Corneal erosion, eyesight & glasses

Khade97

Hey Guys,

Back in January my son poked me in the eye which ended up giving me a lovely scratch on my cornea (and me having 3 weeks off work wearing an eye patch - yay for pirate jokes). Ultimately this ended up as Corneal Erosion so I occasionally have flare ups. Then in May I went for a standard eye test (unrelated to the above incident) and I ended up needing glasses for the first time (I am 31). Honestly, these made a huge difference and I never realized how blurry things were before.

Fast forward again and last Thursday my eye flared up - it calmed down mostly within 12 hours and 48 hours later there was no pain or anything. However since this flare up I have found my vision to be really blurry even with the glasses and have a lot of trouble focusing on anything written (either on a computer or on paper).

I didn't know if anyone had any experience with a similar situation. Could the blurriness be a "side effect" of the flare-up last week, or could my eyesight have deteriorated so rapidly that the glasses are no longer the right prescription?

(Note: I have booked an appointment with my optician but that isn't until the 15th - the other option is the emergency eye clinic at the hospital but that seems overkill)

Donovan Puppyfucker

Infection?

JaysonFour

You were able to see, this flared up, and now you cannot see very well out of that eye. It's affecting how you live and how you work.

Go get it checked out at the clinic and don't wait until the 15th. This could end up getting worse or becoming permanent.

It's not overkill when it comes to possibly losing your vision.

Khade97

I guess @JaysonFour‌ - I contacted the hospital and have an appointment for Thursday morning, which is a bit better than waiting on the opticians.

JaysonFour

If it were my vision, I'd go ASAP.

Eyes are fickle things- injuries can lead to permanent damage very easily. The longer you leave it to sit, the more possibility there is that you'll get permanent damage.

If it's a matter of cost, well, how much is vision worth to you- you're essentially gambling with your eyesight.

AresProphet

bit late on this, but how did the appointment go?

I've suffered from recurring corneal erosions ever since i was small. assuming it wasn't anything serious I can tell you from experience that the blurriness can take several days to a week to clear up even after the pain is gone, depending on the location and severity. it can mess with focus too since your muscles spasm from the pain.

what happened to you sounds worse than any erosion I've ever had, though.

Khade97

The doctors basically just told me to take lubricating eye drops every hour as they couldn't see anything wrong with the eye that they can treat. Still have my opticians appointment tomorrow so will see what they say, but it has been 10 days since the flare-up and my vision is still blurry in that eye. Oddly, the issue seems worse in the morning and gets better through the day so I am hoping that it is just something that will clear up. Will see what the optician thinks to me wearing a patch again (yar, there be pirate jokes inbound) to give the eye time to rest.

Nocren

If you're forced to wear the eye patch can you grow out some stubble and wear a bandana/headband and talk in a gruff voice instead?

Luckily, from my experience (when I had a hole in my corea from excessive contact wearing) the erosion did heal on it's own after I removed my contacts and just wore glasses for a few weeks.

EDIT: On the downside my left eye (where I got the holes, yes I did it twice) is worse than my right when they used to be about the same, so you might have to wear corrective lenses now or get lasik after you get a clean bill of optic health.

AresProphet

Khade97 wrote: »

The doctors basically just told me to take lubricating eye drops every hour as they couldn't see anything wrong with the eye that they can treat. Still have my opticians appointment tomorrow so will see what they say, but it has been 10 days since the flare-up and my vision is still blurry in that eye. Oddly, the issue seems worse in the morning and gets better through the day so I am hoping that it is just something that will clear up. Will see what the optician thinks to me wearing a patch again (yar, there be pirate jokes inbound) to give the eye time to rest.

updates since appointment? I'm curious what's causing the blurriness. I find it difficult to believe that just a corneal erosion could cause your vision to deteriorate (my poor eyesight began years before the erosions started), so it's possible the lens was actually damaged? I dunno. I am not an optometrist. you may way to consider seeing an ophthalmologist, mine started treating my corneal erosions just after they were diagnosed and he had a much better understanding of what was going on.

(slightly OT oddly I had the exact opposite experience as Nocren with contacts. after 3-4 months of wearing them I stopped having corneal erosions altogether. it was amazing and a life-changer. since I've gone back to wearing glasses full-time I've had two in six months, so I need to start keeping my contacts in more often)

Khade97

Ahh, exciting stuff...

On Tuesday I woke up and couldn't open my eye - cancelled opticians (as at this point is wasn't a "glasses" issue) and was taken back to emergency eye clinic. Saw the original Doctor that saw me way back in January and surprise surprise the cornea had detached. He put in a bandaged contact lens and things started to improve and all the blurriness has gone. Have to keep this in for 6 weeks while things fix themselves up, but after that it is just back to the normal "lubrication" routine. On the plus side, the doctor has put together some different lubricants for me to use once the lens is out so with any luck they will keep things manageable.

AresProphet

jesus. I didn't know corneas could detach. this makes me mildly nervous

my optometrist had me wear a bandage contact for bad erosions, they helped to make the next day manageable. lubrication helps too, for a while I was on Muro 128 ointment every night before bed. this reduced the frequency of erosions to once every 3-4 months. my ophthalmologist put collagen plugs in my tear ducts as a test to see if decreasing tear drainage would help lubricate at night but this didn't work very well for me (probably on account of the severity of my corneal dystrophy, and the dry climate here in CO). long-term use of contacts finally cleared my issue up, it helped my corneal epithelium "thicken" so it wouldn't tear if it stuck to my eyelid at night

it's maybe worth bringing up these things next time you see your eye doctor. it sounds like you had a pretty severe injury, and trust me you don't want it to turn into a recurring thing.