Corneal abrasion

This week I learned about corneal abrasion. It is a special kind of pain. It can happen in the middle of the night, and you might never know what exactly caused it. In my case, I woke up Monday morning feeling like there was something in my eye. I even got out a flashlight to try in vain to locate it. I thought perhaps it was an invisible cat hair. I went to work as usual. The pain just got worse and worse. My eye watered. The corresponding nostril ran. Despite all the leakage, my sinuses backed up causing a headache. I barely made it through lecture, wondering if the students noticed my distress. How could they not? On the way home, I contemplated stopping at urgent care. I decided against it, thinking that once I got home, I could wash whatever was in my eye out and be all better.

I borrowed Hilda’s eye wash cup and solution. The wash brought a little relief. I got through dinner. An hour later, however, the eye started to swell. I made Terry put his pants on and take me to the emergency room. There it was discovered that I had a scratch on my cornea. How? I had not even set foot outside the house all day Sunday. I was not around sand, glass, or metal shavings. It is unnerving to not know the cause because I don’t know how to prevent it, and I sure don’t want to go through it again. Ever. The doctor gave me a little good news, which was that it shouldn’t hurt that much while I slept and that the cornea healed very fast. In a day or two, it would be all better. He gave me some antibiotic drops to keep the eye from getting an infection.

I went to work Tuesday even though I felt like I had a knife stuck in my eye. I thought about apologizing to my class for my appearance and lack of concentration. I decided to follow Julia Child’s advice—never apologize. In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the cornea healed. It took another day for the sinus headache to subside.

It’s a good question for the next time you play Heinous Choices: Would you rather have a toothache or a corneal abrasion? Here’s what I’ve got so far:

Corneal abrasion	Toothache
Wicked pain that obsesses every thought	ditto
Makes you very cranky	ditto
Requires trip to doctor for diagnosis (minus)	Requires trip to dentist for diagnosis (minus)
Goes away on its own in 48 hours (plus)	Needs filling, root canal, or extraction (minus)
Externally visible distress (minus)	Cannot be detected by casual observer (plus)
Impaired vision makes driving a challenge (minus)	Okay to drive (plus)
Less painful during sleep (plus)	No possibility of sleep (minus)

Overall I guess I’d have to pick the corneal abrasion. Still, it would be a heinous choice.

Skippy is settling in. He still doesn’t like being in the cage while we are working, but he comes up to sit on my lap every night. Sometimes he faces me.

Skippy on my lap begging for pets,

Sometimes he sleeps with his head on my arm.

.... sleeping on my arm,

Sometimes he nestles down between my legs.

...stretched out between my legs,

He likes jumping up on the back of the chair. He did that once when I wasn’t in the chair and scared himself when the chair rocked.

and on the back of my chair staring at something invisible on the ceiling

Yesterday Hilda was in the basement to ride the exercise bike. She inadvertently stopped next to Skippy’s kennel to talk to me on her way back upstairs. Skippy stood up on his back legs and reached through the cage to goose her.

Hilda and I walked to the creek again yesterday. The water was higher because of the rain we had last week. There were some treacherous icy spots as well. We had to be very careful.

The creek

The hens enjoyed the sunny day.

The girls out for some sun and fresh air Friday afternoon

You may recall that the heated water bowl that we’d been using with the chickens was less than satisfactory. Every morning it looked like the girls had a pool party. There was water all over around the bowl, and poop and wood chips in the bowl. We had to empty and clean the bowl each day and start over. Gracie’s head feathers were routinely matted down with wetness. I’m not sure why she has to stick her whole head in the bowl to get a drink. She’s always been a spaz-tart

I saw a new heated waterer in a catalog, and Hilda ordered it. It’s going to make life easier. The chickens get water by pecking at a silver knob. When the knob goes in, the water drips out. We installed it yesterday, wondering if they would learn to use it. Lizette was investigating as soon as I put water in it. She always was the first to drink. This morning I saw several of hens drinking. There were dribbles of water underneath each dripper. About half of the water we put in yesterday was gone. Gracie’s head was dry and fluffy. I’m sure that is a relief to her. All I had to do was add more water to the top. Easy peasy!

Lizette investigates the new heated waterer