Update! Her poor little eye looks terrible!

[jd11365]

I must just be a first time mom because neither the pediatric opthamologist nor the ped seemed too concerned about the eye on Thursday and Friday when she saw with both. (The ped was for her 6 month ?up.) However, neither of them saw it as red and raw as it is now. It's seemed to have gotten even worse since using the Tobradex so I haven't used it this morning. Her eye gets completely glued shut and she freaks out at the sign of a warm washcloth or drops of any kind. I've been giving her a little Tylenol every now and again for pain...it's got to be painful as irritated as it is. DH and I just can't stand to look at it...or her thinking what it must feel like. I'm just confused because the doctors are so "whatever" about the whole thing. The eyeball itself looks fine, it's the inside and outside corners that look so bad, and the top and lower lids are not so great either...a bit swollen in addition to the redness. I guess as long as the eyeball is ok, it's fine? Ugh.

Jamie
Mommy to Kayla
5-1-03

[Calmegja2]

Does she have blephritis?

I have blephritis and blocked tear ducts (my whole life), and my sons are prone to this, and I go through cycles where it's like that. The Tobradex works all right, but the best cure I've ever had is to wash the actual lid with a gentle baby soap, and a washcloth, right at the lash line. Every day. Reagrdless of whether we've got irritation or not.

Hard to do with a wee babe, I know, but it's like preventative maintenance, and does the trick every time.

Hope that helps a little....

[Marisa6826]

Jamie-

Is she rubbing her eye? She might be allergic to the Tobradex.

Call the PO. If you don't get a response, take her to the ER if you have to. She should still be in this much pain.

-m

[jd11365]

I think she IS allergic to the Tobradex... It didn't get like this until I used it, and it looked a little better after not using it... I feel SO horrible I'm nauseous...I feel like I made her eye this way by continuing to put those drops in her eye making it so horribly bad. I hope I didn't permanently harm her eye. I keep thinking of her screaming every time I put them in as if she were telling me they were harming her! I'm going to call the PO in the morning unless it gets worse...though it can't get any worse than it was last night...great...feeling terrible again. Do you think I caused damage? Oh my God...I would just die...

Jamie
Mommy to Kayla
5-1-03

[wendmatt]

oh Jamie you poor thing. I'm sure you haven't harmed them permanantly. I so feel for you as Emilys would get really sore and the docs seemed to just blow me off as well. We used neomycin and polymyxin drops and these seemed to help, also an ointment of the same, seemed to soothe the soreness but I couldn't get it in her eye so the doc gave me drops. I have another appointment soon to see if we are going to do the surgery, but if Kaylas eyes are that bad and they are offering the surgery earlier, you might want to think about it. Hope it's looking better soon.

[Marisa6826]

Jamie-

Sorry to get back to you so late - I was out all afternoon with Sophie.

The first thing my PO mentioned when I told him that Sophie was rubbing her eyes and that it was still red was that she could be allergic to it.

He specifically asked if she started rubbing soon after I adminstered it. In Sophie's case, there was no correlation. She's just ALWAYS rubbed her eyes when she's tired. So, no allergy here.

Did you at least get a call into your PO today? They should absolutely have somebody on call.

Is she any better?

-m

[jd11365]

Well, we decided to wait to call in the morning because it wasn't getting any worse now that I've stopped the Tobradex. I gave her some of her other drops once and then decided to just leave the poor thing alone. I never saw her rub it...and she doesn't seem too bothered by it...(I don't know how) unless I go to to the "massage" and get the gook out of her eye or put a warm washcloth on it to help "unglue" it. She just screams at the top of her lungs...ugh! Being unimpressed with the PO's bedside manner, I'm sure he's just going t brush me off and prescribe yet another medication. It all just stinks... Thanks for asking though... I'll let you know what he actually says in the morning.

Jamie
Mommy to Kayla
5-1-03

[jojo2324]

Jamie, I'm so sorry! Please let us know what the PO says, and I hope Kayla feels better soon!

Sometimes I really have to wonder about pediatric specialists. A lot of them seem to be so lacking in compassion, between my experiences and others I've heard. Do you think this is a venue that's NOT going to be filled with lots of questions and worry? It's not fair to brush everything off. I'm sorry you've had to go through that.

And Jamie, please don't berate yourself about this. You were instruced to give her a medicine that should make her feel better. How would you know if she's allergic? You're only doing your job, and holding up very well! Big hugs your way!

[starrynight]

Poor thing, both of you! If it looked worse after starting the med and got better after stopping it, more than likely Kayla is allergic to it. I hope the PO has an answer for you.

And Jamie, don't feel bad hon. You were doing what you thought was right, we don't know a child is allergic to something until we try it. You didn't do it on purpose!

Reminds me of when I didn't know Daria would react to lavendar wash, here I thought I was relaxing her before bed and soothing her and instead her eczema(that we didn't know she had at the time) flared up and I felt sooo awful!

[jd11365]

Since I've stopped using the Tobradex her eye has improved SO much...the swelling has gone down and though it is still very raw and red from all the "gook" in both corners of her eye, it looks nothing like before. (The one corner actually bled...not the eyeball, but the raw skin.) I can't believe I didn't call the PO immediately, but I guess I was right to stop the drops anyway...which is what he said he would have told me to do. Stupid me started researching the drops and found crazy stuff about long term use of Tobradex and the cause of glaucoma, but he assured me that 2 1/2 days of use would not cause that. He said to go back to the old drops. I still have the option of an early surgery, but he and my ped think to wait it out though...so I am....unless it gets really bad again, and then I might just give in and have the darn thing done...I don't know...very conflicting. Heaven knows I don't want an unneccessary procedure. I told him he needed to just understand that it's hard for a mother to watch continued eye infections...which he said he understood. He said if it gets bad again to give him a call, but since it was improving that it must have been a reaction to the drops. When I suggested that I felt bad because I complained about her eye not getting better thus causing him to prescribe the stronger drops, he said he would have prescribed them anyway because her eye wasn't getting better and was infected. For the record, this all sucks! (Sorry for the stronger online language, but that's the word I'm feelin' right now.) Thanks for all of your thoughts and support...hopefully any updates are good ones...

Jamie
Mommy to Kayla
5-1-03

[starrynight]

I'm so glad her eye looks better! And I kwym on the research, dh is ready to try and disable search on the computer ;). I am forever over researching and then worrying myself to death.