Seeing Red

For weeks, KR had been bothered by a small, red bump on her lower eyelid as the base of her lashes. When it became a little tender and swollen, she decided to seek treatment and stopped at the Cashmere Clinic on her way home from a run. The doctor diagnosed it as a  sty and prescribed antibiotic ointment and hot compresses. When she called me on her phone after the appointment and told me she had a sty in her eye, my first thought was how difficult it was going to be to keep her eye clean with all that pig manure. Two days later, the sty flamed red, had grown in size, and painful stings shot through the area under her eye at random intervals. She drove herself to the local walk-in clinic for another opinion. The doctor came in, took one look, and proceeded to prepare for an excision. Slicing a small opening into the sty relieved the pressure immediately. He sent her home with oral antibiotics and instructions to apply hot packs for 20 minutes four times a day. It took a VERY long time for the wound\bump to completely go away. As bad as it looked, it could have been worse.