Today I managed to poke myself in the eye with a mascara wand (which I haven’t done in decades.).
My eye is only slightly red, not swollen, and I can see fine. But I’m pretty sure I scratched it because when I put in allergy eye drops they burned like hell (I irrigated them right back out of that eye).
The eye is only slightly uncomfortable, and I’m debating whether I need to go to a walk-in/urgent care center tomorrow. I haven’t had a minor eye injury in 30+ years, so I don’t have any idea what treatment might be.
I had LASIK surgery four or five years ago. Healed totally fine, no problems. But that makes the cornea thinner, right?
Thoughts from people who’ve done equally dumb things, or medical professionals?
You need to see an ophthalmologist. Since it’s the weekend you go to an ER and they’ll put antibiotic and a bandage on your eye. See an ophthalmologist on Monday.
My thought is not to worry about it, only because everyone that I know that scratched their cornea was in so much pain they ended up calling someone for help to drive them to the ER because they didn’t know what was wrong. It was considerably more than ‘hey, my eye is bugging me’.
I think, IIRC, all of these people did it by catching their eye with a fingernail while removing a contact lens.
TriPolar mentioned seeing an ophthalmologist, but many Sam’s Clubs and Walmarts* have a vision center that with optometrists. An optometrist should be able to diagnose the scratch and write you a script for antibiotics if you need them. You may be able to get in to them on short notice and on a Sunday and not pay ER/Urgent Care prices. They’re also going to be better trained to look at eyes than an ER doc.
*Sams Club/Walmart is where I send my employees when they call in sick with “Pink Eye” and then act surprised when I tell them they can’t come back to work until they’ve seen a doctor. I mean, they’re welcome to go anywhere they want or to their own family doc, but Sam’s Club can often see you the same day.
I used to get corneal abrasions from time to time, and found that a combo of Duolube and Muro 128 took care of 'em… They were available OTC at the time, don’t know about now.