Stye in His Eye

For almost 2 weeks Josh has been intermittently rubbing his eyes, blinking uncontrollably and complaining about water in his eyes. At first I was worried about pink eye, but they never got goopy or pink. Next I considered something with his vision. And then after a week Josh told Shad that he likes to blink his eyes because it is fun. So then I just thought it was an attention thing. Kids do do things like that. And then on Friday, 2 hours before I was going to leave for woman's retreat, Josh came to me and told me he had something in his eye.

It took a lot of looking but I finally saw what was causing all the rubbing, blinking and watering. In the inner corner of his eye under the upper eye lid is a little white spot. A stye. All I could think was how I didn't have time for this. I am leaving for the weekend! So I made an appointment for him to see the doctor on the following Monday. I knew Josh would be OK with waiting because he didn't want to go at all. As soon as he heard "doctor," he told me it was all better and must be gone. All this while he rubbed his eye and blinked and blinked.

He survived the weekend and I had a great time at the retreat. So on Monday morning, after school, I took him in. He complained all the way there and proceeded to tell me that only grown ups can look at his eye. I told him that the doctor is a grown up and he changed it to only "grown up girls" can look at his eye.

After a quick eye exam by reading the chart, we saw the doctor. I really didn't know what he was going to do about this stye. I had never seen one under the lid before. I was thinking sedation and needles just millimeters from his eye ball. But it is actually much easier (so to speak) than that, and I get to do all the work. So after a trip to Target for some antibiotic eye drops we headed home for the wrestling match.

I tried reasoning, bribery and even a little drama ("If we don't do these drops the stye will just get bigger and bigger, then scratch your eye ball."). He was not having anything to do with it. I decided I wasn't going to chase him around the house so I resorted to a little physical restraint. So I pinned his arms and sat on his chest, lightly so I didn't CRUSH him. He screamed and I forced. After some good aim on my part I got the 2 drops in. One down, only 3 more times a day for another week to go!

The next remedy the doctor wanted me to do was to get a hot egg, wrap it in a wet cloth and hold it on his eye for 10-15 minutes. So after taking a rest from this morning's wrestling match, I boiled an egg. Once again I tried the reasoning, bribing but left out the drama this time. Then just went right back to physical restraint again. It's the only technique that works, really. So I "held" him on my lap and held the hot egg cloth to his eye. He fought for a few minutes, then finally relented to the whole situation. He actually let me hold the egg to his eye for 15 minutes! No results yet, but he rubbed his eye a lot after I removed the egg. So I am hoping it loosened that darn stye up a bit. Time will only tell.

Josh has asked me a few times in all of this if I could just stop being a nurse. Somehow his little mind thinks I wouldn't have to do all this business as "just his mom." What a sweet, innocent boy. And so we will continue on until that thing is gone. And until the next wrestling match I will just enjoy my boy, stye and all.