Eye problem. Go see optician or ask GP for referral (opthalmologist?)?

[JuneFromBethesda]

A few years ago I had a scratch on one eye that resulted in a large tear to my cornea. It was absolutely agonising but the doctor I saw at A&E assured me that it would heal quickly by itself, and so it did.

There was fortunately no damage to my vision, however I sporadically get bouts of intense pain in that eye, usually if I try to open my eye(s) quickly when I've just woken up. I had an attack in the middle of the night last night and it was horrible - wave upon wave of pain, and nothing I can do - I just have to lie there and wait for it to stop.

I really need to see someone about this, but I'm not sure who. I saw an optician about a year after the scratch, just to check things out and was told it looked fine (actually the optician was awful - he seemed totally disinterested and disengaged, but I guess I was just unlucky).

So what do you think - try another optician or go see my GP?

optician first. they can have a look and refer you on.
or check if your eye hospital (moorfields in london) takes walk ins)

a gp doesn't have the tools to take more than a quick glance with a flashlight.

Thanks - you prompted me to check my local hospital and their eye clinic offers a telephone advice service with an opthalmic triage nurse, which sounds like a good place to start.

I'll make an optician appointment as well anyway.

Optician. Will have proper equipment for examining your eye and can refer themselves if ophthalmology needed

I have this. It’s dry eyes, essentially, your eye lid sticks to your eyeball and cause micro tears on the eye when you open them. It’s miserable and so painful! The treatment is usually drops at night.

Oh thank you @FancyPuffin! It’s reassuring to have an explanation for it. I’ll stock up on eye drops!

No problem, it’s the most horrible pain when it happens. Drops help loads. Definitely still see an optician as they can examine the eyes and check the damage.

Same here. A scratch on my cornea from ten years ago still causes me grief some mornings if I haven’t put eye drops in when I go to bed.

Sounds like dry eye which will be helped by using lubricant drops during the day ( anything otc from a pharmacy will help) and some sort of lubricant gel ( Carbomer or VitaPos A ) last thing at night.
There is a slight possibility it could be the start of corneal erosion syndrome- so definitely see your optician who can refer you to an Ophthalmologist if he has any further concerns.

Thanks @VenusClapTrap and @Nearlyadoctor, really appreciate your replies 🙂