A&e for eye problem?

[MrsChipsreturns]

DH accidentally slept in his contacts last night. Woke up this morning with bit of an irritated eye but nothing major. He wore his glasses in the morning for sons sports day. By 11am he had to go home as the light was causing him a lot of pain in his eye. Now he's sat in the front room wearing sunglasses with his eyes closed. It is extremely sore and light sensitive and he says it is a 9/10 pain.

I took a photo of his eye to the pharmacy and they advised some drops (not antibiotic) and eye wash. That did nothing so we called Specsavers and they said it might be hayfever!? 🤣 And said no one could check him til Monday.

He is supposed to be looking after the kids tomorrow but right now he can't bloody see and is in a lot of pain.

What should we do? Is A&E an overreaction?

That doesn't sound good. Did he lose a contact by any chance?

I would go get it checked

Could be an ulcer on his cornea caused by sleeping in his contact lens very painful and can be very serious. I would get it checked out if at all possible.

Try 111 but I'm surprised Specsavers can't help, ours have always been really good in emergencies. Are there any other opticians in your area that he could try in the morning if he can hang on that long?

That’s a corneal ulcer. I had to be admitted after a particularly nasty one after forgetting to take my lenses out.
A and E. is def required.

I'd go to A&E if that painful. Will probably need better drops.

I'd call 111. A&E may not have access to the equipment needed to look in his eye but 111 might be able to direct you to an out of hours facility at the eye unit or similar or just confirm you need A&E. It could be something like a corneal ulcer, incredibly painful (I got sent from opticians to the eye unit at hospital with mine and it was so painful I couldn't open my eyes properly to read hospital signs so just wandered around crying until a kind man discovered me and led me to where I needed to go!).

100% go. It should have been getting better all day, not worse. Go now. It's not worth leaving it.

Do you have an eye hospital locally? That would be the best place to go - they usually have an eye a&e department.

A&E (or minor injuries unit if you have one locally) in case of corneal abrasion or ulcer.

Ooh I had this and it turned out to be a corneal ulcer. I think I had a folded up contact lens floating around in there somewhere I couldn't open my eyes the pain was incredible. A&E you only get one pair of eyes!

I went to A+E for this exact reason over the last bank holiday, it was a Sunday and I knew it was no good waiting for the GP as was too sore!

It was about a 5 hour wait as obviously it was on the triage list, but eventually got seen and had some dye put in my eyes etc and looked. Turned out I’d grazed the surface of my eye (likely from being dry from falling asleep with lenses in). I had antibiotic ointment I had to use for about 5 days and wasn’t allowed to wear my lenses again until my eye was totally healed (about 8 days). I’m glad I went because it was so sore, it’s definitely worth getting checked out.

Go to an eye specialist if you can e.g. eye hospital or opthalmology department emergency clinic. If you have go to A&E, ask them to page the on-call opthalmologist as most other doctors don't know much about eyes. That was the advice I got when I was being treated for a corneal ulcer. Please get him to go and get treated asap, I lost vision in my eye because of an idiot GP insisting it was just conjunctivitis.

Sorry, I should have said it was the opthalmology consultant who gave me that advice, not some random person!

Def A&E. similar issue but muppet DH got an irritation installing insulation with no eye protection. He doesn't wear contacts and didn't make the connection.

Pharmacy gave us drops and it just got worse. Completely the wrong treatment and he was in real trouble by the time it was diagnosed.

I had a lot of problems with my eyes last year and had exactly the same feeling after wearing my lenses one day although all my problems have been ‘light switch’ like and come on very suddenly
I would guess keratisis (arguably the most common infection contact lense wearers get) or it could be something like uveitis which again I’ve had and needs to be seen pretty quickly
in my experience, A&E are likely to give you some conjunctivitis eye drops/gel until you are seen by an eye clinic. I would always advise going there as they can properly diagnose - the one near me will see you the same day as long as you get there before 11am

When I had a corneal ulcer I went to A&E but because it was late at night (happened after I took my contacts out for the day) they didn't do much and I was referred to our local eye hospital. When I spoke to the optician at one of my many many follow ups they said I could have rang them the following day and they'd have referred me directly.

Mine was over 2 years ago and I am still limited as to how much I can wear my contacts and I think it was about 6 months before I was even allowed to wear them again. I was on all sorts of different eye drops at different times

I would and preferably one with an eye department. Dh had to do this after sleeping in contact lenses won't say what happened as may not be relevant and wasn't so pleasant but very very glad he went as were they.

Check if your local A&E has an eye casualty department, they need specialist equipment to look at the eye (slit lamp) and you may waste important time waiting to be seen in a non-eye casualty A&E and then referred elsewhere. Many MIU units also have an eye department.

You can check for your local eye casualty unit here, hope your DH is seen in the right place soon, eye health is not to be taken lightly!

Thanks everyone, we phoned 111 last night, spoke to a doctor who advised eye hospital a&e this morning. He's there now.