There’s never a dull moment. While at work yesterday, I started noticing pressure in my left eye. Almost as if I had rubbed it too hard. The pain got progressively worse. My eye was completely bloodshot and started to tear profusely as the evening wore on. Having never had pink eye, I thought perhaps I had a contracted a really bad case of conjunctivitis. But no one had ever told me that pink eye was so painful.
When I woke up this morning, I could barely open my eye. Light was excruciating. I felt like a vampire. Arranged an emergency appointment at the ophtalmologist and sure enough, I don’t have pink eye. I have what’s known as iritis, an inflammation of the iris, the cause of which is unclear. Can be a serious condition if not treated quickly. I’m on a treatment of steroid drops as well as drops to keep my eye dilated.
Needless to say, it was pretty scary. It’s still painful, but at least the tearing has stopped and I can keep my eye open without feeling like a tumor is pushing my eyeball out of my head. And if the redness subsides by Monday, at least I won’t have to go to work and give everyone the impression that I’m a walking case of contagious pink eye. I was kind of hoping I’d have to wear a patch for a few days – that would have been sort of cool. But the doc said no. Oh well. My pirate days will have to wait until Halloween.