My 5 yr old has severe scratched cornea abrasion

[UGAgal]

Ok this week has been hell for me and I haven't been on really. Monday evening my 5 year old had 2 pink eyes. She was up ALL night and so I kept warm compresses on her eyes and then on Tuesday morning took her to children's quick care center since her peditirican couldn't work her in.

They said she had pink eye and allergies from our over 8000 pollen count. Gave her eye drops and Zyrtec to take. Came home and all she did was SCREAM for the next 24 hours and could not open her eyes. We kept warm compresses on and I called the doctor 5 times to say something is wrong. Pink eye would get better very fast and she had gotten worst.

So I took her to ER around 4pm yesterday. They did a test and her left eye has a severe cornea abrasion. I mean severe. They showed me the scratch that glows under a black light and I felt so bad. Sent us home with lortab for pain and eye ointment and if she was not better in 2 days to call eye doc.

We have stayed in bed just like they said with eye compresses on her eyes. She has put ointment in eyes 3 times a day and taken pain meds like stated. She still can not open her eyes and is in severe pain. Thank god she is sleeping finally because my nerves are beyond shot from all her screaming and crying. I can't seem to make it better for her.

Any ideas on how to help her? She is 5 and doesn't understand why she hurts so bad. I am trying so hard here and I am beyond frustrated.

Also she doesn't seem to be healing and she is NOT touching her eye. Trust me as I am with her every second. I call eye doc tomorrow but wanted to ask here. What happens if it doesn't heal? I mean the ENTIRE cornea is scratched.


Doc believes she was scratching eye Monday while out in pollen and scratched it with her nail and then kept scratching. She does not have pink eye btw


Advice? Ugh I am so dead and drained ......��

[royce]

OUCH! I know that hurts. Sometimes putting ice one it,(ice bag,ziploc, etc.) will help enough so she can sleep, relax, calm down.**keeping her eyes closed and not irriating them as per hospital instructuions/MD orders and suggestions. Hope the weekend is better for both of you.

Keep after the docs if this does not get better in a reasonable time period. She may surprise you and do better than you do. Mine always did, but it was hell during the process(es).

[Good Apollo]

Ok this week has been hell for me and I haven't been on really. Monday evening my 5 year old had 2 pink eyes. She was up ALL night and so I kept warm compresses on her eyes and then on Tuesday morning took her to children's quick care center since her peditirican couldn't work her in.

They said she had pink eye and allergies from our over 8000 pollen count. Gave her eye drops and Zyrtec to take. Came home and all she did was SCREAM for the next 24 hours and could not open her eyes. We kept warm compresses on and I called the doctor 5 times to say something is wrong. Pink eye would get better very fast and she had gotten worst.

So I took her to ER around 4pm yesterday. They did a test and her left eye has a severe cornea abrasion. I mean severe. They showed me the scratch that glows under a black light and I felt so bad. Sent us home with lortab for pain and eye ointment and if she was not better in 2 days to call we doc.

We have stayed in bed just like they said with eye compresses on her eyes. She has put ointment in eyes 3 times a day and taken pain meds like stated. She still can not open her eyes and is in severe pain. Thank god she is sleeping finally because my nerves are beyond shot from all her screaming and crying. I can't seem to make it better for her.

Any ideas on how to help her? She is 5 and doesn't understand why she hurts so bad. I am trying so hard here and I am beyond frustrated.

Also she doesn't seem to be healing and she is NOT touching her eye. Trust me as I am with her every second. I call eye doc tomorrow but wanted to ask here. What happens if it doesn't heal? I mean the ENTIRE cornea is scratched.


Doc believes she was scratching eye Monday while out in pollen and scratched it with her nail and then kept scratching. She does not hav link eye btw.


Advice? Ugh I am so dead and drained ......��

I am sorry, that sounds terrible! Alternating the hot compress with a cool one might help a little, at least for the discomfort. I had several corneal abrasions / ulcers from not taking proper care of my contacts when I was younger, and it is absolutely painful. They gave me drops that had to be refridgerated. Those somewhat numbed my eye, made my vision a little blurry, but it helped. I am unsure if its similar to what they already gave you.

One other bit of advice, ask your kid to look downwards with her eyes. Not her whole head, but just the eyeball. Looking down tends to help the injured area not run into eye lids. That was a huge help for me. Couldnt do much, just looked at the my tummy basically for a day or two. Eyes closed can help too, because the blinking isnt there which could be irratating the injury.

Good luck.

