Friday, January 27, 2017
I woke up with a pain in my eye.
It hurt… a lot.
I don’t want to be melodramatic, nor do I want to upset anyone with this description, but I also want to share with you what it was like so you can know where I’m coming from.
The pain in my eye felt like someone was inside my head, trying to dig their way out with a knife.
And, I will add this… waking up to this kind of pain in your eye is a shock, to say the least.
I wasn’t sure what to do, so I contacted my optometrist, hoping she could figure it out. Unfortunately, she couldn’t fit me in that day, so I contacted my physician, only to find she was all booked up for the day as well.
That left me with the option of the emergency room at the hospital. Since the hospital is only a few blocks away, and we live in a small community, it’s usually not too bad of a wait, so that’s where I ended up.
When I arrived, my eye was red, and the pain was pretty intense, but aside from the redness, there wasn’t much visibly wrong with me. I looked healthy and strong; I just had some pain in my eye.
Their tests came back negative, which meant they really had little they could do.
One test was a real shocker for me. The doctor told me he was going to check my eye for herpes. I didn’t know that kind of thing was possible, nor did I know how one might catch such a disease (which I will refer to as, “Eye Herpes”).
At the time, I was relieved to find that the test came back negative.
Little did I know that Eye Herpes (or “Shingles in the Eye” as it’s referred to by saner people), as gross as it sounds, is not only serious and painful, but very much exactly what was going on in my eye, despite the test results. And just as the pain was a sign of shingles in the eye, the shingles itself was a sign of a far worse problem developing in me.
Since the doctor couldn’t figure out what was wrong, he gave me some ointment for pink eye, hoping that might help.
I ended up spending the next four days with no idea what was going on. I just knew that not only did my eye hurt, but my head began to ache as well.
To be continued…
2 responses to “Day One of Encephalitis and New Directions”
I think it’s wonderful that you are sharing your story about this incredibly difficult journey through encephalitis, Shawn. It can serve to educate those who have no idea what this experience entails and can also add another layer of support to those who have/are/ may in the future have to deal with something similar.
Thanks! It’s a strange experience, and I know I had no idea–none whatsover–what it was or what a change it could bring about.
But thanks for all your support over the years (and your daughter’s… that’s been really good). 🙂