My poor little Dynamite got something in his eye last night (Friday) while at IHOP with his grandparents. His grandma tried to flush it out and did all she could, but nothing seemed to help. When Dreamer and I arrived to pick them up he was crying in pain; it was so sad. He was obviously tired, so we tried to pacify him (and the others) and just get them home to bed. When we got home I looked up how to properly flush out an eye, gave eye drops and flushed his eye again, all to no avail. One of the instructions online was to rest your eye, with it closed for 5 minutes. Because it came from the all-knowing Internet, he was willing to follow along and before 5 minutes were over he had zonked out. I thought whatever the problem was would work itself out by morning, but it didn't take long before he woke up and was crying again. Dreamer went up and started a movie for him and helped him calm down, but within a couple of hours he was crying again. I gave him some Tylenol and soothed him unti he was asleep again. 30 minutes later he woke up crying again. Repeat all night long. I slept on the couch and he slept on the recliner. Poor little guy.

After going to 2 eye doctors and finding they were closed because it was Saturday, we tried Shopko's optical department. After numbing his eye with "magic" eye drops, the doctor eventually found a green "fiber" in his upper eyelid - said it looked sort of like fishing line. It had been scratching his eyeball every time he blinked, so by the time the doctor looked at it, he had a "substantial abrasion" on his eye. Long story short, the doctor put some drops in his eye to help prevent infection, dilated his eye, and sent us home with a prescription for a steroid/antibiotic ointment to be put in his eye 3 times a day for 5 days. We go back Tuesday for a follow-up and he gave us his cell number in case it gets worse. I really liked the doctor (Shawn Murray) and will definitely go there again. He was wonderful with Dynamite! Within a few minutes of leaving the optical department, Dynamite was his old self. He still complained of pain, but he no longer required being guided as if completely blind and was no longer on the verge of tears with his hand clasped tightly over one eye. Before we got in the car, he hugged me and told me thanks for caring about him in that super-cute tone I only hear when my kids are humbled with sickness and I'm able to help them. As soon as we got in the van to go get the other kids, he fell asleep.

Throughout the day today he has continued to be in some pain, so we're continuing with Tylenol, but other than that he seems completely back to normal.

The pictures above were taken tonight. He fell asleep again right after I put his medicine in his eye - very unusual for him! Of course, he's awake again now and probably will be for hours because of his little cat-nap. Right now I can hear him in the baby monitor singing (between yawns) Hush Little Baby to Cutesome who is wimpering in his crib. How precious is that? I am thoroughly exhausted and have terrible headache but am grateful that I could help my favorite little 5-year-old.