NP

[UGAgal]

Thanks @nopizza I have done the cold ckmpresses too. They told me to let her rest her eyes and keep them closed as much as she can whin we are trying but again she is 5.

They would not give us numbing eye drops because they said it causes healing to be very slow. Instead we have this tube of ointment. Getting a half inch strip in her eye is a bitch on wheels but I get it lol

I feel so bad for her. She is out cold asleep right now so I hope she will get much needed rest for a while. She is sooooo tired. Poor girl.

[billyboy1965]

@UGAgal This is from allergies? Oh, I see. She scratched it from the allergies. Did they refer you to an opthamologist ?

[UGAgal]

@UGAgal This is from allergies? Oh, I see. She scratched it from the allergies. Did they refer you to an opthamologist ?

Yes I called today and they opthamologist asked me to call in am to update and If no better we will see them tomorrow.

[billyboy1965]

Yes I called today and they opthamologist asked me to call in am to update and If no better we will see them tomorrow.

Better or not, I'd go.

[betsky]

@UGAgal, did the dr. say to use warm compressess? IMHO it makes more sense to use cool or as cold as she will allow. This will help keep the swelling down and shrink some of those inflamed blood vessels in her eye. @nopizza s idea is a very good one also, depending on where the scratch is. If it is to either side of her eye then perhaps encouraging her to look down and to the unnaffected side may help. I know you said she won't open her eyes but the lil tyke is possibly more scared to open them by now then the fact that opening them is painful. Perhaps a small t.v. wherever placed at makes her open the eye either looking down(on the floor) or lower to the least painful side
(on a low table or kitchen chair?) if possible to connect a tape player or dvd, you could play her favorite movie or show to encourage her or at the very least distract her. Please don't try to explain about corneal abrasions etc. though I know you are smarter than that. Actually try to only refer to her eyes or her pain when she does, telling her it's like when you fell of bike, or stepped on glass(whatever her history of a scratch thats healed she will remember). If she does get involved watching something, expect her to react as she automatically blinks, then quickly draw her back to whatever is distracting her. I used the t.v. as an example, but she could color in a book if thats what she likes, or play "dress-up the barbie," maybe paint her toenails or if you are really brave let her pick a color and paint yours, again looking lower when possible. Keeping her calm and not moving around once she feels better may be one of the biggest milestones to "look foward" to. and if you paint her fingernails , you could "reasonably" leave the room to breath for 5 minutes by showing her the clock and telling her her nails won't be dry until 10:10(example) hopefully giving you 4 min. and 45 sec. of breathing room.
Do you have a friend that could sit with her for ten min. or so when you've about had it? call in a favor now so you don't totally exhaust yourself.
What's the name of that song? "She goes runnning for the shelter of her mothers little helpers, ah to be back in the day when they actually prescribed valiums to mothers with sick kids best of luck, Betsky

[Good Apollo]

Thanks @nopizza I have done the cold ckmpresses too. They told me to let her rest her eyes and keep them closed as much as she can whin we are trying but again she is 5.

They would not give us numbing eye drops because they said it causes healing to be very slow. Instead we have this tube of ointment. Getting a half inch strip in her eye is a bitch on wheels but I get it lol

I feel so bad for her. She is out cold asleep right now so I hope she will get much needed rest for a while. She is sooooo tired. Poor girl.

I call BS on that for you. Go back and tell them she is rubbing her eyes, and you want the numbing drops at night. Just because she is a little kid doesn't mean the docs get to invalidate her feelings. I'm sure she'd rather be in less pain a little longer then a lot of pain for mb a day less...

I am absolutely not telling you how to parent, sorry if it comes off that way !! I just feel like ER docs and even pediatricians sometimes pat the kid on the head and say off you go... Same et they do to us. I'm sure you are making best possible choices given that you're there and I am who knows where. I feel real bad for you and your girl though- if something like that happens to my little girl I am gonna be so upset!! But yeah I think little extra healing time is better than agony. Plus if she cannot sleep she's not going to heal as well. And try the looking down thing, when she can't or won't keep her eyes closed. Wish I could be there to offer actual help- sorry if that sound creepy!

Before having one of my own I would have had a totally dif perspective lol. Now feels like this is happening to my own baby. 'scuse me while I go hug my lil. Good luck!!!

[UGAgal]

Thanks all. We are going to doc tomorrow for sure.

Actually @nopizza I asked the eye doc today's out numbing drops and he said exact thing as ER doc that cornea abrasions will not heal with the numbing drops. Which is why I didn push. I am tryin to parent best I can but also want best treatment for her to make her better.

