Rubbing alcohol doesn’t really hurt eyes, does it?
I was splashing rubbing alcohol on a piece of gauze to clean out a cut when my roommate accidentally bumped me, sending a splash of liquid out and up… and a drop went right into my eye.
OWWWWWWWWWW!!
It’s a good thing I’d already taken out my contacts. Now my eye is all red and is numb. There won’t be any long lasting effects, will there?
Going to a doctor or medical clinic would be a good idea, just to be on the safe side. If you have ‘Ask-a-Nurse’ (advice without actually going to the hospital), contact them. You don’t want to fool around with your vision.
My sincere sympathies. I once got capsicum oil (just a drop, but that was enough) in my eye. Washed it out quickly, but the pain was still there and I had trouble seeing for a few days. My optometrist said there was no lasting damage. (Trust me, the pain is not something I want to repeat, EVER AGAIN.)
Then there was the time…no you really don’t want to know what and how it got in my eye. That was painful too.
I was cleaning a carburetor & got a big squirt of carburetor cleaner in my eye. Hurt like hell, and turned bright red. Someone suggested I put Visene in. I didn’t, and just used alot of water to flush out my eye. Afterwards I called poison control. They can tell you instantly what substances, when mixed, will create a harmful mix. You know what? Visene & carburetor fluid combined make some kind of very corrosive acid, and had I used Visene I may well have lost that eye.
The moral of that story, of course, is don’t squirt yourself in the face with carb cleaner.
A while back I got a big glop of mobile home roof sealer in my eye. Wow, did that hurt! As a side note in case you’re wondering, no, I do not live in a trailer. Later the same day, I dropped a wood shed full of wood on my hand. That didn’t feel so good either. Not my best day ever, but probably not my worst.
I was once in a production of a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta; it was a very small theater company and we were all expected to help build sets, etc. (we were also expected to share a single dressing room - those theater actresses are NOT shy. But that’s another story.)
Anyhoo, I was helping paint something and got paint in one eye, resulting in “trauma-induced conjunctivitis” (aka “horrible pain and an eye so bloodshot it looks like lean bacon”). I couldn’t wear my left contact lens, and that is my weak eye; I tried wearing just the right one, but the resulting disparity between my eyes was literally dizzying. I was beyond broke and had to get some glasses from the “bargain” frame selection - the only ones that were wide enough for my head were these hideous tortoiseshell Charles-Nelson-Riley type frames… eeyuch. Fortunately I was able to resume contacts before the show started.
One time I was in a department store, and I pulled my eye clear out of it’s socket. Just up and popped it right out. It hung loosely from its cord for a second or two before I picked it up and swung it in circles high above me.
One of the clerks came up to me and asked me if he could help me find anything.
I turned to him and said “Nah…I’m just lookin’ around.”
My boss’s eye once fell out too. It rolled off the papers I was holding and landed in my lap. I asked if I could do anything, and he said “Just remember I’m keeping my eye on you…”
Traumatic childhood tale: my father was a scientist (only slightly mad) who kept rubbing alcohol in old eyedroppers to clean his equipment. Yep! One time my mother used the wrong bottle on me—bam! Rubbing alcohol RIGHT into my peeper. I was fine, but to this day I cannot use eyedrops.
IANAD, but I doubt it. I’ve heard in safety classes that the cornea is there to protect the eye. You will probably feel better in a day or so. Back when I was dumber (I think), I refused to wear eyewear in workshops and regularly got cleaners, solvents, and once a pair of Vise Grip pliers in my eyes. For all that abuse, my eyesight is about as good as before.
Once in Junior High (When I used to wear my hair high as an elephant’s eye) I was spraying hairspray to freeze my bangs rock-solid. The spritzer was a little clogged so rather than shoot a fine mist on my hair, it fired a straight line of hairspray right into my eye. OMIGOD did that ever hurt!!
Hairspray in the eyes? Been there, done that. Unfortunately, in that instance, I had my contacts in. I quickly took them out, only to see them melt in my fingers. Bleh.
I once spent a summer working in the office of Dr. Hugh Jigaux, a specialist who designed prosthetics and did facial reconstruction. Once he was waiting on a shipment of custom latex ears and also three glass eyes for a family of Vietnamese refugees who had been mutilated by soldiers and had been sent to him by Amnesty International for cosmetic surgery. He didn’t want to call the Vietnamese folks in to be fitted until both deliveries arrived, to save them the second trip. On the day both packages were due to arrive by UPS, he sent me down to the mail room to check on them. I happened to get there just as the UPS man, who was an old friend of the doctor’s from high school, arrived. I asked him if both packages had come; he checked his manifest and replied,
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“No, I only have eyes for Hugh.”
An interesting similar story: I had been making fresh salsa. Used my thumbnails to scrape the seeds out of some peppers (I forget what kind precisely, but they were spicy enough) so I could cut up the flesh alone for the mix. I quickly learned that thumbnail beds and pepper seeds/oil do not mingle well. Ouch ouch ouch.
Nor will the result wash out easily, due (I imagine) to the closeness of the space.
The ex-Mrs.-BigGiantHead, attentive to my needs at the time, felt sorry for me and kissed the booboo away. The kissing led to more kissing. Which led to…
Well, the moral of our story: No matter how well you THINK you’ve washed away the hot stuff, it is UNWISE to touch your (or your SO’s) tingly bits with recently contaminated fingers!
… unless, of course, you’re into that freaky pain stuff :eek: