Seppo Update

So I know some of you have heard and some others haven’t, so here is a recap. The bottom line is that Seppo has debilitating amounts of pain in his eyes and that the eye doctors are treating him for cornea irritation. The other important thing is that his vision is not affected so no one is going blind here, so no worries on that front. The story so far:

Seppo felt some stinging in his eyes starting mid-week last week, but it was at small irritation levels, so he chalked it up to allergies and left it at that. Friday, on his way to work, he started to experience alarming levels of intense stinging. By 10 in the morning, he had to ask a coworker to take him into an emergency care facility. There, they concluded that he was having an allergic reaction, so they gave him a benedryl shot and numbing eyedrops and sent him on his way with a prescription for benedryl. The drops did their job and after a nap to recover from the benedryl, Seppo came home early.

When I got home, I gave him some over-the-counter benedryl, both of us still under the assumption that this was allergy-related, although Seppo noticed that he did not have his usual gamut of symptoms. By 10pm Friday night, the drops had worn off and Seppo’s eyes were streaming tears, which ironically were making his eyes sting even worse. He couldn’t keep his eyes open for more than a second or so at a time and he was curled up in pain and frustration. I drove him to the ER, where we were seen within the hour.

The doctor there confirmed that he didn’t think it was allergies either, and that he didn’t see any obstructions or abrasions. He checked out Seppo’s vision after putting in some numbing drops. Thankfully, his vision seems to be completely fine, as far as they can tell. It’s that he can’t open his eyes to see due to the pain. He did a pressure test and even took a PH test on his eyes, but couldn’t figure out what the problem was. He prescribed Seppo some Vicodin, which we couldn’t get filled in the middle of the night. He said if the pain continued for more than two days, to come back.

This didn’t seem very satisfactory, but there was nothing we felt we could do at the moment, so we decided that first thing in the morning, we’d go to his optometrist and get the prescription filled out.

Come Saturday morning, Seppo was in a worse state than the night before from the pain. I rushed to drop off his Vicodin and Benedryl prescriptions and took him into his optometrist. Seppo wanted to see them before the drugs took effect so the doctor could see all the symptoms in place. They were accomodating and saw him right away instead of making him wait. Again, they put numbing drops in his eyes, which helped immensely. The doctor examined his eyes extensively and thought that while he didn’t know what caused it, the problem was cornea irritation.

He put some contacts in Seppo’s eyes that are meant to be worn overnight, and prescribed 3 different kinds of eyedrops: one for pain, one antibiotic, and one for allergies. We scheduled a return visit for Monday (today) and were sent home. After several hours at home, when the numbing drops wore off — again — we used the eyedrops meant for easing pain and found it did almost nothing. Calling the doctor, we found that they were different from the drops they had at the office. The ones they used at the ER and at the doctor’s office are not for prescription as continued use can damage the cornea. Unfortunately, the prescribed one was not as efficacious for Seppo, even though they are usually used for post-cornea surgery treatment.

So over the weekend, we had Seppo on antibiotic drops, painkiller drops, and Vicodin every 6 hours. We didn’t use Benedryl w/ the Vicodin because they were prescribed by two different ERs and it seemed like a recipe for disaster to mix. We also didn’t use the allergy eyedrops because it seemed like they were saying we should use them if he was having allergies but he didn’t seem to be having allergies.

We went back today, and the Seppo’s usual doctor was able to see him, instead of the other person that saw him on Saturday. She ran a bunch of tests and looked at his eyes with a bunch of different things, and put various things in his eyes. She saw cornea irritation too, but she couldn’t tell if it was better or worse than Saturday, since a different doctor had seen him originally, while she was not in the office. She prescribed yet another medicine, which I’ll be picking up shortly, and recommended that we use the allergy drops daily as well.

Seppo thinks the stinging pain has decreased somewhat, but it’s not clear if it’s from the Vicodin working or from the cornea healing from the mixture of antibiotics and contacts (which are acting as a bandage, sort of, in that they are keeping the irritated area covered from further irritation). We’ll see on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the combination of Vicodin & needing to keep his eyes closed (as blinking or any movement of the eyeballs triggers the pain) is keeping Seppo sleeping most of the day. He spent the entire weekend when we were not at the doctor huddled under a blanket in the bedroom with his eyes covered. He is obviously taking the day off, and I am working from home to make sure he’s doing alright, and feeding him and medicating him on a schedule. He’s handling things pretty well, given the circumstances, and working through the pain. It’s particularly frustrating for him because he can’t keep his eyes open, so most of the things he’d do to entertain himself are out. He listened to a bunch of Top Gear episodes — thanks Dre!

Anyway, Seppo is taking off from work at least until Thursday, since we have another appointment on Wednesday. I hope he heals up quickly. Gotta go get that last prescription now.