Stick a Needle in my Eye

To say that I'm clumsy is a bit of an understatement. I'm not allowed to use any kind of power tool and there are days that my husband just quietly puts away the knives so I won't hurt myself. My little toes are permenantly crooked from being broken and I'm usually nursing some ailment or injury, but this incident, well it deserves a story of it's own.

The night before I'd been working on a cross-stitch pattern in bed. It was getting quite late and I'd finished the section I was working on. I secured the thread and cut it off. Usually, I put the needle in the fabric I'm working on, but this time, I didn't. Maybe I'd finished the project, I don't remember. Anyway, instead, I stuck the needle in the lapel of my bathrobe so I wouldn't lose it. I figured it was safe and I'll remember where I put for the next evening. I put the robe across the end of my bed and went to sleep.

The next morning I got up, slipped on the robe and made myself a quick breakfast. I remember it was a Sunday morning and the kids had left for church. I was sitting at my computer reading the news and sort of crying - not big gulping sobs, just a tear or two would well up in my eyes. My boyfriend was leaving that afternoon and would be gone for 6 weeks; we'd been having "problems" and I knew this was probably the end for us.

As my eyes filled with tears, you guessed it, I lifted the lapel of my robe to dab them. As I pushed the terry cloth fabric to my eyes a sharp pain pierced my right eye. What was that horrible pain? I pressed the fabric a bit harder and then...it dawned on me - the needle! The needle was in my eyeball! Oh my God!!! I'm just stuck a needle in my eyeball. I pulled the fabric away and out popped the needle - it really did make a popping sound.

Liquid started seeping from my eye and this time, it wasn't tears. My eye was leaking. I closed my eye and pressed my finger on my eyelid. With one hand, I managed to call my boyfriend. Thank goodness his father was an eye doctor.

He answered the phone and I could tell he had just woken up. "I just stuck a needle in my eye!" I blurted out.
"What?"
"I stuck a needle in my eye and it's leaking."
"Why would you stick a needle in your eye? That's just stupid" and the phone went dead.
Of course it was stupid, I didn't plan it. I'm just clumsy like that.

The phone rang and it was my boyfriend calling me back.
"Sorry, I dropped the phone. You should go to the hospital. Does it hurt?"

Strangely, it didn't hurt, I was more concerned about the clear gelatin like stuff that was trickling from the hole. I had gone to the bathroom to look at the damage in the mirror. Halfway between the inner corner and the middle of my eyeball was a small dark spot where the needle had pierced.

"Dad says you should go to the hospital and we'll meet you there. Can you see?"

Of course I could see. I didn't touch the actual part you see with. It was like a sunny-side up egg. The yolk was intact. By now, at least 10 minutes had passed and the leaking had stopped.

I decided that it would be alright. I'd keep an eye on it - so to speak and if it became infected or I had trouble seeing - more than usual that is - I'd seek medical attention. I just didn't see the point of spending hundreds of dollars in the emergency room only to be told I shouldn't play with sharp pointy objects.

For a few weeks, my right eye was visibly smaller than my left. The hole went away very quickly and the fluid I lost replenished and the eyeball returned to normal. I had no vision problems due to the incident, but I never, ever put needles in my bathrobe again.