Evan's turn.... Eye injury...
We are waiting. We brough drinks and snacks. I figure it will be a long day.
This has been updated to cover the following days.
I haven't been able to talk about this but I know Evan meeds some prayer warriors out there. This will be lengthy to get it all out. About 8 to 10 days ago Evan woke up with a red inflamed eye. Typically, I was waiting for pink eye to set in. When my oldest daughter and her family came over for a holiday visit he can be seen in background pictures alternating heat and cold on it to get some relief. I fully expected it to be draining and in true pink eye fashion the next morning. That didn't happen. He had no injury from typical play with friends (thanks Perry boys for entertaining the kids outside :) ) or siblings. No trauma at all we could think of. I then thought sand or even tiny glass fragment may have gotten to the cornea and scratched it. Not once did he complain. I soothed it with homeopathic drops and even bought dreaded steriod drops to ease the redness. The morning I checked it with a flashlight and the pupil was fixed halfway dilated I knew it was serious. At this point it was almost swollen shut and he said he could only see light with it. I told him to get dressed and we headed to Shelby Hospital immediately. This was no pink eye. They saw us immediately, checked the pressure on his eye, and sent us immediately to Callahan, Birmingham's eye hospital. We were in the emergency room nearly 12 hours. They seemed nice at this point. The ran some topical tests, gave lots of drops, he even got an ultrasound on his eye. They told me they wanted to admit him for blood work and monitoring. I was all for this as on possible diagnosis would explain his GI problems he has had for over a decade. They then changed their mind and sent us home around midnight with 6 perscriptions. We found an overnight pharmacy. Evan and I talked for hours at the hospital at every point of waiting. We talked more than we have in months. I explained to him the diagnoses. Toxoplasmosis or extreme viral infection. They never tested for these just sent us home with treatment for both. These medications are hard on the body. We were told to follow-up in the morning. I did and was sent to a local Callahan climic in Alabaster. The doctor there said Children's would be the best place to go because his infection could be systematic and tests needed to be run. Well, Children's and Callahan were both fussing (my nice word) over him. I was threatened with social services by both hospitals if Evan wasn't in their care. He couldn't be in 2 places at once. I just had a medical procedure myself and was sleep deprived. Last year at this exact time I spent 8 horrible days in the hospital. Evan was drug all over downtown with never a complaint. They scared me by telling me he could loose his eye or even his life. I took him back to Callahan and waited and waited. All this time the pressure on his eye increased and he was on medication for things they weren't even sure he had. Hours later my mother came. I was a mental wreck. I was rude and no help for my son. She was there when he was born. I let her take over and I eventually had to leave for work. My job is short handed from employees having Covid or just quiting. They tried very hard to alter my schedule and couldn't. Some may see it as selfish to leave my son with my mother for work. But, I was a wreck and cannot be unemployed. Callahan said the infection had to come out. They could not even assess his eye properly till then. This was surgery. I put Dad in charge. I do believe I would have screamed at the doctors for sending us home earlier. 2 days later with no complaints from a polite even talkative Evan he had surgery. I wasn't there. They finally ran bloodwork that discovered some other issues. His retina is damaged. His eyesight is compromised. The infection is still being treated with harsh anti-virals and antibiotics for toxoplasmosis. They are fairly confident he will have a detached retina. This will affect the rest of his life. All the ways make my head spin. We really don't know why his thyroid and blood production is not optimal. Please pray for Evan. Pray for me to be able to handle the fact that my actions of not acting faster cost my son pain and his eyesight and all that comes with that. He should be at school on Monday with restrictions. Again, not a word of complaint from him and only one dose of ibuprofen for pain... Most of all I pray for the life of my son that no infection goes systemic. The toxoplasmosis most likely already was and finally settled in the eye. As most people know it comes from cat feces, the soul, and undercooked meats. Prayets requested.
