The left eye in the picture is the one with the problems (pay no attention to the large chicken on my plate).
The problem is, I wear contacts, my glasses (newly ordered from Costco) are in America (one of the "last-minute things" that didn't get done quite in time before my flight), and something is wrong with my eyes and I can't figure out what.
My left eye (the actual eye, and not just around it) got red and felt like some sort of sand had gotten under my contact and scratched it. After half a bottle of eye drops and several days of pain and squinting, I finally kept my contact out and it got better (this was in Jerusalem).
Well, it started again last week in Jordan, and this time it was worse. My eye hurt terribly, it was so red that people asked if everything was ok with my eye, and I could barely see.
So, I decided it was time to brave the pharmacy.
Pharmacies here are not really (read at all) like pharmacies in the US. They are just little corner stores stuffed with everything you could need, from band-aids to strong prescription medication. And I think they have real live educated pharmacists that work in them, but I haven't checked my sources on that.
I walked into a pharmacy in the middle of downtown Amman last week and tried to explain in Arabic what was wrong with my eye. It went something like this:
"Hi. I have a problem with my eye..."
(The female pharmacist)--"the red one?"
"Yes."
"Ok, you need these" (and she gives me some eye drops).
"No, I have like this (meaning the eye drops), but my eye is not getting better. I had this same problem last week and it came back a second time."
"Oh." (Rummages around in the small fridge in the back.) "Here, take this."
(reading carefully what this strange substance is) "How much?"
"4 dinar" (about 6 dollars).
"Ok, I'll take it."
It turns out that this strange substance was a strong prescription-only cortecosteriod eyedrop (basically a steroroid for your eye, although I am not quite sure how it works) that shouldn't be used while wearing contacts and leaves a nasty taste in my mouth about 10 minutes after putting it in my eye.
The result? The infection has now moved into my other (right) eye, I am considering getting glasses here because the contacts only aggravate the problem, and my left eye has no more redness but hurts terribly every time I blink (which is often, because I haven't been wearing my contacts and my eyes hurt when I leave them open for more than a few seconds).
I am pretty sure that the "solution" from the pharmacy might be part of the problem...
3 comments:
I bet you could add good health care to your list of American benefits, huh? I'm sorry!!! That sounds miserable!
I don't know exactly what they gave you, but it sounds a lot like one of the prescription eye drops they gave me after the LASIK. It really works quite well. But maybe yours is something different. Anyway, my eyes watered a lot when I read this post. I feel bad for you.
You inherited the strange allergy weirdness from mom too, eh? It's death.
Post a Comment