Devin's Eyeball

Tonight, in the middle of our last round of fittings with the tailor (we had some clothes made - another story), Devin took the bikes we’d rented back to the bike shop as they were due at five o’clock. (I like using the word “o’clock.” Is it really even a word? You can’t use it in any other context, can you?)

Anyway!

Upon his return to the shop he remarked that he had something in his eye and asked me to look at it. I saw nothing and suggested he do some heaving blinking in order to tear the whatever-it-was out. A bit later he was still messing with his eye. Maybe we could flush it out? Devin and I stood outside the store and while he peeled his eye open I poured water into it…well, I tried. He has a really hard time with people putting anything into his eyes – I can’t say I blame him.

One of the girls at the store saw our futile attempts to flush Devin’s eye and came over with what I can only assume were Vietnamese eye drops. She said they would help, so we gave them a go. Whatever the liquid was, it made his eye burn. Hmmmm…

Dev said he’d be fine so we left the eye alone, collected our clothing, and made our way to the overnight bus. (We’re actually on the bus now – I’m typing in a Word document and will just copy and paste once I have an internet connection.)

Not long after getting on board, Devin’s eye was really starting to hurt. He didn’t use those words, but he wanted me to try to flush his eye again, and I know how hard that was the first go around, so I figured it must be pretty bad. I said I’d try again, but remember, we’re now on a bus. A sleeper bus at that. It’s a funny angle to get to Devin and we don’t have any towels – he said he didn’t care if he got wet. Ok…

Dumping water into his eye didn’t help and only made Devin a soggy mess. I thought about the night I scratched my cornea all to hell and remembered that the doctor gave me drops and made me wear an eye patch overnight to rest my eye. We don’t have access to eye drops, but Devin has 400mg of ibuprofen in his system and he is wearing a money belt around his head – the money belt is off-centered, covering his right eye but allowing him to use his left eye. (He’s like a travel-savvy pirate.) Plus, his shirt is soaked.

It’s all very miserable-looking but he says he’s ok. Hopefully he’ll be able to sleep but the guy in the bed behind us is snoring like it’s his job so we may need to dig out earplugs.

The End