Oww, my eye hurts
 

For what is apparently the third time in my life, I'm dealing with a scratched cornea ... and it's a real m'f.

First time was at Disney probably 6-7 years ago. The second was apparently a couple of months back although I thought it was several days of random severe irritation & not something quite this extreme. The latest is this week, which sent me to the eye doc yesterday (and I hate doctors, so you know it was bad for me to agree to go). So now I'm wearing a "bandage contact lens" - basically a near-zero prescription contact to protect the eye while it heals - and putting drops in every few hours for a couple of days.

Long story short, my right eye feels like there's a steel spike driven into it & that the spike is jiggled around for effect about every ten seconds. Light sensitivity is about 20 on a 1-10 scale. And it took multiple codeines before I finally could get any sleep. Better this morning, although just by degrees. At least right now I can look at the computer for a minute or so before having to look away.

Learned something I didn't know too, that once you've scratched it, the tissue never heals back as strong as it was originally, so you're more prone to it later on. To the extent that something as simple as opening a dry eye after sleep can do enough damage to send you to the doctor again. Charming,just bloody f'n charming.

I'm going back to the drugs & back to sleep now (I hope).

Sorry to hear you're in such discomfrot Jon, its never fun to be in pain for any reason.

perhaps you'll be able to see the world more clearly now ;)

hope it heals up for ya.

See now I wanted to make an assinine remark like this, really, i had to really try not to =)

Then Flasch goes and does it for me ;)

How do you get a scratched cornea?

bukake :cool:

Good luck JiMG.

Ouch. I had one of those about five years ago, that retore twice before the damn thing finally healed. Good luck with it.

Red Rider BB Gun again?

I got a scratched cornea in high school and was miserable. I had gotten something in my eye, maybe an eye lash, and than had proceeded to rub my eye. I remember that I couldnt sleep all night my eye was watering and itching so bad. Next day put some ointment on it and got an eye patch for the next two days.
I feel your pain. Hope it gets better soon.

Sorry to hear that, but to quote 300: "Fortunately I have a spare."

Can't you just urinate on it?

Why would you think that Jon could urinate into his own eye? Do you know something about his anatomy that the rest of us don't?

ok so urinate on him then

Apparently pretty damned easily these days :(

The first time, at Disney, was a real fluke thing. There's a segment in "It's a Bug's Life" where they blow compressed air at the audience. Some little particle of something got in my eye ... which I then rubbed ... and rubbed, scratching the hell out of my cornea in the process. Doctor told me that "if you were going to do it, you decided to do one heck of a job of it".

This time, and the one a few weeks back I guess, I have no idea. Maybe my odd sleeping pattern lends itself to dry eyes or something, tons of time in front of the computer leads to eye strain, whichever it was I most likely rubbed my eyes & had something just large enough to cause another scratch.
Or else, no joke, just opening my eye after sleep & it being a little dry in that previously damaged spot could do it.

Right now the pain has backed off several notches, although light is still about 15 on a 1-10 scale. But at least I can stand 30-60 minutes in front of a monitor before having to give my eyes a couple of hours off. Yesterday afternoon I couldn't take more than 30-60 seconds of TV or a monitor and sunlight had an effect similar to what the vampires in Blade went through.

I go back to the eye doc in the morning for him to remove this blasted contact lens and let him take another look to see how it's healing. What kind of worries me a little is how he mentioned that the more this happens the more likely it is to happen again & again. Kind of makes me worry that I would eventually have to have a replacement or something.

Maybe he has some hose that'll reach that far and allow him to go bloop bloop.

I'm pretty sure due to contacts I have scratched my cornea 340 times over the course of my life and it is hell each time.

Seriously, my most common injury is a messed up eye - and that screws up work, play, anything. Can't do anything, can't open your eyes without severe pain and burning, can't sleep because if your eye is closed too long it'll just water so much that you must open it for a second. It's really the worst situation and I hate it.

That sucks that you said it can happen more often after each occurance.

Are you trying to say that Jon wears pantyhose?

What is wrong with you people?

Are you saying you can't urinate in your own eye?

Jon, I hope you feel better. I suggest you stop scratching your cornea.

