Pink Eye

First, the Update:
The 'lil Dubya is feeling significantly better.... he stopped puking once I brought him home yesterday, but then again... he didn't eat much and slept quite a bit. He & I cuddled on the couch most of the afternoon.... he even sat in on a few of my conference calls... made some astute observations but remained quiet for the rest of the time. This morning we went back & forth and back & forth as to what to do today. In the end, I'm not sure where we landed.... the Big Dubya said he'd stay home so the 'lil guy could sleep in .... and see how he felt when he woke up. If he was still not 100% they'd stay home for some more cuddle time, but if he was okay then they'd both head to school/work a bit late. I'm still waiting to hear...

Now, onto today's post:

While we were in AZ, the 'lil man had a head cold... he's been battling this head cold for weeks.... every time I think he's finally going to fully come down with it, he seems over it.... and then the sniffles start again -- I wish he'd just get it or get past it. Anyway, he had the eye boogers while we were in AZ, he'd wake up in the middle of the night with his little eyes gooed shut.... kind of disconcerting for him, but a warm, damp face cloth does the trick nicely. The Big Dubya was quite concerned... me, I wasn't as concerned because I've battled my own share of eye snot. My girlfriend who was with us is a nurse (will be a fully graduated NP in about 3 weeks) and the mother of two more snotty kids, and she assured him (us) that it's normal and not to be worried. The 'lil guy never had any redness.... just the goo.

Well, on our trip home on Friday, the Big Dubya's eye started to itch... and then water.... and then itch some more. You've all seen it... this is how it starts.... then came the snot, the swelling and the "pink" -- by the time we landed at my parents house on Friday night, the Big Dubya looked like he'd gone 8 rounds with Mike Tyson. Apparently, my husband has lived 38½ years without ever having eye boogers..... I didn't know that was possible. He was really alarmed.... by his reaction, you would have thought blood was pouring from his eyes! I tried to comfort him and let him know that it's very, very common and that he should take care not to touch his other eye.... as having two pink eyes sucks! But, he was just not hearing it -- "Mrs Big Dubya, this is serious". I advised a warm face cloth and to swab it out with a hot Q-tip.... this helped and he was improving, although it was still looking rough -- and I'm not sure he believed me when I told him it was really very, very common.

Of course, given the opportunity, I have to be the nagging wife and tell him to call the doctor for an RX (when I know damn well that despite my pleas for the past 3 years, he has not found a GP in our area and has no doctor to call). When we got home, he went to the store and found some over-the-counter stuff that seems to have done the trick.... the swelling is down and the majority of the pink has cleared up. I learned from the teachers (when I picked the 'lil man up yesterday) that there was a mass pink-eye outbreak while we were away last week.... they had worried that the 'lil man would come down with it while we were away, but no... not the 'lil man.... the big one.