Corneal Abrasion

So, I had an interesting encounter Thursday night with my 1 and 1/2 year old. We were playing and I got him a little riled up... not that I ever do that... but, he got a little crazy excited and clawed at my face. Those little baby nails are wicked sharp, I tell you! Anyway, his finger went into my eye and scratched my eyeball. This happened at like 8:30pm. I pretty much closed my eyes around 9pm and couldn't open them again til Friday at around noon.

Friday morning Mitch took me to the health center in town and they took a look at my eye. I didn't sleep Thursday night because I was in so much pain. I know it sounds ridiculous, but a sore eyeball is the worst thing ever!!! I literally couldn't open my eyes. They put numbing drops in my eye so that I could open it for them to look out. It took two nurses to get my eye open enough to put the drops in. They warned me it would burn for a minute, but would soon be numb. My whole body was shaking in pain while they pried my eye open. As soon as the drops hit my eye, my body slowed down. The nurses asked, "doesn't in burn?" I said, "actually, it feels kinda good." They told me normally they have to hold people down because the burning is so bad. I guess the pain of the scratched eyeball was worse.

Once my eye was numb, I was able to open it enough for them to put dye on the eyeball. They looked at it under a black light type thing. They were able to see the scratch on my cornea. They said, usually with a corneal abraision, the scratch is usually off to the left or the right, but mine was very central. Which means, more pain and a longer healing process... of course, haha.

The photo Mitch took while they examined the scratch under black light

Mitch said it was pretty cool to see the abrasion show up under the black light. Obviously, he had to take a picture. It was the first time I could see in 15 hours and I see the blurry shapes of 2 nurses and in between them in the dark, I just see my husbands head pop up to get a better look. Then I see a phone. I'm thinking, "Seriously?!" And he says, "This looks pretty cool!" Oh my... only my husband.

So, they put a little more numbing solution on my eye and wrote a referral to an eye doctor. We had to leave right away in order to get there on time... since the doctor was about 40 minutes away. By the time we got to the car, the numbing had worn off, my eyes were sealed shut, and the pain was back in full force. I just tried to sleep on the trip. I was so tired and I wanted to get a break from the pain in my eye.

We got to the eye doctor and Mitch led me inside. They had to numb my eye again, which I looked forward to, actually. It gave my eye a break from hurting so much. They put more dye on and looked at it under observation lighting again. He was able to see, not only the scratch, but also the depth of it. He said, "Wow... that little guy got you pretty good!" Apparently Emmanuel did quite the number on momma's eye.

First numbing wearing off

The doctor told me he was going to put a band-aid on my eye, which was fine. I totally expected to walk out of there with my eye completely bandaged shut. And I really didn't care, I just wanted the pain to go away! 

The next morning after the band-aid

It was so weird, though... because the "band-aid" he was talking about looked exactly like a contact lens. He said essentially it WAS a contact lens. It created a protective barrier between my eyelid and the abrasion. I said, "So, it won't hurt anymore?" He smiled and said, "Precisely!" Immediately I could see for the first time since my eye was scratched! It was incredible.

Starting to improve after a few days

The pain did return and I have perscription eye drops that I have to frequently use. However, I went to bed Friday night in a lot of pain and woke up Saturday morning feeling WORLDS better!!! Still a little discomfort, but nothing like it was! My eye lid is still extremely swollen, but I'm looking forward to a full recovery. The bandaid will be removed Monday morning, but all is well. Once again, my crazy life!