Seeing is overrated

When I first had my eye examined from Maddie's "love caress", I was told that it was a pretty significant scratch on my cornea but a follow up visit a few days later showed that it was healing well so I was optimistic.

Everything seemed to be getting better. My vision was starting to clear up, the pain had decreased and I wasn't tempted to close my eye all the time.

Then day 7 came and I woke up feeling like I had scratched it all over again. It was painful, sensitive to light, blurry, red and difficult to open without major discomfort. The bad news?

I have what's called a recurrent corneal erosion which means that the outermost layers of corneal cells aren't attaching to the underlying membrane and all the above symptoms can flare up at any time. Pretty much for the rest of my life.

Initial treatment will be using artificial tears at least 4 times a day and an ointment at night. I was using a medicated ointment and drop but I had an allergic reaction to something in them and woke up looking like this woman every morning. Literally. It was not pretty.

 

Now I'm using a preservative free drop and it seems to quiet the eye but I still have some blurriness.The bummer is that I was just trying out contact lenses but now I can't do that again for at least a few months.

 

My other options are putting a plug in a tear duct so that the eye will be better moisturized or having surgery, where they will scrape the top layer of cells off in hopes that the regenerated cells will attach to the membrane.

 

Fun stuff, huh?

 

And, no, I have no regrets about bringing Miss Maddie home. I would do it again.