Recovery time for a scratched cornea?

[s7714]

How long do scratched corneas usually take to start feeling better?

My DDs were playing pirates this evening and were using some rolled up paper as maps. As usual they got into a little tiff over something and my younger DD took a whack at her sister with the map. I'm pretty sure she scratched her sister's eye with the paper. :( My older DD was refusing to open her eye and was suddenly very sensitive to light, even with her eyes closed. The on call pediatrician said to try to flush it out (tried that, don't know if anything actually made it into her eye though and it didn't lessen the pain) and bring her into urgent care tomorrow morning. I'm just wondering if her eye is going to feel a little better in the morning when she wakes up or if she's going to still be in a lot of pain.

TIA

[irie i]

How long do scratched corneas usually take to start feeling better?

My DDs were playing pirates this evening and were using some rolled up paper as maps. As usual they got into a little tiff over something and my younger DD took a whack at her sister with the map. I'm pretty sure she scratched her sister's eye with the paper. :( My older DD was refusing to open her eye and was suddenly very sensitive to light, even with her eyes closed. The on call pediatrician said to try to flush it out (tried that, don't know if anything actually made it into her eye though and it didn't lessen the pain) and bring her into urgent care tomorrow morning. I'm just wondering if her eye is going to feel a little better in the morning when she wakes up or if she's going to still be in a lot of pain.

TIA

Poor little darlin'. There is a chance she will still be in some pain. My niece got a piece of metal in her eye when she was really little. She was being "cared for" by her Grandmother on her father's side...who left my niece outside on a bench when she was 2 to go in to answer the phone... my niece tried to get off the bench and bam, broken arm. Anyway when this same Grandmother was taking care of her she ended up with metal in her eye...possibly from a tin can. She was in pain for a few days but keeping an eye patch on her helped a lot. The light really does make it worse. Good luck! Hope she heals soon. :)

[anamika]

Hi
So sorry to hear this.
From my experience the eye heals amazingly fast (has a very rich blood supply, i think). I got a piece of glass in my eye and bled from my eye. The wound healed in 2 days or less though there was swelling and discomfort for 3-4 days.

[Octobermommy]

My mom just scratched her cornea. She was in pretty bad pain for 2 days. She had a steroid/antibiotic drops for her eye about 6 hours after it happened. The third day she was feeling much better.

Hope she is okay!

[supercalifragilous]

I have severe dry eyes and have a chronic scratched cornea. I totally understand the light sensitivity (that's how I know it's worsened) and the constant feeling that there's grit in your eye, even if there's not.

When it gets bad, my ophthalmologist prescribes steroid+antibiotic drops if it looks like I've also got an infection. I also have steroid-only drops just to decrease the corneal inflammation. Just a warning - they slightly sting, so beware of that. I usually keep my drops in the fridge to help with the inflammation as well.

Instead of flushing it out with lukewarm water, you should try saline or a sterile eye wash (OTC at any drugstore). The pH balance of water is different from that in the eye, plus there's chlorine and other additives in tap which may be irritating to the eye. If prone to getting opportunistic infections like me, I'd definitely go with a sterile solution.

[brittone2]

I scratched mine in high school or early in college. It hurt for a few days, but the first 1-2 days were the worst. I saw our opthamologist and got RX antibiotic drops.

I know in my case, my eye teared a lot initially, and when I woke up in the middle of the night it would be crusted shut (for a night or two). This may be hard on a young child, kwim? (since they won't anticipate this and won't understand what is happening). A warm compress helped ease the goo out of my eye so I could comfortably open it.

Sorry you are going through this.

[s7714]

Thanks everyone.

She was a little calmer this morning, but still in a lot of pain. We went to urgent care first thing this morning and they did the dye and black light thing to see the damage. She's got a corneal abrasion about the size of a pencil eraser, if not a little bigger. So needless to say her sister really got her good! They prescribed ABX drops, and thankfully the pharmacist warned me that they'd sting. They also said to give her larger than normal doses of advil to help ease the pain, but even that's not cutting it at some points. I may break out a dose of the tylenol with codeine that I have left over from when she broke her arm if she still can't sleep tonight. I feel so bad for her. The poor kid just got the o.k. to start playing during recess and PE again now that her arm is healed and now she's sidelined again for another day or two! Anyone have a bubble-wrap suit in a size 5/6?

[alexsmommy]

Owww. It really, really hurts. Luckly after about two days she should feel significantly better. Poor baby.