This is the face that we were greeted with on Monday morning. It is the face that sent my mommy panic in motion. Children's eyes are not supposed to become flaming red and swollen shut, this is something I know for a fact. Clara's right eye however, did not get the memo.

Off we went to the CLSC, so much for our playdate with Chloe and Zaco. Of course this adventure happens on one of the only ped. days we share. It seems Clara only gets sick on her days off, she really must love school as much as she says she does.

We saw the doctor pretty quickly - I think haveing such an obvious and pronounced problem gets you though the system quite a bit faster. Our doctor said she had an "aggressive" eye infection and prescribed two types of antibiotics. She also said if Clara gets any worse, we have to go directly to the Children's Hospital. This is NOT something that made me feel better, in fact it downright frightened me.

Thankfully, Cathy still came over to bake gingerbread-molasses cookies with us in the afternoon. We had a really nice time making dough, rolling it out, and using every cookie cutter Cathy brought from home! By the time we were done we had happy kids, several tins of cookies, and an eye that refused to go back to its normal size despite being attacked by antibiotics.

On Tuesday things were still not getting better, I spent a good chunk of the morning assessing the eye, Clara had already taken three doses of medicine and I'd expected it to work much faster. My previous experience with antiotics is that after 1 or 2 doses you are better. This was not the case and the thought of going in to the Children's kept creeping into my head. Finally, at about mid-morning, I saw creases in Clara's eyelid - yay! It meant the swelling was going down and the infection was NOT winning. Thanks goodness, no trip to the hospital for us.

What I was reminded by this entire experience is how much I HATE not knowing what to do. I can handle colds, I can handle gastros, I can even handle bloody noses and other scrapes and bumps but when I don't know what to do in a situation that involves my kid's health I feel the most awful feeling in the pit of my stomach. I second guess every reasonable thought I have. Darn, that feeling of helplessness and fear takes over so very fast when your child is sick and you don't know what is the "right" thing to do. I guess these are the times that the mommy gut comes in, we all have it we jut have to listen. Mine told me to give her a little more time before taking her in to be seen again. I'm glad I listened. Thankfully I usually do when I really need to.