I had never had an eye infection before, so when both of my eyes became very red, painful, swollen, and light sensitive in a matter of just a few minutes, I was very concerned. I went to urgent care, since this office was closed for the day, and I was told that I had some kind of infection, given an antibiotic ointment, and was made to promise that if the ointment didn't give me relief by noon the next day, that I would go to the optometrist. I didn't have to wait until noon to know that the antibiotic wasn't working at all, and my eyes had actually gotten worse overnight, like, wearing sunglasses inside buildings bad. I called Terrezza Optical in Milton, my regular optometrist, as soon as they opened and they said they could work me in early that afternoon. I arrived for my appointment and it wasn't long before I was whisked to the back. The optician took me into the triage room and asked what I was being seen for today. I lifted my sunglasses off of my eyes and the look on her face said it all- this is bad. She took some pictures of my retinas and walked me to an exam room, where she took note of every one of my symptoms in great detail. I apologized for being whiney and complaining so much, because that's just not like me, but dang was I hurting! She was so sweet and reassured me that she is the one to complain to and that it was important for me to complain to her! She finished taking notes on my complaints and left, and a few minutes later, Dr. Bellard walked in. I couldn't see very well at the moment, and holding my eyes open was painful, but man, was Dr. Bellard pretty to look at! He is very easy on the eyes, no pun intended, until he dilates your eyes and then he's just a handsome blur, but he made my visit much less painful. Gawking aside, he also was very knowledgeable and explained things very well to me. After looking deep into my eyes several times with several different lights, he had a probable diagnosis. It wasn't an infection at all, but uveitis, a systemic inflammatory process that attacks the eyes stemming from Crohn's. Y'all, he didn't even know I had Crohn's. He literally looked at my eyes and knew I had an inflammatory bowel autoimmune disease. He prescribed a steroid drop and sent me on my merry way. I picked up the drops, instill one drop in each eye every 2 hours for 5 days, yep, uveitis sucks. Desperate for relief, I dripped a drop into each eye right there in the pharmacy parking lot. It felt like a mini bottle of tabasco sauce was hiding inside that bottle. I went home, grabbed the frozen peas, made a frozen pea sleep mask, and took a nap on the recliner. When it was time for my next drippy drop, at the 2 hour mark, I was legitimately excited (and also scared) to instill one drop into both eyes. I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and y'all, my eyes weren't nearly as swollen as they were 2 hours ago! One little steroid drop made all the difference! I dripped the drops, and they still burned, but not nearly as bad. I was still struggling to see, because Dr. Bellard used his super mega strength dilation drops, but I could tell a definite color change in the whites of my eyes and blinking didn't feel as scratchy. When I woke up the next morning, my eyes were still very dilated and I still had light sensitivity from the dilation, but my eyes were completely white. The redness was completely gone, the discomfort was completely gone, the drops weren't burning anymore, it was like uveitis had never happened.
My point is, they got me in quickly, the doctor took his time and investigated instead of just assuming that I had pink eye, and he was nice to look at. read more
