The Story Of How My Eye Got Chemically Burned

As I mentioned in my previous post, Tanner and I left Disneyland early so I could go get treatment for my eye. This trip to Vegas was filled with some unfortunate events, especially at the beginning. The day before Disneyland I had to put my dog, Winky, to sleep. She was super sick and had lived a good, long life. But it was time to let her go so we did. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done! The next day, my eye flared up, and then the next day...well, it's kind of a long story.

So my sister Amanda is really into doTerra essential oils. I swear, she's cured me of multiple ailments on various occasions. She combines these oils to treat anything from back pain to the flu. This stuff is pretty incredible, really. So when I let her know my eye was acting up, she asked if I wanted her to bring some oils over to put around (not in) my eye to help with the redness/itchiness. I agreed, because it has always helped.

So the morning after Disneyland, she brought the oils over. She let me know beforehand what she would be doing. She was going to take a q-tip and apply Oregano, Lavender, and I think a blend called On Guard. She warned me before we started that Oregano is what they call a "hot" oil. It's not like you heat it up or anything, but it's naturally hot. So when you apply it to skin, you're supposed to dilute it. That's how strong it is. She also let me know that it's not really supposed to go in your eye, but if it did get in there, it would burn, but not actually harm my eye. Honestly I'm not sure if anything she could have told me would have prepared me for the hot (literally) mess that was about to take place. 

She took the q-tip, and started with the Oregano. Immediate burning sensation. 

*I'm quite sure profanities were coming from my mouth at this point, but I really can't remember much on my part but pain and yelling*
Amanda: "I'm supposed to rub olive oil on it after to help dilute it."
Me: "So where is the freaking olive oil?!"

Amanda: "Hannah! Go grab it! Quick!"

Half a second passes.
Me: "WHERE IS THE OLIVE OIL?!?!?!"

Olive oil is applied.

Me: "Oh my gosh it literally feels like my skin is burning off. Is my skin okay?!"

Andee: (jokingly) "Oh no! We can see your skull!"

I laugh. Amanda pokes the q-tip with the oregano straight into my tear duct as I jerk forward laughing. Laughter stops. Tears and screaming ensue.

I literally have not felt that kind of pain before. It wasn't the worst I've ever felt, but definitely #2 and very, very prominent in my memory. My eye filled with oregano tears, which flowed onto my cheeks, only enhancing the pain. I sat there breathing like I was giving birth for another couple minutes while she rubbed more olive oil on. It finally started to calm down. The crying stopped, and my family who had all gathered in the kitchen to see what all the screaming was about got ready to go to the museum.

As the day went on, we noticed that my under eye was still quite swollen, and a little discolored. From then it just got worse. I think the worst it got was day 2 afterwards. It wasn't swollen anymore, just extremely dark and scaly. We figured out that I had actually suffered a chemical burn. It was so bad that day that when Tanner and I went to Subway, he literally got the stare-down by every person in there. It straight up looked like he had punched me. It was so funny and so terrible all at once. The nurse at my eye doctor thought I was insane when I told her the story. She was like, "You  know that eye is sensitive...why would you do that?" Again, totally embarrassing.

My eye is completely healed now, which is obviously good. But I really couldn't go without having this story recorded somewhere. Sorry, Amanda!