The mote in her eye

The girls were tussling in the back yard on Saturday and Julia came inside fussing that Eleanor had poked her in eye. Sure enough, there was some odd speck next to her iris. We guessed that the eye had bled and had scabbed up, though it seemed rather quick for that, and Julia wasn't screaming the way you'd expect from a four-year-old who'd been jabbed in eye.

The scab didn't wear off and the eye was getting more bloodshot, so yesterday at her checkup I had the doctor look at it. He thought it was a foreign body , though he couldn't dislodge it with a quick swipe with a swab. (And apparently eyes don't really scab up, though as I've never encountered an eye injury I was unaware of this.) Julia shows no discomfort at all, but the doctor was concerned about this thing being in her eye for so long. We were sent off to the referrals desk with instructions to have the receptionist get us an appointment with an opthamalolgist either immediately or the next day.

So this afternoon Julia's going to the ophthalmologist. And suddenly it occurs to me that I might want to look for some babysitting for the other girls. Normally we all go along to appointments, but a visit that contains the potential for watching your sister be strapped down screaming while the doctor excavates in her eye is probably not one for the whole family. This is where it would be convenient to live near family. Asking for last-minute babysitting is never a popular proposition.

If you would, say a prayer for Julia's eye, that whatever is stuck there would come out with a minimum of effort.

UPDATE: Thanks for your prayers and concern -- the ophthalmologist had a very good bedside manner and was able to remove the speck in fairly short order. Julia didn't love the eye drops and the swab and required a bit of restraint, but I thought that she took it about as well as a four-year-old could.