Bakersfield ---> Bear River ---> Emergency Room ---> Rexburg...wait, what?
Yes, you read that right. Allow me to start from the beginning.Four days ago, I was getting ready for my trip from home in Bakersfield, CA to Rexburg, ID via a stop in Bear River, UT. My right eye was perfectly normal before I took my shower that day, but when I got out and finished getting ready I noticed it was very red and irritated and, though I couldn't understand *how* I could have gotten it since no one I knew of had it, I knew it must be pink eye. Being the poor college student I am, and considering my ability to hitch-hike my dad's insurance ran out when I turned 24 this past year, I REALLY didn't want to go to the doctor because I knew it would be more expensive than I felt like dealing with for a stupid pink eye. My mom is a medical transcriptionist and usually has a pretty good idea about how to treat minor things, and she told me to try putting just a tiny bit of Neosporin in the corner of my eye since it has the same antibiotic ingredient as Tobramycin (Tobrex), which is the eyedrops doctors prescribe for pink eye. Mind you, she tells me this just as she and my dad are on their way out the door to begin *their* trip to Peru for 10 days. So I tried the Neosporin trick right then, as well as on Wednesday as I drove 12+ hours to Bear River...which brings me to official adventure #1 of the trip.
I got to about 20 miles from Beaver, UT when all of a sudden the traffic just stopped. After about 15 minutes at complete standstill, sitting in my little '93 Saturn with the broken air conditioner and running out of gas, I turned off my car and got out to at least see if I could see what was going on, and I wasn't the only one. I called some people to see if they could find anything on the internet about what was going on, and eventually my aunt told me to try calling the local information hotline. The recorded message mentioned a traffic wreck that had the freeway completely blocked off (greeeeeat...) and traffic was being rerouted where I had already passed (oh lovely! -_- ) BUT! One lane should be open by now! (Says the operator as traffic continues to stay motionless.) Anyway, about an hour later, after a very long, tedious, and slow crawl across about 2 miles (yeah, 2 miles in an hour...) I finally made it past where they were letting people through on the left *shoulder* one at a time. It had been a pretty nasty wreck involing two big rigs; no injuries, luckily, but whatever both had been carrying had made a HUGE mess across both lanes. With no further delays, I eventually made it to my friend's house in Bear River on Wednesday night. She and I discussed maybe going to the Wal-Mart eye center because it might be cheaper, and I agreed it might be a good idea.
The next morning, while my eye was still very red (probably worse, but I was in denial), it *felt* better, and so I once again passed up a perfectly good opportunity to have it looked at professionally. Instead, I went to my great-aunt's funeral (basically just to represent my dad since I don't really know my great-aunt or her kids at all) as planned. I felt kinda bad because I didn't really cry or anything, but I *did* see some family that I *do* know, some of whom I hadn't seen in at least 10-12 years. It was good to reconnect and I'm glad they were glad that I was there to support them.
When I got back to my friend's for the night, the real adventure started. My eye was bugging me a little, and so even though I knew I should just leave it alone, I rubbed at it and got a little overzealous because, of course, as I rubbed it, it only felt worse. When I opened my eye again, it felt and looked like there was a contact floating around in, and I don't wear them. I pretty much lost it at that point, just knowing that I had just detached my cornea or something. I showed my friend and her husband and they also knew something was very wrong, so, with no other options at 9pm, we rushed to the emergency room, calling my out-of-the-country parents and my aunt in Rexburg whom I'm staying with until I can move into my new apartment to let them know things aren't exactly going as planned. We also called the emergency room to let them know the gist of what was happening so they could get us in as quickly as possible. Being the overly-excitable and emotional person I am, I was seriously freaking out, balling my eyes out, lol. So I said a prayer asking to be calmed, which was answered quite promptly actually. I stopped crying and just kind of sat the rest of the ride out patiently, holding my eye closed.
Now I've never been to the emergency room before. The worst thing I've had to deal with medically was having my wisdom teeth removed, and that only involved a single suture, no swelling, no complications at all. So even though I'm still calm, my brain and heart are going a mile a minute as they take my blood pressure and pulse and ask me all kinds of questions. Plus there's the whole issue of not really knowing if my student insurance will cover me while I'm off track, in an ER, with a provider that's not necessarily on their list and yadda yadda. So when the first nurse says, "hm, your blood pressure is a little high..." Uh. Yeah. Y'think? However, I did start feeling a little stupid when she looked at my eye and asked if I'd been using anything for it, and of course I had to tell her about the whole Neosporin thing. I told her my mom had told me to try it and that it had the same stuff in it as the eyedrops, to which she replied, "yes, but it's not sterile." Oh. I hadn't thought of that... ^^;
Anyway so next I'm lying on the bed in one of their rooms, my friend in the chair next to me still talking to me and keeping me distracted from the situation at hand like the good friend she is. The next nurse comes in and verifies my insurance and personal information, then the doctor comes in, puts some numbing drops in my eye (hate that stuff, especially when it runs into my nasal cavity from the tear duct *shudders* ) and looks at my eye with the typical optometry light where you put your chin on that thing and...yeah you get the idea. By this time whatever was floating in my eye had reattached itself or something but anyway. He told me to lie back as he took a cotton swab to my eye and pulled out some nasty goopy, stringy stuff. Seriously it was weird and gross, and explained why it had looked and felt like a contact was floating around in my eye. He put some dye in my eye and looked at it again to make sure my cornea and everything were intact, asking me specifically if I had put anything in my eye. So again, I had to tell him about the Neosporin, and he mentioned that that probably had been a bad idea and I just might have had an allergic reaction on top of everything else... ^^; He gave me some Tobrex, the nurse came back in and said I was good to go (I took that as a good sign that my student insurance was good), and I left the emergency room with discharge information and medicine in hand. I also called my family to tell them I was going to be just fine.
So there you have it. I basically ended up in the emergency room for a neglected case of pink eye. Needless to say, I feel quite stupid for not just going to the doctor in the first place. I would have had to pay more than if I still was on my dad's insurance, but not nearly as much as I'm sure I'm going to have to pay for the ER visit. At least I got one of those ER bracelets they give you with your name and a barcode on it as a souvenir... ^^;
posted by Erin Duncan @ 5:08 PM
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