I don't wear pantyhose. What the hell do you think I am?

I never suggested nor imagined that you do wear pantyhose.

Sounds like you really get why I considered treating it with a .45 at one point yesterday evening.

Me: Hey Doc, it's hurts when I do this.
Doc: Well don't do that.
Me: :mad:

Then how am I supposed to urinate into my eye? Control yourself.

pumpy, when you piss on him can you get it on webcam?


thanks

What, am I supposed to draw you a picture?

Yeah, this is on the verge of happening.

Would you, please? And color it, too, while you're at it.

Piss on him and in your eye at the same time? Simple solution, split the stream.

Split the stream, but whatever you do, don't cross the streams!

hey jon, sorry to hear about your situation...i scratched my cornea a few times courtesy of my contacts...i also had the pleasure of accidentally giving myself a chemical burn on my cornea when i got paint thinner on my hand and then rubbed my eye...that was AGONY.

i was wondering what the source of the information about the frequency of recurrences is? reason i ask is, when i had LASIK, they actually cut your cornea open, peel it back, fire the laser through it, and then fold it back over...corneal tissue is the second fastest part of your body to heal, so it had actually resealed itself in a couple hours, and was completely healed in a week...they never said anything about a tendency towards damaging them with ease in the future.

Beats the hell out of me, I'm just repeating what the doctor made a point of telling me. Theoretically, he could have been full of it & I wouldn't know the difference.

nice...i was just wondering since if a scratch makes further damage more likely, what the hell does slicing it open do?!

dola...it would have been nice to know 5 years ago

I scratched my eye in junior high. I was pulling weeds one day for my summer job and I guess I yanked one weed harder than it needed, 'cause a bunch of dirt and sand went flying into my face. Of course, I went to rub my eye right away and scratched it pretty good. I had to wear a friggin' eye patch for a couple of days and take some drops.

I guess I'm lucky it happened during the summer...I wouldn't have wanted my classmates to think that I was a bigger dork than they already thought.

I wonder if they do something (no idea what) as part of the surgery that causes it to heal better than occurs naturally after a scratch?

And just FTR (because I'm not sure how you interpreted what I said), I think it's a legit question & didn't mean to sound as though I was bothered by you asking. I just simply don't have the foggiest idea what the difference would be.

Ping: flere

Ugh, no fun, Jon, I hope that at least the drugs offer relief.

I've never had a scratched cornea, though I've managed to contract keratitis twice this year (after never having it before in my life), I toally sympathize with the discomfort this kind of thing causes. It's never fun when your eyes are wonky. :(

/tk

This still sucks.

Better than it was on Wednesday, but not quite as good as it was yesterday.
Contact is out, antibiotic drops are up to every three hours, back to the eye doctor next Wednesday.

Basically I'm stuck with this until it heals. The only relief comes from the moisturizing drops, which help for about 15 minutes, otherwise right now it feels like there's a piece of gravel or something like that sitting in my right eye. It's not mindblowing pain at this point, but it's incredibly irritating and I've squinted so much that my forehead is actually starting to get sore.

Maybe if you watch some Three Stooges, you'll feel better?

Ugh. As another contact lens guy who frequently gets scratched corneas, you have my deepest sympathies, Jon. I scratched mine most recently just a couple of months ago and was absolutely miserable for like 3 days.

Hope yours gets better soon.

I think the most interesting thing about all this (searching for the faint silver lining) is that I had no idea how common this actually is. Until I mentioned it, I don't think I knew a single person who had ever done it other than me.

absolutely no offense taken...i was genuinely hoping for some insight, and didnt think twice about your answer (if i had, i wouldnt have continued posting in the thread)

Not a scratched cornea but a very irritating problem. Lately been taking my contacts out, which I don't do often enough, and my eyes have gotten very irritated until I put them back in. Go to the eye doctor yesterday and turns out I wear my contacts to long and for to long a time and most of the cells in my cornea are dead. The irritation is them being exposed to the air and the contacts act as a bandage which is why it felt better when they were in. I'm not going blind or anything, but I need to not wear contacts for 3 weeks and have to put in eye steroids and rub this ointment on my eyes prior to going to bed. Fun times

What would constitute "too long"? Do you take them off at bedtime? Do you wear them overnight? I usually have my contacts on for about 18 hours at a time, from when I wake up at 4am until I go to bed at 10pm. Now I'm thinking I should take them off as soon as I get home from work and let my corneas breathe.

