Eyelash Tinting and Hospital

There’s been a lot of excitement around here. And when I say excitement, I don’t mean the kind that’s fun and all smiles.

I’ve been at home today with red, itchy, puffed up eyes. Let me give you the low down.

On Wednesday last week, I was at school doing what we always do… practice services on each other. We usually just do facials and things like that, but my teacher wanted us to practice eyelash tinting this time. I already have the blackest eyelashes already, but she wanted me to try it so that the other girls could practice. Without thinking, I budged. Stupid, Laura, stupid! By the looks of my eyes, I’m regretting it.

Things were fine for the first couple days. On Friday I was at school and suddenly my eyes started to itch and itch to high heaven. I had to give one of my clients away because it was so bothersome for me and I couldn’t concentrate. It got worse and worse as time progressed, and Saturday night I was fed up. I was at church trying to pay attention, but my dang eyeballs kept tearing and itching that it got to the point that I couldn’t even open them. It hurt to blink. It hurt to just keep my eyes open.

So, Will and I came home that night and I went straight to the computer and looked up eyelash tinting and tried to find some answers. Apparently, every site we went tostressed that it is highly important to do a patch test on your skin 2 days before since so many people are allergic. Also, it’s been turned into an illegal service for salons in a lot of states because it’s so dangerous. There is one case of a woman going completely blind and another woman that DIED. Say what? Yes, died. One girl wrote about her symptoms saying that her eyes were itchy, red, and in pain. After 3 weeks of thinking it would go away, she was blinded for 3 days. She described the same symptoms I had been having… and there was no way in heck that I was about to risk my eyesight for some tinting that didn’t even do anything.

So, I said to Will, “I think I need to go to the Emergency Room” and, right after, he said “Yeah. I know. God has been telling me to take you all day”.

If you know Will well, then you know that he’s not big on doctors or hospitals. He’s never even been to the emergency room. But God was telling both of us that this was a big deal and could turn bad quickly. With the eyes being so close to the brain, we wanted to move fast.

So, I went to the hospital and endured one of the most painful experiences of my life of them flushing each eye out with an entire bottle for each eye of fluid. My eyes were already agitated, so this did not feel good. I couldn’t open my eyes for the next hour or so until she put numbing drops in. I seriously looked like I was on drugs or something. It was pretty bad. The eye doctor gave me a prescription for some steroid ointment that I have to rub on my eyes every 6 hours. I’m also on a high dosage of Benadryl. I have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow for a follow up. For now, I’m missing 2 days of school and just trying to sit this out. My eyes seem to be gradually getting better. I think it’s because every time I rub them, Will smacks my hand away ha ha. What a good husband.

We got home at about 1:00 am from the hospital and had to get up at 6:00 am for O’Fallon church. Although I still felt bad and looked awful, I threw on a hat and my glasses and headed to church with him. I even helped lead worship. Ha. I’m still thankful I didn’t faint due to the way the Benadryl was making me feel. My outlook was, Will was there for me all those hours at the hospital, and I wanted to be there for him. We’re a team now.

So… moral of the story, ladies and gents… (well, moreso ladies)

Don’t touch eyelash dye.

We will be leaving for Florida on Sunday this week and can’t wait to just relax from all the craziness that’s been taking place.