was putting on my makeup for the day, and noticed a large chunk of eyelashes were missing.  

Not. there. at. all!

No idea what happened, or why they all decided to disappear at the same time, but I really missed them while they were gone.  I threw out my make up, and contacts, and only wore glasses during the day for a week, and kept a close eye on those little lashes that DID start to grow back . . . 

I found myself seriously wondering about getting a small section of false lashes . . . almost.

And when I went to the gym, sometimes I had sweat in my eyes, because, you know, they actually have a job:  keeping sweat and unwanted *stuff* out of your eyes . . . 

After about a week. I cautiously wore eye shadow, but it took about 2.5 weeks or so for them to return to about where they were before. . . 

Still not sure what caused it, but I'm glad they decided to come back . . .