My Eyes, My Eyes. A Reprise, of sorts

Several of you close to the Main Dish got an email or heard the story this summer. I post it now for the good of the group. We had another incident in the car this very afternoon before soccer with hand sanitizer. Muffin, remind me to program Poison Control into my cell phone. Here's the original story and what to do:

The Brainiac is watching the SpongeBob Network downstairs resting before the T-Ball play-off game. I’m upstairs working. Suddenly, I hear loud, awful shrieks of agony: “Ow, ow, ow. Mommy, help!!! HELP!!! I’m blind. I’m BLIND!!!!!”

I don’t think I hit a stair running to him, those words being pretty alarming to a parent. In a burst of wisdom, the child, watching TV, decided that he needed sunscreen (he won’t be going outside for hours, by the way) and starts applying to his face. Of course, it runs into his eyes; hence, the ear-piercing screams akin to amplified nails on a chalkboard. Apparently, sunscreen REALLY BADLY stings when it gets in the eyes. I quickly wet a washcloth and put it on his eyes, but that didn’t work for long. Then I knocked off everything from my bathroom counter, hoisted the kid (boy, he’s heavy!) up there lying down, stuck his head under the faucet and ran water. The screaming intensified as he bumped his head on the faucet trying to … well, I don’t know what he was trying to do. I left him there, told him NOT TO MOVE, and I called the doctor’s office, who told me to call Poison Control. I was surprised since he hadn’t ingested it (Thank GOD!), but the nice lady at Poison Control knew exactly what to say.

You know, I’ve read: “Avoid contact with eyes. If contact occurs, flush thoroughly.” It seems straightforward enough, but now when faced with it I wondered how to properly flush an eye – especially an eye belonging to someone other than me. So, Poison Control Lady told me to put the screaming banshee in the shower for 15 minutes. The Sun-Screamer doesn’t even have to keep their eyes open and it will still work. The eyes may appear blood-shot, but don’t put any eye drops in the eye for 24 hours. He’s totally fine, by the way. Can see SpongeBob clearly from a distance once again.

Side note: I'd been using the sunscreen stick on the boys' faces ALL SUMMER. Why he thought to squirt the stuff on his face ... oh yeah, he's a a boy and boys will do weird, strange things, so just get over it (I'm channeling the Main Squeeze, a successful father of a successfully grown boy).

May you never need this information! But if you do, please note that the same approach applies when hand sanitizer is squirted into the hand and bits of it splash into the eye. Although, a mom feels much more helpless driving down the road away from home at 45 mph than in the comfort of her own abode. Thank goodness for bottled water.