As many of you know, the air in Montana can be extremely dry during the winter months. Humidifiers and lip balm are comfort necessities. Traveling for work, I am forced to endure the dry stale air of many a hotel room. Recently I purchased a mini humidifier/diffuser with a trio of essential oil scents in handy drop bottles. The kit stays packed in my travel bag and has turned that dry stale hotel air into a fresh and moist oasis.
The air at home is equally dry. I often wake in the night with dry eyes and lips. Next to my bed is a cup with lip balm and eye drops. Last night I woke up parched, reached for my eye drops, opened the cap, and started dispensing drops into my right eye. AAARRRRRRGGGGGG!!! Burning in my eye!! I ran for the bathroom, tripping over the stool I had carelessly left in the path. Picking myself up with one hand and clutching my burning eye with the other, I crawled to the bathroom, and fumbled for the bottle of eye drops I keep next to the sink. As I tried to rinse my eye with them, I realized I needed to pry my eyelid open, but couldn’t because my face was covered in slippery oil. I turned on the water, grabbed the soap, and started scrubbing my face. When the oil was sufficiently cleared, I grabbed the eye drops again only to find out the bottle was empty. Thankfully I had a fresh multi-pack of eye drops in the bathroom closet. I found a bottle. Aaaarrrrggggg again. Safety sealed. Finally, the bottle was open, and I could start flushing my eye. It took an entire bottle to ease the burning inside and out. After I could open my eye and rejoiced that I wasn’t blind, I inspected the original bottle of drops. Essential oils. Although the scent was ‘Merry and Bright’ My eye, that side of my face, and my mood was anything but.
There are so many morals to this story, I don’t know where to start. Suffice it to say: when you read a product label that says, “DO NOT insert in eye” and wonder what kind of idiot would do such a thing?! Now you know.
