Scratched cornea

Last night I scratched my eye's cornea.  I was moving a pile of old tree branches and it was getting dark.  Some of the branches stuck together and I had to pull on them to get them apart.  One time either the branch I was pulling or the other branch suddenly gave way and smacked me in my face over my left eye.

I walked home, washed my eye and looked for matter in it.  I didn't see anything.  But my eye felt an irritation.  Seeing nothing in my eye I thought it was because of the impact.  As the night wore on my eye was tearing more and more and the irritation continued.  Seeing nothing in my eye I went to bed early.

I woke up after 2 am and my eye was more irritated.  Now it felt like something was in my eye.  I got up and looked.  Nothing.  I went back to bed and eventually to sleep.  Daisy scratched at the door at 3 am to come in for the night.  Eye still sore.  Went back to bed.

After 4 am I was woken up by my irritated eye.  It was really watering.  But that wasn't washing the irritation out.  I rinsed my eye with more water in hopes of washing the stuff out.  But that ended up washing the tears out and drying my eye which made it more irritated.  I went back to bed.  Daisy came and snuggled up next to me and did some major grooming before settling down. I finally went to sleep.

I got up at 8:30 am and felt miserable with an irritated and teary and red eye, stuffy nose and headache from the stuffy nose.  I called Donna and asked her to drive me to the hospital.  We stopped at the NorthMed urgent care clinic and a physician's assistant (PA) looked at my eye once another patient was done with the eye equipment.  He also had an eye injury.

The PA saw that I had a corneal abrasion. 

How do I know if I have a corneal abrasion?

The cornea is very sensitive, and a corneal abrasion is usually quite painful. You may feel like you have sand or grit in your eye. You may notice tears or blurred vision, or your eye may look red. You may also notice that light hurts your eye. Some people get a headache when they have a corneal abrasion.

The PA put drops in my eye to numb it, then put dye in my eye to better see the abrasion.  She said it was a good one.   Apparently I wasn't able to close my eyelid before the tree branch struck my face.

She wrote me a prescription for eye drops that are slightly numbing and a prescription of an antibiotic gel that also coats the eye easing irritation as it heals.  I use them four times a day for several days and then less after that. She said abrasions usually get better after 24 hours.  But since my abrasion is bigger she thought it would take several days.

For a simple corneal abrasion, your doctor will prescribe a standard antibiotic to protect against infection. This antibiotic will usually be administered in the form of drops or an ointment. You will be advised to continue the antibiotic treatment for three to five days and discontinue it after you have been symptom-free for at least 24 hours. If you have a scratch caused by organic matter (such as a tree branch), your doctor may prescribe a more potent antibiotic, antifungal agent, or anti-pseudomonal agent.

I wonder if the scratch has a flap as sometimes the eye feels better than other times.  All I know is this is very irritating and often painful.  24 hours later and it is getting a little better.  This was a very eventful Easter Sunday and my adventure's continue in tomorrow night's blog post.  Tonight I'm going to bed early again.

For more info:  http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/corneal-abrasions