They said she needs warm compresses. Helps blood flow to the surrounding eye and promotes healing. We are doing the cold compresses too and a lot more cold than warm.

I will be writing a list of questions for eye doc tomorrow. Thank goodness she is still alseep.

I have tried to get her to open her eyes to no avail. Even just the tv light hurts and she screams to turn it off. I do think she is probably More afraid to open her eye than it being that painful but I don't know for sure you know? I am tryin to just get her better cause this has been a torture of a week and I don't know about scratched eyes etc and really thank you all for any and all replies.

I am going to question the numbing drops again tomorrow when face to face with eye doc. Maybe I can get sleep tooo......just maybe she will be peaceful and painless tonight

[LSUCAJUNTIGER]

Ok this week has been hell for me and I haven't been on really. Monday evening my 5 year old had 2 pink eyes. She was up ALL night and so I kept warm compresses on her eyes and then on Tuesday morning took her to children's quick care center since her peditirican couldn't work her in.

They said she had pink eye and allergies from our over 8000 pollen count. Gave her eye drops and Zyrtec to take. Came home and all she did was SCREAM for the next 24 hours and could not open her eyes. We kept warm compresses on and I called the doctor 5 times to say something is wrong. Pink eye would get better very fast and she had gotten worst.

So I took her to ER around 4pm yesterday. They did a test and her left eye has a severe cornea abrasion. I mean severe. They showed me the scratch that glows under a black light and I felt so bad. Sent us home with lortab for pain and eye ointment and if she was not better in 2 days to call eye doc.

We have stayed in bed just like they said with eye compresses on her eyes. She has put ointment in eyes 3 times a day and taken pain meds like stated. She still can not open her eyes and is in severe pain. Thank god she is sleeping finally because my nerves are beyond shot from all her screaming and crying. I can't seem to make it better for her.

Any ideas on how to help her? She is 5 and doesn't understand why she hurts so bad. I am trying so hard here and I am beyond frustrated.

Also she doesn't seem to be healing and she is NOT touching her eye. Trust me as I am with her every second. I call eye doc tomorrow but wanted to ask here. What happens if it doesn't heal? I mean the ENTIRE cornea is scratched.


Doc believes she was scratching eye Monday while out in pollen and scratched it with her nail and then kept scratching. She does not have pink eye btw


Advice? Ugh I am so dead and drained ......��

Poor Baby! I know personally how painful it is. I also had a scratched corena from not taking my contacts out for several days.

I went to my Optometrist and he told me my corena was scratched, not to wear my contacts for several days, put drops in my eye, gave me a tube of some kind
of salve ointment and put a bandage and eye patch on me.

He told me if it was not better in a few days to come back and see him.

Well when I got home I was in so much pain that I looked in the phone book

and found an ophtalmologist. She said she could work me in the next day.

I was in so much pain that I could hardly wait until the next day.

Well when I finally was able to see her, the first thing she did was ask who put

the patch on my eye? I told her it was my Optometrist who treated me.

She said that optometrist are good at testing eyesight for glasses and contacts

but they are not trained to treat eye problems. that Ophtalmologists have more

years of schooling and so on and so forth. by then all I wanted was for her to

be quite and stop the pain.

Well come to find out I had an ucler of the corena and by me not taking my

contacts out. I had deprived my eye of oxygen and the worse thing that my

optometrist could have done was to cover my eye with a patch and not let it get

oxygen and it could have been alot worse if I had waited much longer to see her.

She gave me antibiotic drops and a prescription for Tylox.

Well about 2 days later I felt much better, but I never wore contacts again.

I also learned to see an Optometrist for glasses and an Ophtalmologist for

eye treatment.

I hope your little girl gets better soon and that she can sleep thru most of the pain until it heals.

I have an 11 year old and she is still my baby. and when she hurts, I hurt.

[Good Apollo]

@UGAgal you are being an awesome mom. I'm sure they gave you n eye patch for the one eye? Best of luck, you are doing a good job. It's very tough when our littles aren't well. There's no perfect way, nor is there anyway to feel great for you until they are better. She will get better though, because she's got an awesome mom looking out for her. Get some rest!

[UGAgal]

Poor Baby! I know personally how painful it is. I also had a scratched corena from not taking my contacts out for several days.

I went to my Optometrist and he told me my corena was scratched, not to wear my contacts for several days, put drops in my eye, gave me a tube of some kind
of salve ointment and put a bandage and eye patch on me.