I have been told by my eye doctors that I wear my contacts too long, but I've never had any issues like Lathum. I typically wear them from around 6 am or so until 10 pm or later, depending on when I go to bed.

That said, I never sleep with them on. Even at my drunkest I always manage to get my contacts out. I don't even like to fall asleep by accident with them in, since they are so uncomfortably dry when you wake up even after about 30 minutes or so.

I often sleep with them in and stretch their life as long as I can. I think you are probably fine

When I was in college, I would wear my contacts for months at a time. I stopped that in my mid-20s. My brother is an opthamologist now, and he used to do the same thing and told me we could have blinded ourselves if we kept it up.

I usually don't have any problems with the 6am-10pm routine, but always take them out before I go to sleep.

I've got the overnight contacts so I can sleep in them. Supposed to only be for two weeks but I usually keep them in for a month or so.

Worst eye problem I ever had was an ulcer on my cornea. Pure hell. I locked myself in a dark room for two days because any amount of light was simply too painful. The worst part of it is that after it healed there was still scar tissue that would periodically break lose and make my life a living hell for a few hours. Haven't had that happen in a while so hopefully there's no more of that. My night vision has declined since I had that problem, headlights are a bitch when I'm driving at night.

Before I had Lasik, I regularly did a 6 am-10 pm type schedule, give or take another hour or two. I never had too many problems with it. I occasionally fell asleep with my contacts on (which sucks, as noted), but that was rare.

If you can afford it and are a candidate, I strongly recommend Lasik. It has been nearly 8 months now, but I still sometimes wake up half expecting to put my contacts in somedays. Then I realize/remember I can see 20/20 now and it's like an awesome re-gift to myself. ;)

LAsik is on the list for certain, I've just never got around to it

I would love to get Lasik, but unfortunately because of my iritis I can't do it. Even though I only occassionally get it, apparently the consequences could be dire if I had a flare up during the recovery process.

I want to do it, and with my brother an opthamologist who regularly performs LASIK, I'll have it done eventually.

Wait, did I create this thread? :D

Seriously Jon, sorry to hear it, get better man!

Hey, I'm good at the moment ;)
check the thread date for necromancy

argh. Stupid threadnecromancy.


Shows ya that I'm still out of it, even with two eyes open.

I can see how you could make that mistake :D

(throws flag)

Illegal use of the pun, ten yards from previous spot, automatic first down!

I do the same thing. However, I don't have any irritation when I take mine out. I try to not wear them on the weekends, but, I don't always remember to take them out.

The doctor actually told me the majority of people don't have irritation and have no idea they are destroying their cornea.

Yeah, my brother said what he learned in med school scared the hell out of him about how we abused our eyes growing up. After I went through a dorm fire my first year of college where I had to be lead, practically blind, outside in the middle of the night, I literally would not take my contacts out for months at a time. I eventually stopped that years later, and now take them out every night. But for a long time, I never took them out, other than to change them. And I did that about as often as I went to the dentist.

So what are some of the signs? My eyes aren't itchy, I don't have any blind spots, everything is just blurry as normal. This is really weird.

I set up a eye doctor appointment for this Friday after reading all of this. So, hopefully I haven't screwed my eyes up too bad.

The signs I had were basically when I took my contacts out my eyes would be really irritated, it felt like I had grains of sand in my eyes. The only thing that made it feel better were putting my contacts back in.

Damn. I definitely don't have that and everything seems normal (other than everything being blurry) when I don't have my contacts in.

Can't you guys get overnight lenses?

I usually get the extended wear. I assume those are overnight? I could be wrong though.

I'll look to see what exactly mine are called. All I know I take them out about once a month and discard them.

I know very little about contact lenses, so please take this with the appropriate grains of salt (just not in your eyes) but ... I think the issues/risks with sleeping in contacts is different than the risks/issues associated with wearing the same pair too long (i.e. the extended wear/long life stuff).

