Pretty in Pink(eye)

Yes, friends 'n neighbors, I'm in the midst of bout #3 in the last six months with pinkeye. To recap:

June, 2004: School is ending, I'm getting ready to leave on our school's first New York/Washington, DC trip...and my eyes get that (soon to be) familiar itchy feeling. Due to the highly contagious nature of the disease (like, so contagious you should probably go wash your hands after reading this post), I ended up missing the last two days of the school year, a KISS concert at the Clark County Amphitheatre (the phone rang, and I stumbled through the miasma to hear Dave B. singing, "I wanna ROCK and ROLL all NIGHT..."), and the 8th grade graduation. I managed to show up on time at PDX that night, with eyes as bloodshot as a 50's-era cocktail-slamming mom on a 72-hour bender. We flew a redeye (yeah, ha ha ha) to La Guardia, and spent the next eighteen hours touring The City, culminating in a performance of "The Lion King" on Broadway. The upshot is, my already sensitive eyes, which were on the slow burn to recovery, suddenly found themselves 1) not shut for more than a half hour total on an all-night flight, 2) inundated by the smog and assorted detrius floating about in the air in Manhattan for almost fifteen hours, and 3) subjected to the spectacle of said city, meaning lots and lots of straining and looking about at everything. By Friday night, my 1958 pre-Valley of the Dolls look had devolved into the Creature from the Black Lagoon - I don't believe there was any white visible in my eyes. Yes, 'tis true. Fortunately, one of the great employees of Educational Travel Services (who we're traveling with again this year, and every year until I retire, if I have anything to say about it) knew the city like the back of his hand, and got me to an ER in midtown Manhattan. The doc there got me some stronger antibiotics, and my eyes were cleared up in less than 48 hours. And, to the best of my knowledge, none of the other people on my trip ended up getting pinkeye themselves.

The second incident was in November, after getting contact lenses for the first time in my life. My only guess is when the eye doctor said for me to "be sure to wash your hands thoroughly any time you touch your contacts," I took that as more of a...suggestion, I guess.

This time has me stumped. My right eye started to show signs of ickiness Sunday morning at church, so I skedaddled over to Kaiser to find their urgency care wait was something like three hours, and I wasn't entirely sure. By eight or nine that night, I was pretty sure. I went to the doctor Monday morning and got a prescription for eye drops, which seemed to help, somewhat, although it seemed to spread to my other eye by the following night, so I stayed home Tuesday, as well. I went to work Wednesday (yesterday), hoping to do some damage control with my classes after having two different subs in two days. Kat noticed my right eye getting redder last night, and I woke up this morning unable to open it. I went into work anyway, and was treated worse than a leper by adult and student alike, while I waited around for a sub to come in.

In case someone hasn't figured it out, I really hate having pinkeye.