Sharp Stick in the Eye?

[catbirdseat]

Everyone has heard the expression. For me all it took as a little shard of metal to wreak havoc.

 

I woke up with an irritated eye that felt like maybe an inverted eye lash. By the end of the day it was really bothering me. I looked closely in the mirror and saw a black speck.

 

I tried washing it out to no avail. Then I tried a moistened cotton swab. That didn't work.

 

So off I went to the emergency room at Stevens in Edmonds. After looking at it in the slit scope, the doc said it was a metal shard and she'd remove it with a needle.

 

The eye was numbed with anaesthetic drops, then by swab. I had to hold still while she jabbed with the needle. It was important to keep my gaze on the same object to avoid presenting a moving target. As the needle probed the particle, it was manifest in the distortion of my sight. The stubborn little bugger took quite a bit of probing before it was dislodged.

 

It left behind, what the doc referred to as a "rust halo". Now it was still necessary to wash the eye.

 

As I awaited the nurse, I was so happy to have the irritant gone that I was almost giddy. Little did I know what was coming.

 

I was told to don a gown, otherwise my shirt would get wet. With my head on a towel, the nurse proceeded to squirt 100 mL of saline into my eye. It was one of the most unpleasant things I've endured. What's more, the saline washed out all the anaesthetic. I could now feel the abrasion.

 

I made it to the pharmacy where I placed my order for Tobramycin drops and Vicodin. It would be an hour before it was ready so I decided to drive home.

 

Holy moly! The eye couldn't tolerate the night glare. It wouldn't stay open. If a cop could have seen me, he'd have pulled me over because I was weaving all over the place. It was a hell of a drive.

 

I took some hydrocodone we had around the house and decided to wait until morning to return to the pharmacy. The eye was weeping and throbbing. I took two benedryl and a shot of rum and, thankfully, fell asleep.

 

Woke up with a goopy eye, but feeling much better.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

fuck that sucks. where did the shard come from?

[sk]

OUCH!!!! i pulled my cornea off once taking contacts our. it was excruciating!!!

[catbirdseat]

OUCH!!!! i pulled my cornea off once taking contacts our. it was excruciating!!!

Sweet baby Jesus! That must have hurt. There's got to be more to that story. I take it that the cornea was reattached and eventually all was well with the eye?

 

The previous day, I'd been cutting steel lath-reinforced stucco using a diamond cut off blade on a high speed grinder. I wore safety glasses. I surmise that the particle was lurking on my lower eye lid. When I rubbed the eye, the particle penetrated the cornea.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

OUCH!!!! i pulled my cornea off once taking contacts our. it was excruciating!!!

Sweet baby Jesus! That must have hurt. There's got to be more to that story. I take it that the cornea was reattached and eventually all was well with the eye?

 

The previous day, I'd been cutting steel lath-reinforced stucco using a diamond cut off blade on a high speed grinder. I wore safety glasses. I surmise that the particle was lurking on my lower eye lid. When I rubbed the eye, the particle penetrated the cornea.

 

that makes sense. kind of like the time I cut up some jalapeno peppers, washed my hands, and latter rubbed an eye... there was still juice on my finger.

 

[sk]

OUCH!!!! i pulled my cornea off once taking contacts our. it was excruciating!!!

Sweet baby Jesus! That must have hurt. There's got to be more to that story. I take it that the cornea was reattached and eventually all was well with the eye?

 

The previous day, I'd been cutting steel lath-reinforced stucco using a diamond cut off blade on a high speed grinder. I wore safety glasses. I surmise that the particle was lurking on my lower eye lid. When I rubbed the eye, the particle penetrated the cornea.

 

i was a little tipsy when i took my contacts out, and apparently dehydrated. i ended up in the ER at 4 am becuase i couldn't open my eyes (either of them) the pain was so bad. i had to go to a special eye doc that put a different kind of contact on my eye after unrolling my cornia. it healed really quickly. eyes are amazing!!!

[builder206]

CBS, very sorry to hear this. I got a metal shard in my eye once but I don't think it was as bad as yours. I hope you feel better soon.

[catbirdseat]

I was able to go to work today. My vision is a little blurry in the affected eye. Hopefully that will go away.

[hafilax]

If you ever have to have a MRI make sure you tell them you've had a metal shard removed from your eye. They'll take an X-ray to make sure the strong magnetic field won't cause any more problems.

 

I had snow blindness one summer. Eye pain is aggravating.

[Weekend_Climberz]

Damn dude!!! You should come to Pub Club tomorrow so you can show us your pirate patch. I'll pick you up if you need a DD. :tup:

[hafilax]

...thought this thread needed a

[Dannible]

A few years ago I went to J-Tree and didn't do a good job of keeping my contacts clean, so I got some kind of eye infection. By the time we had to drive home my eyes were so sensitive to light that even during the night I had to wear my sunglasses, a patch over one eye, and I had tears running down my face. Whenever another car was coming towards me I'd have to pull over because headlights made it feel like I was spinning. It made for a long drive.

 

The first time I climbed Baker was with guy who had gotten metal shards in his eye the day before, and just sprayed cow penicillin in it to deal with it.

[i_like_sun]

Holy crap Catbirdseat! I'm glad to hear your eye is going to be OK! I think we all take our vision for granted.

 

I've never had metal shards in my eye, but I've had some really nasty eye infections that irritated me to exponential levels.

[fowweezer]

Dude, go to an eye doctor next time. My girlfriend had something similar happen and it didn't sound nearly so painful. She didn't require vicodin afterwards--she was fine.

 

They scraped a corneal nodule off her eye.

 

Fucking crazy. Shit with eyes makes me hurt and I don't even have contacts or anything.

[catbirdseat]

I only ever took one or two Vicodin. I'm going to save them for my wilderness first aid kit.

 

The eye is doing fine now. I'm still putting in antibiotic drops as a precaution, but the morning blurriness is mostly gone.

[Toast]

 

that makes sense. kind of like the time I cut up some jalapeno peppers, washed my penis and rubbed the tip... latter there was juice on my finger.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

 

that makes sense. kind of like the time I cut up some jalapeno peppers, washed my penis and rubbed the tip... latter there was juice on my finger.

 

wow, spray in the fitness forum. just what we need.

[genepires]

sharing a story from a friend of a climbing buddy.

They were walking down from a climb somewhere, ( I think Squamish) when the friend tripped on a root and fell down. He landed face first and smacked his face on a cut off stump, like a 2 inch diameter stump. The stump gave him a black eye. It hurt but he didn't think much of it.

The next day, something didn't seem right so he went to the mirror. The eye he hit was sinking into his eye socket. He went to the hospital and the doctors determined he had torn this small membrane that holds the eye in the socket and the eye ball was slipping through the cut in the membrane. The membrane was stitched back up but it was a small thread so it was a fragile repair. He was told not to move his eyeball, to keep focused on looking straight ahead. For MONTHS! He had blinders on glasses to help. Work and climbing was out of the question. I think he became a Dead Head for a while till fully recovered.

Edited February 8, 2008 by genepires