This sounds miserable! I hope you heal up fast and the pain abates tout de suite. It’s scary to have your eyesight impeded. May all go well with your recovery!
Thanks!
I mostly see okay through it. I’m just not opening that eye because it hurts so much, and keeping my eyelid down feels protective.
The doctor also told me that there is a higher density of sensory nerves on the surface of the eye than anywhere else on the body, and that’s why it’s so painful. It kinda reminds me of the time i burned my thumb. (I preheated a broiling pan, and then, forgetting it was hot, grabbed it. I was 24, so i didn’t even have early senility as an excuse. Just stupidity.) It wasn’t just that it hurt, it was that i simply couldn’t ignore the pain, i just kept thinking about it. There’s a big chunk of the brain that thinks about the thumb, and also, I’m guessing, the eye.
Anyway, I’m on the train home from the doctor’s office, and my husband will pick me up at the twin station.
Oh, I’m so happy you went it.
Good luck.
I am glad you went to get medical treatment @puzzlegal
Eye issues are nothing to fool around with.
I hope you start to heal and feel better very soon.
Yup I did a corneal abrasion once. Just a clumsy fingernail scratch. They are so irritating, but do clear up quick (I can’t even remember now which eye it was).
Anecdotal, but some eye injuries tend to heal themselves in very short order. I had a pretty severe eye injury when I was a child, and it healed very well. YMMV, of course.
Corneal abrasions are unpleasant but usually heal without incident within three days. Taking Tylenol or naproxen might help some. Antibiotic and lubricating drops may somewhat soothe. Everyone asks for local anesthetic drops, but these delay healing when repeatedly administered, so no one gets them. I wouldn’t recommend a patch if the accident is unlikely to be repeated; sunglasses are better if light bothers the eye though look less swashbuckling. If there is an alternative to wearing contacts (and this applies) take it.
So, why did the local ophthalmology group tell me not to treat, and my PCP told me to have it seen? (Where the resident thought it needed minor treatment.)
Maybe just different styles, but i suspect it’s because my PCP knows and trusts me. When i told him i had a papercut on my eyeball, and i thought there was a small patch of the surface membrane that was broken, he took me literally. I find most doctors expect that their patients exaggerate.
When my son was a baby he fell on a sharp toy, and cut his scalp. I described the cut carefully and precisely to his doctor over the phone (i measured it before i called) and the doctor said, “scalp wounds usually heal well, you don’t need to bring him in.” A week or two later, when he was in for something unrelated and the doctor saw the healing mess, he chided me, “we usually like to put a couple of stitches in a cut this large”. Dude, i told you, personally, exactly how large that cut was and you said not to bother. My son still has a scar, but it’s on his scalp and doesn’t show. And except for the scar, is did heal fine.
Fwiw, i asked the resident to describe what she saw, and she sketched exactly what I’d seen, and what i tried to describe. Except she drew a mirror image of what I’d seen in the mirror, which confused me for a moment. 
But that was exactly what i described to my PCP, when i ran into him socially and he asked why i was holding my eye closed.
It’s still pretty uncomfortable, but it’s decidedly less painful than this afternoon. I look forward to “mostly healed in 3 days”.
I did not ask for anesthetic drops. I need to remember not to rub my eye. I am using the antibiotic ointment. That envelope was covered in dust, and filthy. And the ointment itself provides a small amount of physical protection and lubrication.
Still, you might want to start practicing your “Arrrr”s and “Avast”s and “Matey”s.
(Ouch, that hurts!)
I read that as “cornmeal” and thought “of course that hurt! what’d you think was going to happen?”
I have had the same thing happen with different circumstances/doctors. Although I am terrible about heading to the doctor I’ve learned to talk to other people occasionally and trust my intuition in some cases.
I had an eyelash infection a couple years ago. I let it go thinking it was maybe a stye but it kept getting worse. It got to the point where I couldn’t keep it open without discomfort.
Finally went to my PCP and was told I had something called blepharitis which is an infection of the eyelid. Not a serious condition but if left untreated it could get worse.
Was advised to incorporate daily eyelid hygiene which consists of gently cleaning the eyelashes everyday with baby shampoo. I have not done that and the condition has thankfully not returned.
Glad to hear you are managing Ok for now. I can’t imagine how bad a cut must hurt.
I don’t have to imagine how you feel. I had a piece of grit fly into my eye and clapped a hand over it. Big mistake.* It hurt so bad I went to ER and they put a fluorescing dye on it, waited a couple minutes while I blinked away the excess, then shined a UV light on it. “Yup, you’ve got an abrasion.”
No treatment or ointments, just go home and wait a few days for it to heal, Like you, I kept the eye closed.
* Joke punchline: “Arrr, it was the first day I had me hook.”
I LOLed!
Yay! I woke up this morning, and it doesn’t hurt. Also, i can no longer see a hole in the membrane. Maybe the edges of the hole are obscure by all this ointment.
There’s some gunk on the eyelashes, but that’s probably just dried tears and ointment.
I applied more ointment anyway, although if it’s prophylactic rather than treating an existing infection, i don’t know how important it is. But maybe the skin still isn’t really healed.
Anyway, lack of pain is good. My vision seems okay.
nm nm nm
I do still feel like there’s something in my eye. So i guess it’s not really healed. But it’s nice not to have distracting pain. 
Care to tell more of that story?
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How different is @Tamerlane’s “I was once bitten in the eye by a snake” story likely to be from everybody else’s “I was once bitten in the eye by a snake” story?
Lack of pain is always good.