Robert's eyeball met the back corner of a very dirty garden trowel Thursday evening (May 19th). He was working in the garden with Ben, stumbled and fell forward. Ben, in an effort to catch him, forgot to drop the trowel he was working with. Robert started screaming and refused to open his eye, leaving the damage unknown.I was at an evening conference when Ben called me. We met at the ER. Robert was still crying and still refusing to open his eye. The small glimpses we could get of his eye hinted of redness over the eyeball, but all we really could see was a lot of dirt.
After the ER doc tried to take a look and assess the damage, he called the on-call ophthalmologist for a consult. Ben and I tried to comfort Robert and hold back fears of what might be. The ER doc thought we were looking only at a scratched cornea, but wasn't entirely sure, so the ophthalmologist came in. Thankfully, the ophthalmologist has lots of experience forcing a kid's eye open and getting it all cleaned out. After removing more dirt, he confirmed the scratched cornea and told us it would heal completely. Yea! Under the circumstances, this was the best outcome.
We followed-up in the clinic the next day and again on Monday. By Monday, everything was completely healed and there are no long-term issues to be concerned about. Let's just see if we can get through the summer without another ER visit. Sound like a plan, Robert?
2 comments:
Poor little guy! I wish I could give him a big hug and kiss!!!
Aren't you glad that you're not in NYC with several people right on the spot to tell you exactly how crappy they think you are as a parent and how you should take care of your kids?
I'm glad that Robert is on the mend. Best wishes for a healthy and ER-free rest of the summer! (I was going to say, "Good luck...", but the tone doesn't sound right in a blog comment. It sounds snarky, when I really do mean that I hope that you have good luck. :D)
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