i'm blind!

the girls have been really sick this week. coughs, runny noses, fevers and pink eye. abbey has pink eye in both of her eyes. we went to the doctor last night and got a prescription for an eye ointment to clear it up. (the appointment in and of itself was an adventure. she wouldn't open her eyes or talk to the nurse because she thought that she would get a shot if she did.)

i was supposed to wait until bed time to put the ointment in her eyes, but they looks so awful (so "pink" and swollen, poor little girl, i wish i'd taken a picture.) that i put the stuff in her eyes right after lunch. abbey was super brave and held her little eyes open while i put the ointment under her lid. as soon as she blinked, however, she lost it.

imagine putting neosporin in your eyes, because that's pretty much what i was doing to her. doesn't sound awesome, right? now, imagine trying to see with neosporin in your eyes. you can't, because that stuff is greasy and gunky. that makes sense to us, but not to a four year old.

abbey started blinking and freaking out because she couldn't see. "everything's blurry, get it out of my eyes!" i told her i couldn't get it out and just to blink, it would go away and things wouldn't be blurry anymore. "no it won't!" she cried, "i'm...i'm BLIND!", she screamed. this is when she started bawling and nearly hyperventilating.

my poor little girl really thought that she was blind. it was the saddest thing i'd ever seen. i told her that mommy would never do anything to make her go blind. i'm pretty sure she believed me, she seemed to calm down a little. i told her to close her eyes and i rocked her while she cried. luckily, all those tears cleared things up pretty quickly. when she could see again, she decided that she had been pretty silly for thinking that she'd gone blind.

now i see why the doctor told me to put these in at bed time. in the dark. just before she falls asleep. that's what we're doing tomorrow. and next time someone gets pink eye, i'm getting the eye drops, this ointment stuff is more drama than it's worth!