Eyes

Alex awoke this morning with pink eye.

It worsened rapidly; a thick repulsive display of green muck collecting in the corners of his eye and oozing henceforth down his cheeks - his eyes clouded by the aggressive infection.

I took him to the doctor.

"Lots of open-eyed, warm water baths, followed by drops". The nightmare begins....

Alex screams the neighbourhood down when a snow flake dares upon his face, so can you imagine the drama in attempting to syphon some water into those swollen, blood shot things? "Is it going to hurt?" he asks. Yes or no,...it didn't matter which way I answered, he wasn't going to like it anyway.

They say animals smell fear, well I guess he could detect my anxiety, as I lurched nearer with the first cup of H2O, for he tensed up and tempted to push me away.

I reasoned with him; talked about it being for his own good; that is would help clear the infection quicker; that he wouldn't be able to go to his pre-school valentines party if his eyes didn't heal in time. And when all else failed I used guilt..."you don't want your friends to get that infection do you"? I sank.

Yes he wanted to go to the party. No he didn't want his friends getting the infection, but no, he wasn't going to allow he near his eye, under any terms.

Force was the only recourse. I doused his eyes in the water and scraped away the pusy residue, now crusted all over the place. Gross!

He screamed. He wailed. He Howled. He attempted to run. He hated me. Now for the drops...are you KIDDING me!

I was instructed by the pharmacist that I was not to allow the tip of the medication to dip into his eye or I would have to throw the entire bottle away.

I weighed the likelihoods of actually administering the precious medicine into the eyes of a violently resisting boy - it just wasn't gonna happen.

Exasperated I rang the doctor, requesting alternative healing methods... there were none.I don't know what I am going to do.