Red tip indicates, do not put in eye.

I need sleep. This much is apparent by the fact that I nearly made myself BLIND by stupidity. But I think I'll blame it on lack of sleep. Yeah, that's what it was.

I wear rigid gas permeable lenses because my astigmatism is too bad for soft contacts. With RGP lenses, the smallest particle of dirt can cause great distress to the eye. Usually the only solution is to take the contact out, rinse it off, and put it back in. Usually, before I put the lens back into my eye, I put a drop of my conditioning solution into the lens so that it doesn't HURT. Why? Why would I subject myself to something that could be so uncomfortable? No, it's not vanity. I honestly see better with contacts than I do with glasses. And as an artist, I need to see as best as I can. So I put up with the inconveniences for better sight.

Yesterday, my right lens was bothering me. I went up to the bathroom to do the "take out and rinse off" routine so familiar to me from years of wearing these type of lenses. I rinsed off the lens, and then proceeded to put the drop of solution into it. Did I notice that the solution was cloudy instead of clear? Did I notice that the bottle was smaller than usual? Did I notice the RED TIP INDICATOR? Did I notice all the fail-safes the manufacturer puts on their bottle of lens cleaner to help the idiot consumer from sticking the stuff in his/her eyes? Apparently not.

It took all of a nanosecond to realize what moronic thing I had done. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I dont know if I've ever screamed like that in my life.

"AH help! HELP! HHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPPP!!!!!! My eye! My eye! My eye!"

After fighting with my eye that wanted to stay closed, I managed to get the contact out. I started to flush it out as fast as I could, but wasn't quite sure how best to do it. I called desperately for Jeremy. I wanted him to call poison control. I couldn't read the bottle at all to find out how bad of a mistake I had just made. Finally, he made it upstairs, grabbed the bottle, instructed me how to flush my eye out, returned downstairs and called poison control.

Running back into the bathroom he gave me the bad news. "Well, flush your eye out for 20-30 minutes, and if it hasn't cleared up, we have to get it looked at. Because it can be fixed today, but if we let it go, it can't be fixed tomorrow."

That's when I started to panic. My eye was cloudy and I couldn't see a darn thing out of it. I've accidentally put stuff in my eyes before, but I've never had the sensation of blindness like this was, and hearing that it 'might' end up permanent if we didn't do something 'today' frightened me even more. I started to pray. And then I began to think clearly. I asked the Jeremy to call the eye doctor and tell her the idiot thing I just did. Then I asked him to call my mother because we needed some help with the kids.

The eye doctor gave him the same information, but added, "If it doesn't clear up after flushing, I want to see her."

Did I mention this all happened an hour before we were supposed to drop Ruth off to get her costume on for the matinee performance of the Nutcracker where her entire extended family of aunts and grandparents were going to watch her? I didn't? Oh, well, of course this happened before a very momentous occasion in my daughter's life. When else would something like this happen? I continued to flush my eye out. Jer gathered the kids up. My mother came to pick them up and take everyone to the Performing Arts center for the Nutcracker. We made a break for the eye doctor.

The good news was, I flushed my eye out well enough that the cornea was only damaged on the first layer. I was told by Sunday (today) my vision should be 80% improved, and completely healed by Monday. Apparently, the cleanser has an abrasive to it. The eye doctor looked at my cornea under the microscope and saw lots of dings and dents, bumps and scratches, but nothing serious. Even so, my eye was mighty uncomfortable.

She put a drop of numbing stuff in my eye, something to dilate the pupil to help the eye rest, and a drop of antibiotic to prevent germs from brewing before the eye could rejuvenate.

I'm happy to announce, that indeed, I can see better today. It still seems a bit blurrier than usual, but I expect by tomorrow I'll be back to 100% after a good nights rest.

Just another day in the life of a "should-have-been-blond."