Eye Boogers

Our kids have never had to use antibiotics. Until last week. Two days after Dear Daughter's oral surgery she developed a urinary tract infection complete with running to the toilet every 10 minutes, complaining that she couldn't pee once she got there, and having minor pee accidents in her pants. This is our first experience with one of these. In fact, I don't think I have ever had a UTI myself. That little problem had just about cleared completely by the time the next family crisis happened.

When I got home from the Stuff-Mart yesterday I was greeted by Dear Son who had long gooey booger strings coming out of his eyes. Bleh! It makes my stomach turn whenever I picture it. After I got past the gagging stage and a few exclamations of "What is THAT?" Husband nonchalantly said, "Yeah, he seems to have a little eye infection." LITTLE? I can only imagine the size of the eye boogers if it was a "big" eye infection. I experienced a few more gagging and wretching reactions while I stood there and stared at Son, who blinked back at me in between rubbing at his eyes. Amazingly, the boogery thingies managed to hang on through all his eye groping. Finally I asked Husband how he could stand looking at that big slimy booger hanging out of Son's eye, and why hadn't he wiped it out? By this time Son had his hands clasped tightly over his eyes so we couldn't even look at them anymore. "That's why" Husband responded. I did one of those magical mom moves and had a tissue in hand and eye booger wiped away in a split second--even while Son's hands remained clasped firmly around his eyes. He finally peeked out, curiously, from his hands when I was showing Husband the trophy in all its yellowish stretchy boogery glory and gushing about the size of it. Within minutes Son had a new boogery thingy worming its way out of his eye. I think I obsessed the rest of the night with questions such as "What exactly ARE those eye booger things?" "Do those things come out of his tear ducts, or what?" Bleh!

We discussed and contemplated for awhile what to do about this. Take him to urgent care? Wait until Monday to call his doctor? Meanwhile, he was due for a nap, so we put him down while we thought about things a little more. He woke up thirty minutes later screaming. His eyes were gooped shut, and our decision about what to do was made. I stayed home with Dear Daughter while Husband rushed Dear Son to urgent care. The doctor determined Son has Pink Eye and an ear infection, and she prescribed double antibiotics. A tube of stuff to put in Son's eyes four times a day for two days (yeah, he LOVES that), and a bottle of pink stuff for him to drink three times a day (he's not too excited about that either).

Meanwhile, Son is not sleeping well at night and so of course that means Husband and I aren't either. And Son's usual short wick is even shorter (if that is possible). Fortunately the eye boogers have subsided. Now he just has pink puffy eyes. I guess that's why it's called "Pink Eye."

Here's to a better night of rest tonight.