Finally better

Okay, here's the deal. I have been really, really sick since 02/12/08 and nothing has really been done to help me. Let me start from the beginning - I will make this a short version. On 02/12/08, I went to the doctor for a check up and was having some problems. She gave me a prescription to start taking. That night I went to New Beginnings with Natalie but I was feeling kinda bad, but mainly my eyes were really red. The next next, I continued with the medication, and I got sicker and sicker. My eyes were by far the worst, but the nausea, vomiting, vertigo, and headache were pretty bad also. That night, or actually it was Thursday morning (happy Valentine's day to me) I woke my husband up and made him take to the emergency room, my eyes were like on fire and it felt like thorns were under my eye lids. I could not open them, I could not close them, I was in severe pain. I was living in a complete fog. The emergency room doctor made an appointment for me later in the morning with an ophthalmologist for an examination. I went and saw this physician on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday (this was Presidents day but she opened up just for me). In the meantime, I had stopped taking the medication prescribed by the other doctor because frankly I was just too sick to care. By that Friday, I was finally working on being better. But still not 100%. My eyes were very, very blurry but not as cloudy as they had been. This continued on. On Monday, March 3, I went ahead and started taking that same medication again. Low and behold, 3 hours after the only dose, my eyes were red, painful, and my vision was cloudy again. I called the ophthalmologist and she assured me that this was not a side effect of this medication that I must just be having allergies or whatever again. I almost died. I know it was the medication, come on 2 hours after taking it I was right back where I started from. Again in pain with the same exact symptoms, I decided I had to do something else. So, I called my regular ol' eye doctor. He promptly called me back and I told him the above story. He wanted to see me right away, I could not drive, so I had to wait for Garrick to get home. Garrick came home and drove me over to his office and in the meantime, he had done some research on the medication I was taking. He told me I was not crazy (which frankly I really thought I was) and he helped me out. The ophthalmologist had told me NOT to put my contacts in for a month. My regular eye doctor, told me to put contacts in right away. In fact, he put in a brand new pair at his office for me. He said this was like a bandage and would stop the pain which was being caused by the irritation of the eyelid when I opened and closed my eyes. So, the verdict is that that medication I was taking caused - Xerostomia or dry mouth. This affected not only my mouth but also my eyes. Anyway, it is now Thursday and I am practically back to normal.

I guess this goes to show you that the person with the M.D. behind her name did not really listen to me and I frankly think she did not really care. The other guy, just the regular ol' optometrist, did research, brought me in right away, called me the next day and even the next next day to see how I was doing, and listened to me as a person. Thank you Dr. Vanover for caring about me.

(Sorry, so much for the short version!!)