Holy Pink Eye!

We interrupt this series of important food allergy eating posts to bring you this PSA about pink eye. When I tell people that we were in the Children's Hospital ER this week for pink eye, most can scarcely believe it. I couldn't, either. But it's true. Here's the story:

Ullrich came home from camp Kota on Thursday looking like he might have pink eye. Since Summer had it on Sunday, it wasn't a complete surprise.

 He looked like this:

So we started Summer's drops immediately. However, within the next couple of hours, he continued to look worse.

Until he looked like this, causing me to call our nurse line:

I didn't take his picture right before wiping his eye. I took it right AFTER wiping his eye. That goop was constantly streaming from the eye, as if he were crying green stuff. I told him that he looked like a monster!

The nurse line told us we should take him to the ER due to the rapidity of the swelling. They were concerned about cellulitis (aka- eye infection).

They got us in pretty quickly at the hospital, and upon walking into our room, the doctor literally gasped at how he looked (eye even further shut than in the picture above). It took her about five seconds to decide to prescribe both oral and topical antibiotics. She wanted him to get 3 doses of antibiotic in yet that night (it was already 10pm!). She was very concerned about eye infection, and said if it wasn't much better tomorrow to bring him straight to the hospital.

I had initially felt a little foolish for taking him in for pink eye, as if I were possibly over-reacting.  I definitely felt that it was the right decision when I saw the doc's level of concern. Anyway, this is how pink eye lands you in the ER in case you ever find yourself in a similar situation.  Now you know and won't feel crazy like I did! :-)