The Eyes Have It

Although AC managed to avoid his annual winter break respiratory infection, he still ended up in the ER twice during this vacation! The culprit was his right eye, which sustained a corneal abrasion from a wayward tree branch during the evasion portion of his survival training in November. Although the eye appeared to be healing well for the most part (he did have a sty on the right eyelid for a few days which may have been related), on New Year's AC experienced a flare up that consisted of stinging pain, extreme watering/tearing of the eye, photophobia (sensitivity to light), redness, swelling, and the unpleasant, irritating sensation that a foreign body was in his eye. The situation didn't improve with rest and hypertonic eye drops (prescribed to him by a military doctor) so SH took us to the ER at Beth Israel.

After a surprisingly short wait, AC had his eye examined by a physician's assistant, who proclaimed that there was no abrasion or foreign body, that his symptoms were consistent with an allergy flareup, and that all he needed to do was rinse his eye with saline and take Benadryl. Hmmm, an allergic response in only one eye, the eye that just happened to have been recently injured? Seemed a little too coincidental, but his symptoms were improving, so we accepted the explanation and went home with a referral to the Ear and Eye Infirmary in case things got worse. Unfortunately, they did.

Two days later, on Jan. 2nd, the symptoms returned with full force. AC (stubborn and suspicious of doctors as always) spent most of the day in bed, insisting he didn't need to see anyone. Finally, after much yelling on my dad's part and some gentle cajoling on mine, he conceded, so we hopped in a taxi and headed for Eye and Ear. After a five hour wait (yes, apparently everyone in NYC had an eye emergency on the second day of the new year when only one resident was on call--poor guy!), during which AC was seen three times by the same overworked resident, we finally made it out of there with a diagnosis of recurrent corneal errosion, a prescription for antibiotic eye drops, and a treatment plan that included reinstating all of the drops/ointments AC had initially been prescribed but which the military docs told him to stop after five days of treatment (I'll save my rant on the ineptitude of the military health care system for another day!), and a referral to follow up with an Opthalmologist. Apparently it was the right treatment, because his eye immediately began to improve.

Unfortunately this may end up being a lifelong problem that eventually requires surgery if it keeps recurring. Now AC is being seen by the military docs in Little Rock, and I sincerely hope they keep an eye on the situation (sorry, lame pun very much intended :) !