Emergency? Or worth the wait?

So, I woke up Saturday to feed Hannah at 2 am and my normal blurry vision was doubled...why? My left eye was swollen shut. Crusty and swollen, I made it through the feeding went back to bed and thought nothing of it. I woke up again 3 hours later and it was still swollen. Promplty after tending to my child, I grabbed a hot washcloth and laid back down in hopes that it would clear up by morning. Not so. I woke up again around 8 and couldn't even force my eye open. Pink eye, I knew it. I thought.
I did the washcloth thing again, and thought it would go away, but it was really bothering me, so Paul told me to go to emergency to get it checked out. "Just run up to the ER to get some drops," He said.
HAHAHA!!!
All my Mil Spouse Sisters know what I mean when I laugh at such a comment! If you don't know Navy medicine, let me give you a background.
FREE! You don't pay co-pays, so going to the doctor for anything is never questioned. There is no worry that it would be a waste of money. Good, right? Well, not all the time. It's kind of a bitter sweet situation.
I entered the ER at 10 am. When the coreman behind the counter finally said "I guess we could help you", I had a seat and began the waiting process. Watched about 10 mintues of tv before I was called back to triage. They then proceeded to ask me all the "vital" questions. When was your last menstral period? Do you smoke? Drink? Use illegal substances? Are you in an abusive relationship? (yeah, my husband gave me pink eye???!!!) The basics.
I then was sent to my "holding cell" with a sign on the door that read Fast Track #2. "Wow," I thought, "This must mean I'm going to be out of here shortly." Not so again. I checked the clock. At 10:12 I began waiting for my doctor to "be with me shortly", but as the minutes ticked away I thought to myself, "there better be a pregnant lady who broke her foot ahead of me." My goodness! It's just pink eye, people! Give me some drops and send me home. Exactly 22 minutes later, my Doogie Howser...I mean, doctor entered the room. With a very informal "How do you do; what's going on?" I explained my situation. He then proceeded to place a small drop of neon yellow crap in my eye, and he turned off the lights. Then he lit up this ultraviolet light and looked in my eye for less than a minute, and told me I had a tiny scratch on my cornea.
"Sit tight, and we'll get you outta here shortly," he said. Not conjunctavitus, a scratch...ok. Now begins the next phase of no magazine/television/radio waiting.
The clock now read 11:00 am. Come on! I mean, normally, I'd say, hey this is like a mini vaca from my kids, but my breasts are filling with milk and I don't know how much longer I can sit here. And that's exactly what I told the nurse that passed by when I opened my door out of exasperation. She just kept walking, though, and mumbled something like "oh, that's never good...". Whatever. attempt #2, cute young coreman. "Excuse me, " I said in my best "Girls Next Door" voice, "can you see if they're working on my discharge papers?" And like a good little worker ant, he scurried to the nurses station. Within 5 minutes, I was on my way to Pharmacy, to pick up my antibiotic drops that really weren't going to do anything for the symptoms, they were just preventing an infection, in case. So, should I have waited until my family care provider could have seen me on Monday and dealt with a swollen eyelid the whole weekend...tough call...but, hey, I guess it was a little excitement for a mom of 2 kids that doesn't get out much. God love the military.
Oh, the only other "exciting" thing that has happened to me in the past week, is Hannah slept 7 hours last night. Wow, I am truly lame.
Thanks for reading!