Brayden's Eye

Today was my turn to drive for preschool. Brayden had some leg pains yesterday and didn't fully enjoy preschool. I was looking forward to him having a better day at school today. Kory is out of town and had to take my van leaving me with his new little economy sized car. Our old car bit the dust and so we chose to replace it with a car that was given to us. It was newer, less miles and in overall better condition than our previous car. Having said that this new car of ours has been sitting on the side of someones house in a field for 4+ years now do to a burned up engine. Kory found a screaming deal for a brand new engine and over the past few weeks has been fixing this new car of ours. Driving to preschool I had 3 kids in car seats in the back seat with Brayden up front with me in a car seat. 

We got to preschool safely, got everyone inside and after dropping them off I continued down the hall to 3rd grade. The teacher wasn't in her classroom so I dropped my bag off and Kylie and I were headed back down the hallway with the intention's of going home. When I passed by the Preschool door I heard my name. Miss Wendy came out asked me how Brayden was. Thinking she was talking about the previous day's leg pains I told her he was much better and hadn't complained. She was quite happy to hear that but wanted to know what was wrong with his eyes. What??? I followed her into the classroom to see him rubbing his eyes mumbling, "owe, my eye hurts". When he moved his hands both eyes looked like this. They were red and blood shot but not swollen.

(I did not have my camera with me today so I've found some online to help tell our story better.) 

Pink Eye is going around the school and this is what his teacher thought he might have. The aide and I talked about how weird this was. I had just dropped him off and his eyes were fine. He came into class happy, chatty and not once said anything about his eyes. What the heck happened? He hadn't been there for more than five minutes. Did he really just all of a sudden get pink eye or at least start showing the symptoms?  Being Pink eye is extremely contagious I was asked to take Brayden to the doctor's to make sure it wasn't pink eye. If it was as long as I started the medicated eye drops he could come back tomorrow. 

On our way out I stopped by the nurses station to get her opinion. When I bent down to exam his eye again with her his right eye had changed drastically. It wasn't as red and blood shot looking but under his eye was extremely swollen. When she gently pulled the skin down under his eye we saw that the white part of his eye was swollen. It looked like white jelly.  His skin wasn't swollen it was his actual eyeball! When she gently pushed on the lower eyelid the bump of jelly moved until it butted up against his iris and then it wrinkled up. Freaky!

 (another borrowed picture)

The nurse didn't think it was Pink Eye but a swollen eyeball is NOT something you see everyday. She recommended that I take him across the street to our local clinic. I was a little nervous. I was worried about this swollen eyeball. I've never seen that, I've never heard of it. It can't be good on your eye. What happens if it continues to swell and the iris part of his eye swells? Could this cause long lasting damage? I rushed the kids out the door and into to the car. I drove across the street hoping and praying the clinic would be opened. They are not open everyday and being lunch time I was afraid no one would be there. My prayers were answered they were there. I rushed us inside and immediately pleaded my case to the secretary for an immediate emergency appointment. There was a nurse just around the corner listening to me that I was unaware of. She poked her head around and asked me to bring Brayden to her and that she could tell me if it was Pink eye or if I even needed an appointment. I turned around to grab him and I gasped. It took all I had not to freak out. His right eye resembled a ping pong ball with a sunken iris. I have searched the internet and can't find anything that resembles what his right eye looked like. It was absolutely horrid. He was scary looking and looked like he had a huge growth surrounding his iris. With my gasp the nurse walked to me. She looked at him and said "That's not normal, I'll grab Joanne, follow me" Walking down the hallway I seriously wondered if his eye wouldn't pop out. I couldn't imagine with as large as it was how his eye socket was still holding on to it.

Joanne the nurse practitioner (we don't have a doctor at the clinic) came in right away. Examining his eye she said it was definitely not Pink Eye but an allergic reaction. She had him lay down on his back and put numbing eye drops in both eyes. This would cause the itching to stop and hopefully numb them for the next part. Using a total of 8 vials full of saline solution we rinsed both eyes as his left eye was beginning to swell. Brayden kept pulling on her arm crying for her to stop. I had to hold his arms down while she held his head and we rinsed both eyes. I don't know if the rinse actually hurt or if he was just scarred and didn't like the feeling. I don't know anyone who would like there eyeballs rinsed 4 times on each side. After the rinse he was able to sit up and this mom hugged him and tried to comfort him. While sitting next to me Joanne and I watched his right eye deflate. I can't think of a better word to describe it. As quickly as his eye swelled up after the rinse it un-swelled. It was like a balloon that wasn't tied on the end that slowly deflates when let go.  

His eyes are no longer red and blood shot looking. He's got bags under his eyes but they are just that bags. No more swollen eyeball! Google has been my friend tonight. It sounds like what his eye did today is called Episcleritis. It's not very common and it's usually brought on by an allergen. Most people don't have any long term side effects but many tend to have a head ache for a few days afterwards. Sure hoping this young man doesn't have to suffer with that but I've got the Tylenol ready if he does. 

I don't know what happened. I don't know what caused such a severe allergy reaction. After talking it through with my mom the only plausible thing we can come up with is that the allergen probably came from our new car. He was sitting up front with me. It was a cold day and I had the heater on. With his height the vents were at his eye level. Knowing the car has been sitting in a field for 4+years who only knows how much dust and debri had collected in the vents that were blowing warm air out. I'm just glad he's o.k. I hope this never happens again. I'm so glad his eye returned to normal size and his sight doesn't appear to have any negative effect. I sure hope tomorrow will be a great day for this little man being the last two have been kind of crummy. During our drama today I didn't even think about taking pictures. Being I didn't have a camera one me it was o.k. Now that it's done and over with I really wish I would have had a camera. The pictures I did post doesn't do his eyes justice of what they looked like. I wish I could have captured the jelly looking wrinkle when pressing on his lower eye lid. It's something I have never seen and quite frankly hope to never see again! Although I would have loved to share it with you.