I'm on steroids! :o

Continuing from the last post...

Two days ago, I Googled "red eye and sinus pain" and got this good site that listed the different things that could be wrong up there (in my eye/sinuses). Most of them were allergies, which I have none of as far as I know. So Dad was thinking that I might had gotten an allergic reaction during the room change; possibly from the paint. But the thing that puzzled him was that it was only happening on the left side. You would think if it's an allergic reaction it would be on both sides, right?

So, thinking it was an allergic reaction from something in my new room, I made the decision that it would be best to sleep in the living room for a night to see if it indeed was something in my new room. We also decided that if nothing changed by Monday (today), we should go see a doctor.

After two nights of sleeping in the living room, the only thing that had changed was a pain in my back and neck from sleeping on the couch. So Dad called the family doctor to see what he should do. That doctor referred us to the Wal-Mart Vision Center, who is our regular eye doctor.

The ride over there was horrible. I couldn't open either of my eyes because of the sunlight [(consensual photophobia) (It's interesting that it says I spelled 'photophobia' wrong, but homophobia is on the list of correct spellings :\)], and towards the end I started to get that empty feeling in my stomach which usually means I could throw up soon (motion sickness). By the time we got to Wal-Mart (~30 minutes away), my left eye was watering like crazy, my nose was running, and my stomach felt empty (it actually was cos I hadn't eaten anything since the night before).

The lady who was at the counter in the Vision Center took one look at me and said, "Jeez... That looks awful."

"Yeah, it feels awful too," I said. She seated us and gave Dad a bunch of forms to fill out. A couple minutes later another nurse lady walked past. She glanced at us with a smile on her face. Once she saw my eye the smile quickly left. "Jesus, what happened to your eye?" she asked.

"That's what we're here to find out."

Finally the doctor took me back to the examination room. She did a medical history (asking me tons of questions), and did a basic exam. By basic exam I mean she had me look and read the eye chart, and had me follow her little light thingy.

After all the basic stuff, she dropped two yellow dye droplets in my eye, then looked at my eyes in the microscope. After shining many different colored lights in my eyes, she said she thought I might have Iritis. However, she didn't want to give me anything because she hadn't dealt with it enough to be sure. She ended up referring us to another eye clinic half an hour away. Then she explained what they may do to me and what they may give me as a medication. Before we left she washed my eye out. Thank God she did too, because that seemed to do the trick. I could finally open my eyes in the sunlight again, and the pain at the top of my eye was hardly there anymore. Btw, we were confusing that pain for sinus pain. It really wasn't in the sinuses, but in the top of my eye.

I had Dad get me a double cheeseburger from McDonald's before we left to go to the clinic. I was afraid of getting that ominous empty feeling in my stomach again. I ate most of it even though I really didn't have an appetite.

So anyway, the doctor at the eye clinic did basically the same thing the previous doctor did. He said I do have Iritis. In short, it's an inflammation of the iris. He gave me some eye drops which have prednisolone acetate in it. In other words, I'm taking steroids in eye drop form. I have to drop one droplet in my eye every hour. At night, I'll have to set my alarm for the middle of the night to put another drop in (that'll be fun...).

I have a follow-up appointment scheduled for Wednesday to see how the drops are helping.

I just had my 7th drop today and we can already see a difference in eye color. It's not so red anymore, nor does it hurt or water much.


Well, this is getting a bit on the long side so I'll stop here for now. I'll update you all after my appointment Wednesday.


P.S. Yes, I have deleted my Twitter account. It became too tedious to update it everytime something worth tweeting about happened.

P.S.S. Wow! 39 people who voted on the poll are Harry Potter fans vs. 7 who aren't :O

Pressure in My Head

Last week I started sneezing more than usual. That didn't really set off any alarms at the time. Then towards the end of the week, or the beginning of this week, I noticed that my left eye looked like I had gotten soap in it. By that I mean the eye ball was slightly red and more veins were showing than normal.

Then it started to hurt everytime I looked at light and also when I moved it in a certain direction. The best thing to do then is to get off the computer and away from the TV so the eye can "rest" right? Well, I didn't lol. I have an eyepatch that is used when you look through a telescope but you can't close your other eye. Anyway, I thought that would give my eye a "rest", and Dad agreed that it would be best to keep light away from it, while I continued to go about my usual routine.

Then the eye started to water more than usual. So Dad started looking for eye drops in the house, but we don't have any.

Then early this morning, it got to the worst point...

I woke up around 4 a.m. There was this intense pain at the top left of my left eye, like were the eyebrow ends. Everytime I opened either of my eyes and looked at something with light this spot started to hurt. Also, my nose was very stuffy. At this point it was obvious that it was a sinus problem.

My eyes were watering constantly at this point. Daylight was starting to pour into the room, so this made it difficult to open my eyes. Initially, I laid face down on my bed but this only worsened the pain/pressure in my head. So then I tried laying on my back, but this meant I couldn't open my eyes because of the light coming through the windows.

Finally Dad got up around 6. I told him to come into my room and close the blinds on the windows so I could at least open my eyes. By then it was like I was crying. My eyes wouldn't stop watering, my nose was stuffy and running... gah it felt horrible.

Finally around 6:30 I got up and went into the bathroom. Luckily I found some sinus reliever in the cabinet. I read the box to see what they are used for:

Sinus Headache
Sinus Pain & Pressure
Nasal Congestion
Sneezing
Itchy, Watery Eyes
Runny Nose

I had all of those except for the sneezing.

So I took two of the horse pills, and flopped back down on my bed. I woke up around 10. My nose was completely clear, my eyes were fine, no pain or pressure in my head. The pills had done their job.

My left eye is still a bit red. I just took two more pills because the "itchy, watery eyes" symptom was back. So we'll see what happens next.


Here are some pics I took today of my new room:


Hmm... It looks smaller on here, but it's bigger than my previous room. The pile on the lower left corner is pictures that have to be hung up.

I still haven't gotten stuff where it's supposed to be yet.


My bed. The eyepatch can be seen on the night stand.



Pile of Kleenexes on the floor :p

I want to paint the night stand a brownish color to match the other wood in the room. It's green cos it matched Dad's room when he was a kid.




My new desk set up. Most of the things on the desk haven't found a home yet. I'm still working on putting everything where it should be.



Casper. Lucky is the multi-colored cat in the other pics. =^_^=


Well, I think I'll get off the computer for awhile. I'm gonna go read some more of Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets.


P.S.

HAPPY B-DAY MIKEY!

P.S.S. I got a MINI Cooper!

Painting

I think I mentioned this a few posts ago...

I'm going to be moving into my brother's old room. But first I have to paint the walls cos I refuse to sleep in an orange room.

ick!

(Orange is one of my fav colors btw lol)

Dad picked up some color cards at Wal-Mart today, but I can't decide :\

I think I'm just gonna go with the same color I have in my current room, light blue, since I already know what it looks like against my furniture. The only problem is Dad said he didn't see that color up there today...

-_-

Dad's not going to help me paint, so I just asked Alex a couple minutes ago if he wants to. No word back yet of course...

Well, I'm going to go upstairs and take apart my brother's old bed, and finish packing away his bobble heads and whatnot.


Btw, what the hell is going on around here?!?!?!??!

So many bloggers are just leaving! Our corner of the Blogosphere seems to be falling apart at the seams...

:(