As someone who once worked with a major lens manufacturer I can also tell you that, as of 10-15 years ago at least, the only difference between a daily lens and a monthly lens was the packaging. At that time the only thing that changed was the box they pushed through the assembly line on Monday versus Thursday.

Oh right on. I used to order new ones on the internets about every 6 months until big brother put a stop to being able to order contacts over the internets.


I always had a sneaky suspicion that, that may have been what was going on. I'll find out Friday what my options are and I'm definitely going to go with what I can wear the longest before trashing them and getting replacements. I could avoid all of this if I would just save up the money have the laser surgery though. :)

With my lenses they reccomend you change them every 2 weeks. I never do that. I had the long term lenses and can't feel or see (pun not intended) any real difference between them.

I change them out every month or 2 months sometimes. It depends on how my eyes or feeling or if I'm just super tired that night and do feel like bothering with the ritual of taking them out and it's been a while. In that case, I just yank them out and go to bed and put a new pair in the morning.

Just checked, I wear Acuvue Oasys lenses and they are FDA approved to be worn for a week straight. Doctor told me two weeks is fine, and I change about once a month.

Right on. I'll ask if they have those when I'm at my appointment.

That's what I wear as well.

I try not fuck with my eyes too much. I'm already at -8.5, so I don't have too much wiggle room if I want to keep wearing contacts.

I guess I missed this the first time around. Or maybe then I hadn't had keratitis, or inflamed corneas. I ended up getting two bouts with it in short succession. The eye doctor thought it was related to my contact lens solution, so I switched brands and have been OK since. That was particularly unfun, because the eye pain was so severe, especially in bright light, that I was getting an upset stomach. Miserable.

As for how long contacts can be worn, I think even with ones that are approved for extended (weeks/months) wear, every person's eyes are different and may not be able to handle extended wear. My contacts are for day use only. I've found that about 20 hours awake time is my limit for them. I can sleep in them up to about 2 hours without issue, but if I sleep longer than that, my eyes are too dry when I wake up. But my eye doc said that my eyes are very dry so I end up using the TheraTears (preservative-free, another fallout from my keratitis) drops if I wear them for more than 14 hours or so. Or if my allergies suck.

/tk

I wore Acuvue 2s for 8-9 years with no issues. My doctor said it was ok to sleep in them but to take them out over night at least twice a week. They were 2 week contacts but I usually wore them 3-4 weeks and sometimes longer. All of a sudden the time I could wear them without discomfort got shorter and shorter and it got to the point where I couldn't get through a day at work with them in. So about 2 years ago I started wearing glasses exclusively.

I went to a couple different doctors and none of them said why this happened, there was nothing structurally wrong with my eyes. I think it's probably because I wore the contacts too long and at my latest checkup the doctor said the Acuvue 2s deprived the eye of oxygen. But one of the doctors I went to 2 years ago had me try Oasys and I had the same problems. I'm just now trying to go back to contacts and I'm testing Acuvue Advanced and the 1 day Acuvue Moist. I wore the 1 day contacts for a week with no issues and I like not having to worry about cleaning them. The only issue with those will be cost. The Advanced I've only been wearing for a couple days but so far so good. If my latest doctor says I can try contacts again and I don't have any issues during the trial period I'm not going to sleep in them or wear them longer than the recommended time period. Better to be safe than go blind. Lathum's post makes me nervous. I had the same feeling he did with the irritation and sand in my eyes except putting the contacts back in didn't help me. Not wearing them was the only way for me to not have that discomfort.

I had one about 15 years ago. I was working security at the local speedway. I was on the walkway closest tot he track. It was a really hot day. The track wasnt in very good shape. I was looking at the oncoming cars and a small piece of track hit me in the eye. Nothing like hot asphalt in your eye.
It was horrible and i feel your pain. Good luck.
I havent heard of the more likely occurrence thing. But one of my side effects is a thickening of the whites of my eyes. Cant think of the name. But it causes irritation, burning and pain. I cant take visine, because it worsens it. I have to use artificial tears. It doesnt happen all the time, but enough.
Being in the sun and wind makes it worse.