Do Unto Others

I was wrapping up the school day with my students today when one of our high school teachers walked into my room with Dawson trailing behind, head down. She chuckled, "Well, I've got Dawson here and we had a little incident in class." 

I have a bit of PTSD with conversations like this. Since I started teaching at this school, if any of my kids get in trouble, someone usually comes down to my room to tell me about it. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's usually not good. My mind jumped to, "Oh no, what did he do?", while my eyes caught his and realized he was crying...but only in one eye.

His teacher continued, "They were working with some fiberglass wires in the earlier class and he must have gotten some on his hand and then rubbed his eye. I flushed it out in the eye wash station, but he's still hurting." 

Looking at his bloodshot eye, it was evident that something was amiss. My boys don't usually cry...especially at school. "Can you see ok?" I asked, wondering how he was going to be able to play basketball with no depth perception. An image of him getting hit in the side of the face with a basketball flashed across my mind. 

"I can see and open my eye," he quickly responded, "but the pain is excruciating."

Thankfully, the bell rang at that moment and my class exited the room. I thanked his teacher and loaded my gang into the car as I made a phone call to the eye doctor. Max had an eye scare a few years ago and I learned that when it comes to eyes and vision, you don't mess around. As luck would have it, our eye doctor, who we adore, closes at 1PM on Wednesdays. 

I called my nurse practitioner friend and neighbor and she didn't have a lot of experience with eyes. She said she'd call a friend and call me back. In the meantime, I texted a paramedic friend figuring he'd be able to tell me if I needed to bring him to the ER. He responded quickly with a yes since it would need to be examined with a special light to make sure there was nothing still in the eye to make sure he avoided an infection. After that, I called and left a message on my eye doctor's on call line. Then I called the closest prompt care, hoping and praying they had the right kind of light so I could avoid the ER. While I was on the phone with them I got a text, "Can you meet me at 4?"

I responded, "Who is this?", since I didn't recognize the number and was in emergency mode and Dawson's eye wasn't feeling any better.

Come to find out, the on call number for the eye doctor was his personal cell. Dawson and I hopped in the car. The doctor met us at his office ON HIS DAY OFF. He examined Dawson, and, thanks be to God, his teacher did a wonderful job and there were no remnants in his eye and no deep scratches. He numbed Dawson's eye, gave him some tears, and sent us on our way...twelve minutes after we arrived.

I felt awful about making him come in for "nothing", but the doctor assured me I did the right thing. "You never mess around with eyes. Often hospitals send people to me because I have all the equipment. I don't live far. I'm happy to help."

I thanked him profusely and asked what I owed. He refused to let me pay anything and told me, "This is what friends do for each other." I was blown away. 

I have a large circle of tight friends, who I have no doubt would do anything they could for me if I needed something. I am blessed beyond measure by this. However, sometimes I forget that there are other people out there who care about people just as much as my friends do. This is the way the world is supposed to work, but somewhere along the line, we have forgotten 'do unto others' and have made it all about 'do for me'. In the midst of this self-centered society, I am ever so grateful that God sends people in my path to remind me that there is still good in this world. May I be that good to someone else in need.