Scratched Cornea

When I started fostering the puppy, I realized that I should have kept a daily diary of things he has damaged. Pretty much every day he has damaged something. It could be a cassette tape, a couple of books, pillows, or some parts from a broken scanner. Yesterday he damaged my cornea.

In the morning after the alarm had gone off he came over to see me and pawed at me. He wound up pawing at my face and poked his paw in my eye. It was a pretty good poke, as hard as I’ve been poked in my eye in a long time, maybe ever. I rinsed out my eye, but it kept hurting even after I had gotten to work. I could see out of it just fine, but it was obviously very irritated. I looked up eye injuries and found out that the biggest danger is getting an eye infection and that you should get medical attention. I looked up eye doctors on my insurance company’s website and found an ophthalmologist group nearby. I also called my regular eye doctor who is really an optometrist and not an eye doctor whose office recommended a different place further from the house. But then I noticed that one of the doctors at that place was also assigned to the nearby place, so I called the nearby place and they were able to set up an appointment that afternoon.

They put some fluorescent yellow dye in my eye so they could see any scratches and said that my cornea was definitely scratched. They also put some other kind of drop in there that at least made my eye feel better. Then the eye doctor came in and asked how it got scratched. I said the puppy had poked me in the eye. She said she could see four little lines on my cornea (she may have been kidding). Anyway, she said she could either put a patch over my eye or a clear contact lens, so obviously it would be better to have a contact lens. I asked how long it would take for it to get better and she said it would be fine tomorrow. She also gave me some antibiotic drops. I was surprised it would be better tomorrow, so I asked if I should have even come in and she said yes. She also wanted to see me again to follow up. I feel like I got my money’s worth with the first visit and getting treatment, but the follow up seems pretty pointless. Anyway, it did start feeling better today and I think by tomorrow morning it should be all better.

2 thoughts on “Scratched Cornea”

  1. Lilli had a similar experience last week. The Vet put green dye in Lilli’s eye to check for scratches. The vet got very excited when the green dye came out Lilli’s nose! This indicates that the tear duct is functioning properly. Did the yellow dye come out of your nose?

  2. I don’t see how Lilli could hold her chin still on that thing while they looked at her eye. I could barely hold still for that. At today’s visit the drops didn’t get in my eye the first time and my eye wasn’t numb, so I kept blinking when they got the machine up close. Then they gave me some more drops and I didn’t blink. So the drops weren’t to relieve the pain, but so I wouldn’t blink when the machine touched my eye.

    At no time did yellow dye come out of my nose. I guess my tear ducts aren’t working.

    Today they said I am all better. The wife of one of my co-workers is in medicine and says that eyes and tongues heal faster than anywhere else.

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