I already called my ophthalmologist, and spoke with a nurse (or possibly a doctor) who asked a bunch of questions and said to just keep my fingers out of the eye and let it heal, and only come in if it turns red or my vision is affected or the pain gets worse. And she said urgent care is fine if they are closed.
But damn this hurts. I can barely concentrate to post here, and i can’t bring myself to do stuff like clean the litter box, that i usually do in the morning.
It does hurt a little less than it did. And a lot less than the first 15 minutes, when i just say there with my eyes closed concentrating on not touching it.
What did i do? I leaned into a bookcase, and there was an old dusty Manila envelope sticking out at an angle and the edge went into my eye. It was a sharp edge (of the piece that you’d folks down and lick to seal). So i really do think it’s a paper cut.
Ouch ouch ouch
Also, my eye is watering like mad (probably a good thing) so i have to keep blowing my nose. And goop is collecting on the eyelashes. I can probably remove most of that if I’m careful not to touch the eyelid.
That sucks hugely. About the only consolation I can give is that the eye usually heals very quickly. I was once bitten in the eye by a snake, which turned about half of the white of my eye to dark red-black. Within a week it was gone and people stopped calling me ‘snake-eye’ at work . But do be very careful with your vision - I’d imagine the biggest threat is a detached sclera. Any blurring at all get yourself to an emergency room.
Use artificial tears or saline constantly. If I understand it correctly, the cornea will heal over all by itself — at least that what I’ve gleaned from my wife’s recent cataract surgeries.
You might consider an eye patch to help you keep yer grubby mitts off it. Plus, you’ll look cool. And can raid frigates.
But also, cleaning the litter box sounds like a terrible idea with an eye injury. If you must, can you rig some sort of eye patch to cover the eye to prevent litter dust and other nasties from getting in?
I did something sorta similar a few months ago. Hurt like a bear, and darn hard to see too.
A quick visit to urgent care and they put some anesthetic in there that gave immediate relief. They also gave me a scrip for some ciprofloxacin eyedrops to prevent infection. Which drops seemed to have some anesthetic / calming effect on the injury although I can’t say why.
It was hard to drag myself to the urgent care clinic through the disability and discomfort, but in hindsight boy was it worth it.
I can tell you from experience that scratches on the cornea hurt like the devil, but do heal fairly quickly.
In my recent case, my eye doctor put a long-wearing contact lens in my eye for about three days, to act like a bandage over the scratch so that it wouldn’t be irritated every time I blinked. It may be that mine was more severe than yours, however (they used the word “abrasion” about my injury). He also recommended artificial tears to keep the eye lubricated.
IME (too much experience), eye docs are often reluctant to administer topical anesthetics in situations like these. It’s too easy for a patient to inadvertently rub an injured eye and make it worse without ever feeling it.
Also IME (directed to @puzzlegal ), optometrists can often be a better first-choice for this kind of ‘emergency’ than ophthalmologists.
You have my sympathies. Eye pain is no joke. I’ve lived with it for decades.
ETA: in a case like this, I’d probably lean toward one of these, rather than a ‘soft patch:’
Well, they said “you’ve been here before, so you need to go to another group on another floor”. I feel like I’m getting the run-around, but perhaps this will actually be faster.
I have been having a lot of trouble with one eye lately. My ophthalmologist suggested using lubricating drops several times a day rather than just when I find it annoying. What I find provides better relief is icing it. I have a flat plastic bottle of water in the freezer, roughly the shape of a 5oz hip flask. The rounded edge held against my closed eyelid for a short while provides a fairly lengthy relief from the pain.
I saw the resident on call. She said that i have a corneal abrasion and a small tear in the surface. She used a cotton swab to rip off the loose end of the torn membrane, so it wouldn’t rip in the wrong direction and make things worse, and gave me some antibiotic ointment, to apply 4 times a day for 5 days.
. But do be very careful with your vision - I’d imagine the biggest threat is a detached sclera. Any blurring at all get yourself to an emergency room.
When you can see (and concentrate) to post that is. 
