Thursday, June 04, 2015

Story Of The Eye

I was on medical leave the whole of last week due to corneal ulcer. Say what, corneal ulcer?! Yes, that was the first time I heard of it myself too.

My left eye started smarting and tearing on Tuesday, a fortnight ago. It got so bad that I decided to set my vanity aside and wear glasses to work on Wednesday. The white eye looked red and thinking it was conjunctivitis, I went to the panel clinic. The GP took a brief look and said it was conjunctivitis too. She said it was at the early stage and gave me some eye drops. She did ask if I needed medical leave and I told her that as I was already at work, I might as well work.

The eye seemed to improve on Thursday evening and it didn’t look red any longer. I did notice a white dot in my black eye though. Thinking it was nothing, I decided to wear contact lens to work the following day.

Well, it was fine until shortly after lunch when my left eye started tearing and smarting again. This time, it was worse than on Tuesday. I somehow made it through work and the journey home half-blind. It worsened that evening so much so it hurt to even read, what more watch TV. Even the light overhead hurt. I had already decided to go to an ophthalmologist the following morning and had checked those at Ampang Puteri and Gleneagles. I decided on the latter and went to bed just after 10 p.m.

I woke up just after midnight and my left eye was really hurting. It was leaking fluid of some sort and when I tried to open my eyes, I could barely see out of my left eye. I wiped off the fluid and tried to go back to sleep but sleep was elusive. I laid awake suffering and hurting and prayed that it would get better soon. My eye kept leaking fluid so much so I wondered if I had an abscess in it.

I reached Gleneagles after 9 on Saturday and went to the Accident and Emergency department. A medical officer examined me and noted the white dot in my left eye. She was not comfortable and rang up the ophthalmologist on call. He was at another clinic at MidValley and would only come at 2 p.m. so they offered me a bed to lie down in or to go home and return. I decided to stay instead. a nurse came and helped put in some eye drops before patching up my left eye. I tried to rest but it was next to impossible as there were people passing by and although there was a curtain to accord privacy, it couldn’t filter out the noise of a hospital: the trolley being pulled, the chatter of nurses, even the snore from the patient in the next bed. Somehow time passed and I was gently awakened just before 2 p.m. by a nurse who told me the ophthalmologist had already arrived.

The ophthalmologist examined my eye and subjected it to some tests. I had to open my eye wide, had some eye drop put in, stare at the light while he took some sample. I’m not a brave person, never have been and never will be, I fear pain and don’t welcome it and the very thought of someone scraping my eye for a sample didn’t sit well with me at all. It was soon over though, thank God. The good-looking doctor told me that it was a corneal ulcer and that the cause was contact lens. Say what? Corneal ulcer? I never knew there was such a thing and what did he mean it was from my contact lens? He also told me that to bring the eye drops given by the GP and tell her that not only had she given me the wrong medication, it would even worsen my eye condition. He lamented the fact that some GPs would just do a quick check and conclude it’s conjunctivitis when it could be something much more serious.

He prescribed me some eye drops and I went to wait. After 15 minutes, a nurse came out and told me the medication would take some time to prepare and that I might want to either return later or lie down. ‘Three to four hours,’ she said and I stared at her in disbelief.

Well, I didn’t stay there but instead, feeling sufficiently better, made my way to KLCC. I returned later, at 7 p.m. and there were four eye drops waiting for me with various instructions.


So that was how that Saturday was spent and how last week was spent (I was dying of boredom even before Monday was over!). Alhamdulillah I’m recovering well although I have to wear those stupid glasses now. I’m seriously considering LASIK now.