So I thought Rylan was doing pretty well being 4 and not visiting the Emergency Room, but Sunday afternoon ruined that thought.
We had just gotten home from church and had had a little snack, Rylan got up from the table and walked into the garage, I was trying to get Mason ready so that he could take a nap when I heard Rylan screaming. It was the kind of scream when you know something is really wrong and you know your child is really hurt. I ran into the garage and saw that Rylan had a yellowish-whitish powder all over is face, one hand was holding a pin to the fire extinguisher and the other hand was grabbing his eye. I could tell that Rylan had a large amount of this powder in his eye, so I grabbed him and ran him into the bathroom and started to flush his eye out with cool water,after a few minutes of flushing he was still screaming and crying. Not knowing what kind of substance this powder was and not knowing if it was going to seriously harm his eye I decided to call 911. I told the operator what had happened and she told me to keep flushing his eye out with water and that she would send the paramedics over. I kept just drowning Rylan with water and could see all of this powder just pour out of his eye and it didn't seem to be getting any less. (Through this whole thing my heart was just pounding and I was shaking, thinking all the worst thoughts about the future with a blind son and how he wouldn't be able to ride his bike and drive(which might not be such a bad thing) and watch movies and how he was going to have to learn braille, etc, etc.)
After what seemed to be several minutes the paramedics arrived and I explained to them what had happened, they just kept telling me to keep flushing it out but Rylan would not open his eye so that I could get all of that stuff out. The paramedics took over and was trying to get him to open but he would not relent, he just kept screaming saying that it hurt too bad. They tried to flush his eye with some saline from an IV bag and he still would not open his eye. They finally told me to take him to the hospital so that they could give him something to calm down. Oh and in the meantime I had asked them what kind of substance that powder was and if it was going to harm his eye. They told me it was and "inert" substance, basically like dirt or sand getting in your eye, so that made me feel a little better. So Luke had gotten home a few minutes before and was wondering what was going on, I gave him the update and he said that he would take Rylan to Alta View hospital so the doctor could clean out his eye after they gave him something to calm down.
I stayed home with Mason and Luke drove Rylan to the hospital. The paramedics offered to give Rylan a ride to the hospital but I thought it was just as easy to have Luke take him, and Rylan wanted to go with Luke and not ride in the ambulance anyway.
About a half hour later, I decided to call Luke and see how things were going, he told me that he was still waiting to be seen, I told him to call me as soon as he had seen the doctor. I told him I was scared and didn't know how this was going to all turn out. Luke told me that he thought that everything was going to be ok and I shouldn't worry. When I got off the phone with him I got on my knees and prayed. I prayed that everything would be ok and that Rylan would not have any complications. I felt a little better but still felt nervous. I called my mom and my sister and told them what had happened, I just needed to talk to somebody, analyze everything. We came to a conclusion that since they didn't seem to be rushing to see Rylan at the ER that it would probably wouldn't be threatening to his sight. In the meantime, Luke called me and said that his cell phone was going to die and that he would just see me at home later. So I started to bake dessert for dinner, and about 45 minutes later Luke calls from the hospital in a panic and says "you need to find a babysitter for Mason right now, we have to rush Rylan up to Primary Children's," I hung up on him before he could tell me why. I was thinking in my head "Find a babysitter" so that is what I did. I finally found a neighbor who was home after a few different attempts.
Luke pulled up to our house with Rylan in the backseat and I rushed to the car with Mason in my arms, mason's shoes, two diapers, a sippy cup and a container of wipes. Rylan in his groggy state is no longer crying or screaming but is saying "look Mom, I can open my eyes, see." He wasn't really opening his eyes, his right one maybe but not his left, and then he proceeded to fall asleep. We dropped Mason at the neighbors and began our trek to the hospital. I asked Luke what the doctor had said and this is what the doctor told him "this is the worst eye injury that I have seen in 30 years, Rylan needs to see a specialist." Then Luke asked the doctor about Rylan's eye sight and the doctor says "well I am hopeful that his eyesight won't be affected, I am worried about his cornea." "Hopeful?" what the heck does "hopeful" mean. Is "Hopeful" positive or negative?
We got up to Primary's and checked Rylan in and got taken back to a room. Luke gave Rylan a very nice blessing and asked that no permanent damage would be sustained and that he would be brave for the doctors. The doctor came in and said that he had just talked to the opthomologist and the he was just finishing up a consult and that it would be 45 minutes but while we were waiting that he would go ahead and put an IV in so that the sedatives could be administered through it when the doctor looked at his eye. It just seemed strange to me that the doctor at Alta View said that his eye was so bad and rushed us up to Primary's and the doctors at Primary's were just thinking that this was no big deal and were taking there sweet time. So about one and a half hours later the opthomologist finally arrived and started asking us questions about what had happened and he had the nurse administer the sedative and he started to clean his eye out using a q-tip and then checked the acidity level in his eye and tried to find out more information about the fire extinguisher and the powdery substance it contained. They decided to flush his eye with some saline. They put what looked like a contact lense in his eye that was connected to a hose which was connected to a saline bag. They decided to start with 1 liter and then they check his eyes acidity level again which the doctor said was at 7 which is neutral which is good. He wanted to flush his eye with 1 more liter of saline just to make sure.
He checked the eye again and it was at neutral. He proceeded to do a few more test and then said that the cornea looked pretty good but it had an abrasion on it. When I asked him about his eye sight he said that it depended on whether or not there was going to be scarring on the cornea. But he sounded pretty positive. He did say that they were going to do a CT scan to make sure there were no particles behind the eye that they couldn't see. If there were, they were going to have to do surgery to remove them.
While we were waiting for the Radiology Tech, Rylan started to wake up from his sedative and started saying some silly things. He said "I- talk-like a Ro-bot." (in a robot tone) Then he said "Ro-bot Time, Ro-bot Time." It was so funny, he was still out of it but saying these crazy things. We asked him what his favorite Transformer was and he said "Bum-ble-bee" My mom and Dad were in the room and we were all just cracking up.
But he got his CT scan and the doctor came in about 1/2 hour later and told us that there were no particles behind his eye. Yeah!!
The nurse gave us some discharge information and said to see the pediatric opthomologist the following day. They gave us some antibiotic ointment to put in his eyes and sent us on our way.
The next day Rylan saw the eye doctor and he checked his eye sight on both eyes and he said that Rylan was going to make a full recovery.
Rylan's eyes are looking really good, there is very little redness or swelling.
What a miracle, what a blessing. I don't think it was a coincidence, I know that the Lord healed him. I am grateful that Luke was able to give him a blessing and that I have such a supportive family who were all concerned and said prayers on his behalf.
Luke and I celebrated our 7th Anniversary last night. Our actual anniversary is on the 16th but we were at the Griffin family reunion. We take turns planning, and this year was my year. I was reading in the newspaper that they hold free concerts at the Brigham Young historical park downtown, and it just so happened to be Peter Brienholt and Nancy Hansen who would be playing. I was so excited because Luke really likes Peter Breinholt and you can't beat free either.
Luke, under the hood and basically inside his engine compartment
