The Continuing Adventures of Pirate Daddy

Jonathan whined a little last night, which is normal when he loses his nummy. I got out of bed to fetch it for him, but had problems getting it to him. When I stepped out into the hallway, I had a sharp pain when I turned the hall light on. My eyes were suddenly photo-sensitive, and I didn’t like the feeling of that. After giving Jonathan his nummy and soothing him back to sleep, I rushed to the bathroom to check my eyes. The redness in my left eye was all I needed to see, and the fact that the pupil on the left eye was locked and not moving was also a dead give away. I’m having another iritis attack, my first in over four years but this will be # 6 over the last decade. It was 2am, and without hesitation I got dressed and ready to go. I immediately went into the local ER, and a doctor as soon as I could…

The doctor too one close look at my eye and confirmed that it was iritis. But there was no on call specialist available at the moment. That person wasn’t due in until 8am. So I took an eye dialator drop and will go back to the hospital today to start proper treatments. This means I’m going back on the steriod drop and regular dialator drops, but I think we’ve spotted it early enough to the point where I likely won’t need any steriod stronger than the dropper this time out, hopefully.

I hate having iritis attacks, but like I said before this is the first in exactly four years. My last attack was Dec 2002 when I was working at Toys R’ Us, almost a year before Ethan was born. When I got my first eye dialator drop in almost half a decade, it burned like hell… but it’s the first of many. I’ll likely be on droppers for the next two months, at least. So with the eye blurry and pretty much out of commission, I had to break out the old eye patch and cover it up.

When Ethan got up this morning and saw the patch over my eye. He looked up and then calmly asked, “Daddy, are you a pirate?” I just sighed and left the room. It’s not the first time a child called me a pirate for wearing my patch, but Ethan is now calling me ‘Pirate Daddy’ all the time now. For example he just walked over a few minutes ago and said, “Can I have a popsicle, Pirate Daddy?” It’s cute when he says it but I wish he would drop the Pirate part… I’m still just Daddy, just with a patch over his sore eye.

I’m likely gonna have to call in sick today. I really don’t want to be at work during my first day on the roids in a long, long time. Last thing I want to do is have a ‘roid rage’ moment and get fired. So caution is the word of the day, and I’ll stay home and rest the eyes and put a lot of drops in and take things easy. I’ve been through all this many times before, and it will be rather easy to get through it again. I only need one eye to take a call and do my job, so today will be the only day I miss cause I need to start medicating my eye ASAP, cause the longer I leave it the more I risk damage that only surgery can reapair. Hence the reason for my eagerness to get this diagnosed as quickly as possible.

So I’ll take today off, get some rest and thankfully Dad is coming into town today for the holidays. We need the help, especially if my eyes get any worse over the next few hours. Right now I’m waiting for Mom to get back from dropping off Leah at her new job and then I’m off to the hospital to see the eye specailist. Yes, Leah has a new job… but I’m not gushing over it because I’m not confident this one is going to last either. Don’t mean to be cruel but I know my wife and I don’t it will last. Not long enough to waste an entry on.

So that’s the news from Steel City. Pirate Daddy has to get ready for his second trip to the local hospital today, and I’ll update everyone on my illness when I get back. Until then… take care.

Peter