Since B has a habit of self-mutilating while he sleeps, I was trimming his nails in hopes of preventing more facial wounds. B was happily lying on his changing table babbling away as I trimmed when all of a sudden a rogue piece of nail went flying. At first, I couldn't see where it landed but it sort of went towards B's head. I actually thought to myself, "wow, that would really suck if it landed in his eye". Sure enough, there on top of his eyeball, like right on the iris, was the nail shard. Luckily it landed flat and did not stab his eye. I just sort of stood there staring at it without moving. B began to flail a little bit and started blinking which caused the nail shard to move and lodge itself beneath his eyelid. I tried to pry his eyelid down to see if I could get it but that went over predictably poorly so I just let it go.
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| Evidence of one of many self-inflicted wounds in the past |
It was feeding time at the zoo so I sat in the recliner as B ate and Googled the topic on my phone. Generally speaking, it's a great idea to turn to the internet for medical advice. All of the articles that came up told me that I must remove the foreign object immediately or risk a cornea scratch which would require an eye patch. Despite the fact that B fell asleep while eating, I stuck my finger in his eye to try to locate the offending object. Again, predictably, this woke him up and he was not pleased. Now he was rubbing his eyes because he was tired or because there was a nail bothering him or some very uncomfortable combo of the two which I entirely created. Now I was terrified that he was going to rub the nail against his eye and result in a corneal tear and possibly lifelong blindness. I held his arms and immediately called the pediatrician's office for guidance. What follows is the Abbott and Costello conversation I had with the on-call doctor and my resultant over and under reactions.
me: Hi, my son has a fingernail stuck in his eye and I'm not sure what to do.
doc: Is it lodged in his eye?!?! Get him to the ER!! (+20)
me: What do you mean lodged? It's stuck in there but not like sticking out of it... ummm you know like when you get an eyelash in there and it's annoying??
doc: Oh, well that's not as big of a deal. (-10)
me: Ok, so will it just work itself out? I can leave it alone?
doc: No!!! You have to get it out of there or it will scratch his cornea!! (+5)
me: Right, well I can't seem to get it out... I'm afraid if I try I will end up pushing the nail against his eye and scratching it.
doc: You need someone to hold him down while you pry open his eyelids and catch it with a q-tip. (-1)
me: Ok, well I'm by myself but I'll give that a try.
doc: Oh you can't do it by yourself. (+1)
me: So I should call someone to come over and hold him down?
doc: I mean if you can't do it then you need to take him in to emergency care. (+2)
me: But I should see if someone can help me do it first?
doc: You have to get it out.
me: Got it, so do I need to bring him in?
doc: Not if you can do it yourself.
me: So I should call someone to come over?
doc: Or they can do it at emergency care.
me: Ok but if I let go of his hands to put him in the car seat he will rub his eyes and scratch them.
doc: Yeah don't let him do that.
me: So I need to call someone to come over to hold his hands in the car while I drive him to emergency care?
doc: No, you should be able to do it yourself, that's what I would do. (-1 but +100000 frustration points.)
me: Great, thanks very much for your help...
Although unsure whether this warranted an actual trip to emergency care, I knew I didn't want a scratched cornea and the associated guilt for letting it happen so I called a good friend to come over and assist. (This may have been on advice from the doctor although I'm not sure?) Rachel drove while I held B's hands to prevent scratching.
When we finally got to see the doctor I was comforted by the fact that he had an Elmo doll suspended around his neck. Actually I was not comforted at all, but I think it was supposed to put the patient at ease at least. B was not amused and saw right through his little trick. The doctor examined B's eye, did a horrible rinsing procedure that involved yanking on his eyelashes while B screamed, and pronounced him cured. We never saw the nail come out but he couldn't find it in his eye after the rinse. The doctor said it probably washed out and we missed it but it was possible that the nail fragment actually went underneath B's eyelid and was lodged behind his eye. (+10) He assured me if this was the case, then soon enough B would be inconsolable and I could bring him back in. B would need to be seen by an ophthalmologist who would temporarily take his eye from the socket so he could remove the nail fragment. (+10000000)
In conclusion, I did the right thing by taking him in. If anything I dramatically underreacted. So far there is no evidence that B will require eyeball removal.
Now for an unrelated video of B hitting himself in the face just so you know I'm not lying about the self-mutilation thing.
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You did awesome! Way to go!
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