Mady's Eyes

The other day Mady found 4 cans of soup. She played more with the soup than I have ever seen her play with an actual toy. She stacked them, unstacked them, put them in a bag, took them out, carried them, pushed them in her stroller...she played for HOURS with the soup!

Then she moved on to bigger things. She got into the cupboard in the kitchen and got out the Cascade rinse agent for the dishwasher. She squirted it all over the floor. We mopped it up and threw her in the bath, then she went off to bed. No big deal.

That was about 8pm. She woke up at 5 am the next morning just screaming. I gave her a sippee and she stopped crying for about 20 min, then it was back to the screaming! We put her in bed with us and she was inconsolable. Screaming, crawling, kicking, arching her back. It was very obvious that she was in a lot of pain. We gave her some ear drops for pain thinking that maybe she had an ear infection. Then we gave her some Tylenol. Nothing soothed her. Then it occurred to me, she hadn't opened her eyes yet. I called poison control to see if maybe she could have gotten some of the Cascade in her eye. They suggested we take her to the ER.

I took her in and the doctor confirmed that she did have an ear infection but wanted to check her eyes just in case. He put numbing drops in them and that was the first time in 3 hrs she opened her eyes. Then he put some other drops in to look at them under a blue light and sure enough, she had chemical burns on her corneas! Oh my goodness!! So sad! I felt like the worst parent ever!! Poor, poor Mady! What I couldn't figure out though, is why it had taken so long for it to hurt her?

He sent us home with an antibiotic for her ear and drops for her eyes. She slept most of day one and woke up crying every 30 min or so. Still never opened her eyes.

Day two she opened her eyes about a quarter of the way and could see enough to walk again. This is pretty much what she looked like all of day 2.

Today is day three and at times her eyes are open all of the way. She is in a good mood and seems almost completely back to normal. The nurse said eye injuries heal quickly so we are banking on that and keeping our fingers crossed for no permanent damage. Poor Mady! It broke our hearts! Bryan stayed home for two days and helped with her because she kept trying to walk with her eyes closed and we didn't need another trip to the ER!! She required a very close eye. He was a huge help with her. Now...off to the store to buy locks for the cabinets! I know, I should have some already but no one had really ever bothered them before. Lesson learned!