Eye Troubles

The past 24 hours have been rather stressful. Mio was having bouts of inconsolable crying early yesterday afternoon, which is uncharacteristic of her because she’s usually pretty mellow and her cries are usually more whiny. I’d only heard her cry like that when she got her vaccinations, so we were worried she was in pain. We then noticed when she was shifting her eyes that the inner corner her right eye had a noticeably red patch in the sclera. We freaked out and called the emergency hotline of our medical center, but after asking us a bunch of questions, the pediatric advice nurse told us that it sounded like Mio had just poked her eye, and that we could come in the next morning but there was no need to come into urgent care. Later in the evening, the rest of the whites of her eye had gotten pink, she was still crying a lot, and her eyelid had gotten so puffy from the crying that she could only open her eye halfway. We called the hospital a couple more times, and they just kept telling us to come in the next day, and that bringing her in and waiting for hours in the emergency waiting room would only add to her distress. While I understood that and wanted to trust them, at the time I was so scared for Mio that I got really frustrated and upset, and I couldn’t help but weep too as I held Mio and watched her cry herself to sleep in my arms.

Dan and I took Mio to the pediatrician first thing this morning, and were told that the red patch was a subconjunctival hemorrhage and a possible eye infection. The type of hemorrhage happens when a small blood vessel breaks and bleeds near the surface of the white of the eye. and can be caused by sudden increases in pressures such as a violent sneeze or cough, among other things. It apparently will go away after a few days and does not require treatment. The fact that Mio’s eye was tearing a lot and getting pink and had some slight discharge was a sign that it could be infected, so the pediatrician prescribed us some antibiotic eye ointment to apply three times daily to both eyes (since it can very possibly spread to the other eye) until it goes away. I’ve already discovered that it is a pain in the ass to apply, because Mio starts screaming and clenching her eyes shut whenever I try to apply it to the inner portion of her lower eyelid as directed. But a mother’s gotta do what a mother’s gotta do! And after only two applications, her eye is already looking significantly better. Phew… I can finally breathe a relief.

Hopefully Mio’s eyes will be back to their beautiful normal state again… I miss this sweet, unclouded gaze of hers.