$40 wasted

Baby Doodle has a sty on the underside of his left eyelid. We found this out because I took him to the doctor on Friday to find out why his eyelid was red and swollen only allowing him to open his eye a mere 10% of the way in the mornings. Doctor Watson presribed eye drops and told me to administer them twice to three-times a day waiting for him to blink before letting him get up.

Mr. Doodlebug picked up the eye drops at the pharmacy while I enjoyed a drink at happy hour. He saw that the price of the drops was $40 and made a comment about how expensive they were. The pharmacist said that they were normally $100 without insurance, and that baby Doodle must have something serious to require these powerful antibiotics. When Mr. D relayed the conversation to me I was disturbed because it didn't seem necessary to have something so powerful for a sty.

I called my friend whose husband is an ophthamologist and he said they never prescribe antibiotics for a sty unless it infects the eye. He thought the drops were overkill and that the drops will irritate his eye more than the sty itself. We found this to be true the one, and only, time I gave him the drops. He also said that the most important thing is to put a warm compress on his eye as often as possible to make the sty come to a head and drain.

I called the pediatrician's office and told the doctor that the drops were too hard to get into BD's eyes and asked if they were really necessary. She said, "no." And then went on to say that warm compresses are more important. Thanks for telling me that the first time around!

So we used two drops of the $40 tiny bottle of antibiotics and have been using a warm compress ever since. It seems to be working. His eye, though not completely normal, is looking much better today.