The Eyes Have It

Sunday morning, Alex's eyelashes were partly crusted when he woke up. The only time I'd seen that before was when he had a very severe cold, but this time he didn't seem to be congested or sick. So we went about our day as I described previously. He still had the eye discharge that evening and Monday morning, but I brought him to daycare anyway. A couple of hours later, they called me. Apparently Alex's eyes were worse; his right eye was now red and swollen. Another child had brought pinkeye into the infant room, and Alex most likely had it. That meant I had to take him to a doctor and keep him at home for at least 24 hours.

As upsetting as it is to learn your child is sick and that you didn't catch it sooner, this news came at a bad time. My company is attending a trade show next week, and I had to prepare some samples for the show. I'm the only one who has any experience making the samples; in fact, I had started working on them before daycare called me. Alex's health is of prime importance, but this project was also important. Somehow, I had to be able to go into work the next day in order to finish the samples.

Luckily, Eugene was able to rearrange his schedule a bit. I went to work in the morning while he stayed home with Alex. I stayed at work until almost 2:00; then I returned home so Eugene could go in for a few hours. Alex is getting antibiotic eye drops and returned to daycare today, and my samples are done and ready to be shipped.