I’d rather go to my opthalmologist, but of course this came on last night and this morning, and he’s not open until Monday morning. He has me under treatment for dry eye.
I started feeling like I have something in my eye, and when I looked in a magnifying mirror this morning, I noticed that I have a whitish or grayish tiny dot on the edge of my iris. It looks just like online pictures of corneal ulcers, and med websites urge you to go immediately to your eye doctor for treatment.
Our local urgent care opens in about one and a half hours. Can they do anything at all for this? Also, I’m betting that their lobby will be filled with flu patients right now, and I do NOT want to get the flu.
I had a scratch on my cornea that was bad enough that I went to urgent care. The put some dye in my eye to get a better look at it, then gave me a prescription for some antibiotic ointment to put in it. Got an eyepatch too, that helped.
She also told me that if it didn’t get better, then I should go see an actual eye doctor.
That’s not entirely true. Sitting in a small lobby with a group of actual flu sufferers is in fact more likely to catch OP the flu.
However. It’s only Saturday, and corneal transplants (and the resulting lifetime of drugs) are lots more complex and unpleasant than most bouts of the flu.
Go buy a face mask and some purell from the drug store, and go to the urgent care.
Eyes, like joints and internal organs, are worth taking extra care of.
I’m here at urgent care. If what I read online and what you say are correct, I’ll probably walk out with a scrip for antibiotic ointment and maybe an eye patch. I’ll call my ophthalmologist first thing Monday morning as well.
Lots of folks here wearing masks and coughing. More arriving every minute, too.
It’s a foreign body in the eye, and one that wouldn’t remove with a saline solution flush. She flushed very vigorously, too. I guess it’s embedded, and right at the edge of the iris. I have to go see my opthalmologist as soon as possible. That will be Monday morning.
I got a scrip for antibiotic eye drops, and they went in right away.
I am not looking forward to anyone, even my very skilled eye surgeon, coming at my eye with needles. But it has to be done. I’ll look on it as practice for if I ever have to have cataract surgery.
Good luck. I hate having problems with my eyes. Hopefully the removal is quick, easy, and painless, and you are on a short road to recovery very quickly.
Are you in pain? When I had a corneal ulcer, it was incredibly painful. I went to urgent care and they put eyedrops in that instantly stopped the pain.
I’m not in pain, just discomfort. No one proposed an eye patch or anything, but I may go get one at the drugstore tomorrow just to be on the safe side.
The urgent care doctor proposed having a pick at it herself, with a needle, but my instinct was to not let her do it and instead to see the eye surgeon on Monday morning. She seemed kind of clumsy and unsure of herself.
It feels better this morning after some sleep and antibiotic drops. I hope the procedure to remove the foreign body won’t necessitate someone driving me back from the doctor’s; I’m sure only a local anesthetic will be used. My husband is buried at work and can’t afford to take a day off.
I’m at a loss to remember anything that might have gotten in my eye. The doctor asked if I had been using a weed whacker or a lawnmower or digging in the garden. Nope to all of the above - it’s winter, and I haven’t been in the garden in months. Could hair clippings from a haircut have gotten in there and worked into my eyeball?
Thanks for the wishes for good luck. Hopefully it holds and without any collateral damage to anyone.
I doubt that there will be anything but a local applied. Even for actual eye surgery, they rarely do a general. You may be driving with only one eye properly working though, depending on how it goes. By the time of your appointment, and even by now, it is possible that your eye will manage to expel it on its own, the antibiotic ointment may help draw it out as well. Hard to tell, as it will still be irritated.
I found an eyepatch useful as my eye was extremely light sensitive for about a week. It probably also helped by decreasing the movement of my eye as well, or at least, it felt a bit less irritated. After a few days, I could go a couple hours inside without it, but going outside, even with 2 pairs of sunglasses, was just too much.
Hair clippings is not a bad guess, if you had a recent haircut. They are short and very sharp, and in this weather, very clingy due to static. My eye laceration was probably caused by a hair splinter from grooming dogs. I get enough of them in my skin that it’s not too surprising that one made it up to my eye.
Thanks for letting me come here and angst out, everyone. The opthalmologist didn’t find a thing, which means it either came out on its own or that the urgent care doctor was mistaken. It was probably a teeny scratch caused by something that got in my eye and it healed quickly. Everything’s fine now.
I have a theory of what it was, though. After racking my brain for anything which might have gotten into my eye, I finally hit upon something. I’ve been using “Toppik”, a colored scalp powder which disguises thin spots on your crown. It’s gritty, fibrous powder. I looked up what it was made of, and although their website was coy about it, it looks like it’s ground wool. I can easily imagine getting a bit in my eye when I use it in the morning, or if it gets on my pillow, of smooshing my face around in it and getting a bit in my eye. If dog hair clippings nailed you, k9bfriender, there’s no reason that fine wool clippings didn’t get me.
I’m tossing the Toppik and switching to plain brown eyeshadow as a scalp concealer.
Ouch! I can totally see fine wool getting into your eye while you sleep. I bet that’s it.
Glad you got it all sorted. Eye trouble is so annoying. Makes it hard to get anything done while you’re dealing with it. There’s only one way to rest your eyes.
I missed that until you pointed it out!