Attack of the Mystery Irritant

Poor Zeke. 

We were hangin' out at home this past weekend, enjoying a lazy Sunday morning, when he started complaining that he had something in his eye.

I checked, but couldn't find anything. 

He kept complaining.

I checked again--very thoroughly. Still couldn't find a thing in there. 

Then he started going nuts--rubbing at his eye, swatting at it, and making whiny, panicky sounds.

I was freaked, but not sure how serious it was, so I told him to come to the couch with me and rest with his eyes closed because sometimes it hurts less when your eyes are closed.

So he did. For about 20 minutes, he lay with his head on my lap and his sore eye closed while he watched football with the open eye. I petted his hair and sang him songs to keep him calm, and it seemed to be working, but the next time I asked him to look up at me, this (pictured) is what I saw. 

Eeek! Now I was the one panicking. "This can not be good. What is wrong with that eye? Did something bite him? Is it swollen from rubbing? Does he have an exotic eye infection? How on earth would he get an eye infection? And why today? Why Sunday? Our doctor is very nice and very accommodating, but even she is not open on Sundays. Ugh. What to do, what to do, what to do? Hmm.  We do live across the street from a hospital. They must have an emergency room. I can take him there! Will I look like an idiot for bringing in a kid with a swollen eye?  I mean, isn't the ER for people that have been in car accidents or are having heart attacks? For gunshot wounds and unfortunate chainsaw encounters? Maybe I'll check his eye one more time before we get in the car."

And that's when I found the offending irritant. It was black and hard with sharp edges, like a dark and angry little piece of sand. I don't know how I missed it before, but this time when I checked, it was front and center. 

Zeke sat very still while I removed it, I rewarded him with a small dish of parmesan goldfish crackers, and the drama was over. 

The weird thing for me is that we take Zeke to the beach and he flings armloads of sand into his eyes all day, then massages it in there with his own sandy fists (in an effort to get the original sand out), and nothing like this ever happens. 

Anyway, today the swelling is almost entirely gone, and Zeke seems none the worse for wear. Whew!