To wonder of the hospital shoukd have kept me in for observation

[listsandbudgets]

I gad to go to A and E as a piece of grit had blown in my eye and wouldnt come out even after 30 minutes of me trying to wash it out. We are staying with a friend amd she stayed to watch children and I got a taxi which was an hour journey.

I couldnt open my right eye at alm and was having trouble keeping my left eye open for more than a few seconds. The pain was awful to the extent I was involuntarily jerking.

I arrived at 11pm and asked for pain killer which the triage nurse refused becaise I had had a coupke of paracetomol at 9pm. A doctor finally gave me liquid morphine at 1am which still did not control pain. Both the doctor and triage nuse tried to manually force my eye open which made pain worse.

At 3am a different doctor finally used some kind of eye numbing drops and removed grit but when drops wore off my eyes closed again and pain started up again.

They sent me home at 3.30 with codeine and eye drops I couldnt open my eyes, I was still in severe pain and I had started vomiting. In fact the taxi driver had to stop 3 times in a one hour journey and help me find my way to side of road.

I was finally able to open my eye at about 8pm on the sunday after a miserable day of pain and vomiting.

AIBU to wonder if they should have kept me in for observation given I couldnt see, the pain wasnt controlled by liquid morphine and I was vomiting. I genuinely don't know.. they had done the emergency removal of grit so perhaps thats all that was required

I get iritis. Stabbing hot skewer feeling in the eye constantly. This is probably why I'm unsympathetic. It's just eye pain. Hospital is for when you are seriously ill.

I'm genuinely sorry to hear that, but it's not a 'who is in the most pain' competition.

I never said it was.

The opthomologist poster was also suprised oromorph was given so maybe tell them they are bang out of order

Had similar OP, DD (3yo) had scratched my eye, took a chunk out of it in fact (apologies all squeamish MN-ers!)
At the hospital, I was given paracetamol and numbing eye drops. Then sent home with a million and one prescriptions for eye stuff (antibiotics and the like).
I think they would have laughed at me if I had asked for more than paracetamol...
So tbh, I don't think it was unreasonable to send you home. What more could the hospital do to be fair?
I do however, sympathise fully with your pain, it is horrific and not something I would like to go through again!!

OP so sorry you suffered. Corneal scratches/trauma are some of the most serious pain I've ever experienced. I've had a cornea transplant, 2 cataracts removed (2nd one was done 3 days ago and it hurts like a bastard) and the eye condition I have means my corneas can tear at random (well, the one that's not be transplanted anyway).

However, I've only been kept in for surgical complications or because I've had general anaesthetic. Everything else - cataracts, iritis/uveitis, stitch removal etc has been done as a day case, usually under local anaesthetic only. I'm currently alternating ibuprofen and paracetamol which controls the pain where my cornea is currently stitched. Day 3 is usually the worst. I only took ibuprofen the past 2 days.

Morphine, codeine etc makes me violently ill so I just avoid it completely. Maybe you had a similar reaction? Ive never even been offered it. Literally all they give me at my eye hospital is paracetamol and steroid and antibiotic drops.

As has already been said - the cornea has a very healthy nerve supply. It has far more nerves than the white of your eye, which has virtually none. So it's very sensitive. Keep taking your drops and try to manage with NSAIDs if you can. It will feel much better in a few days. They really didnt need to keep you in though.

The first time you experience this kind of eye pain it is very frightening and I can understand how you must have felt. After 7 years of eye procedures I'm a bit of a veteran, but it didn't stop me having a brief pity party for one this morning!

Rhoda I'm really jealous you had your stitch removal done under LA!

Nothing wrong with oramorph. Doctors do what they can to get rid of pain. It just doesn't address acute corneal nerve pain adequately due to the mode of action. Drops do that best but they slow healing of the corneal wound - so we give the drops inn A&E but tend not to give it to take home. NSAIDS are fantastic for eye pain and can be given in drop form as well but only an eye specialist would prescribe that. Glad you feel much better! Corneal pain certainly ranks right at the top of pain types

I had this exact Thing happen to me before. Corneal damage etc. It was fine. I'm actually terrified of eye injuries and have a slight irrational fear of it but when I had this I just had it remove at moorfields with no medication and an I also had an ulcer due to dodgy contacts for which I had loads of treatment but no pain meds just went back every day for monitoring. YABU to think you needed a hospital bed.

From other posts it's becoming clear that I'm a bit of a weirdo. It just didnt hurt that much.

Dipping I've never been given any other option - they just whack in the numbing drops and come at my eye with pointy sticks and tweezers!

But I usually only get stitches removed when they break (because my consultant prefers to leave them until that happens to be sure of healing) and after the pain of a broken stitch the numbing drops and removal feels like a holiday. The last time I practically skipped into the procedure room and felt like kissing the registrar afterwards. The clinic nurses thought it was hilarious.

Scratching your eyeball is agony, but no they shouldn't have kept you in. It takes a while to settle, you had had all the painkillers they could give you and the grit had been removed.

The sickness was probably due to taking the liquid morphine on an empty stomach or something.

Hope you feel better soon x

YABVU, when my arm and leg were blown off, I was sent home with 2 paracetamol and I was fine, so why did you need strong pain killers?!

Or alternatively....you were in pain and were prescribed medication by a doctor who assessed you in person, at the time. It's really not up to anyone on here to pass judgement on what you needed. No, not even an opthalmologist who cannot diagnose over the Internet. What is wrong with people on here sometimes?! Pain is pain. That said, I don't think you should have been kept in for observation, although it's scary going home when you're feeling like that. Hope you feel better today. :)

Eyeball pain is the worst pain I have ever had. (I had abrasions) The eye doctor put the numbing drops in so I could open my eye then after examination he put medical contact lense in to protect as the eye healed and a couple of differant eye drops to use. It took a long time to heal, and years later I still need to use lubricating drops and drops called muro 128 every day. The eye doc has suggested a surgury to resurface my eye but the thought almost makes me faint. I don't even know what caused it..was on both eyes but one was far worse than the other. Possibly from glitter as it was at Xmas and some gift wrap I bought was shedding glitter, plus the xmas cards we sent had glitter.

Anyways, he told me to use a very warm washcloth over my (closed) eyes, as warm as possible. When it first happened I had trouble and pain trying to open my eyes when I woke up, and so I would wake dh, while keeping my eyes closed and he would bring me a washcloth. Usually I could open my eyes enough to put the lubricating drops in, then I would get up, but sometimes in early days I had to repeat the cloth. I would go to sleep with one too. I had to wear sunglasses and turn lights down to dim, I had to hang a sheer dark scarf over the tv screen in order to be able to tolerate the light. I feel so sorry for you, it felt like what being stabbed in the eyes with sharp glass must feel like, and hope you heal up quickly.

If you couldn't see I think they were unreasonable to release you without someone you knew to help you home. Especially with the vomiting from morphine, but mainly because being unable to see made you very vulnerable. But I guess I don't entirely understand why you couldn't see when it was just one eye that was hurt, so it may be they didn't realise you were unable to see either?

Rhoda I always have mine removed on the sly when they're doing an examination of my eye I fainted last time which was embarrassing but it made a popping noise!

Eye pain is horrific It's worse than childbirth for me (I also had no pain killers then) but they can't keep you in for just eye pain, I can't believe they didn't ensure you had someone to take you home though.

Btw if anyone thinks I'm being dramatic about eye pain & childbirth I've had 27 OPs in 26 years on my eye.