He told me if it was not better in a few days to come back and see him.

Well when I got home I was in so much pain that I looked in the phone book

and found an ophtalmologist. She said she could work me in the next day.

I was in so much pain that I could hardly wait until the next day.

Well when I finally was able to see her, the first thing she did was ask who put

the patch on my eye? I told her it was my Optometrist who treated me.

She said that optometrist are good at testing eyesight for glasses and contacts

but they are not trained to treat eye problems. that Ophtalmologists have more

years of schooling and so on and so forth. by then all I wanted was for her to

be quite and stop the pain.

Well come to find out I had an ucler of the corena and by me not taking my

contacts out. I had deprived my eye of oxygen and the worse thing that my

optometrist could have done was to cover my eye with a patch and not let it get

oxygen and it could have been alot worse if I had waited much longer to see her.

She gave me antibiotic drops and a prescription for Tylox.

Well about 2 days later I felt much better, but I never wore contacts again.

I also learned to see an Optometrist for glasses and an Ophtalmologist for

eye treatment.

I hope your little girl gets better soon and that she can sleep thru most of the pain until it heals.

I have an 11 year old and she is still my baby. and when she hurts, I hurt.

We are seeing the Ophtalmologist actually. I just didn't realize there was a difference until your post so I had to go check pthe referral paper to see which doc they were.

We did get an eye patch BUT they told me to ONLY put it on her eye when we left the house and were to be out in the pollen. That she was to stay in until we needed to leave the house so she hasn't worn the patch since we got home and took it off.

I will keep you posted tomorrow on what doc says. I think she may finally be asleep for awhile cause she is out cold. Sorry for all my typos tonight but she is laying on my right arm. And one handed left typing is so not for me lol.

Thanks again all. It has helped me a lot!

[LSUCAJUNTIGER]

We are seeing the Ophtalmologist actually. I just didn't realize there was a difference until your post so I had to go check pthe referral paper to see which doc they were.

We did get an eye patch BUT they told me to ONLY put it on her eye when we left the house and were to be out in the pollen. That she was to stay in until we needed to leave the house so she hasn't worn the patch since we got home and took it off.

I will keep you posted tomorrow on what doc says. I think she may finally be asleep for awhile cause she is out cold. Sorry for all my typos tonight but she is laying on my right arm. And one handed left typing is so not for me lol.

Thanks again all. It has helped me a lot!

Yes please let us know how it goes tomorrow.

And your typing is perfect. I peck using my two index fingers.

[Bananastickers]

my heart breaks for her aside from a couple bad teeth incidents that was the worst pain I ever had. Mostly because there is almost nothing that can be done for it until you get to a doc. I got ointment & he basically told me it would have to fix itself. He did say eyes heal amazingly quick, so I hope that can make you feel a bit better. It probably won't though . Give that baby a hug from all your fellow forum members.

[betsky]

@UGAgal
you really r an awe inspiring mom. You R spot on, sleep is best for both of u. can't you rest her haed on a pillow and close your own eyes for a few minutes?
one last bit of advice, be sure to keep her on a schedule of pain killers. If it says every 4hrs then give them every 4 , i know it would be hard to wake her but if you let her sleep untill it hurts too much then its a vicious cycle. Thats why they wake you up in the hospital, just to ruin your sleep,instead of the medicine doing a rollercoaster ride in her system, if you keep her on a schedule, then the pain med stays on an even line which is whats best for her. if it says prn or as needed every 4 hours then just presume she needs it every 4 hrs as she is only 5 and can't be the best of information at the moment. Get some rest if you can , all my best, Betsky

[UGAgal]

@betsky oh yes she gets it every 4 hours. We missed a dose in the middle of night and it was hell on earth for her after for a couple of hours so now I have alarm set when she needs it. I just woke her and gave her pain meds and last dose of ointment in her eyes and she is laying back down and hopefully will go back to sleep. She did hug my neck and say thank you for taking care of me. She knows what I needed to hear I guess.

[betsky]

@UGAgal
I was just wondering how your little girl is and how you r doing?

[aussieandy]

@UGAgal, you probably are already aware of this, but scratches to the outer layer of the eye heal very quickly. If her condition is what you have been told then you may be surprised at the improvment after 1 night's good sleep. I've had a couple of eye injuries like this and they healed within two day's at the most. Tough to get a five year old to lay still though and not move her eyes? I've said it before but you mum's deserve medals!! You couldn't pay me to perform the work 24/7 you gals do for free!! My mother made my chilhood as close to heaven as she could not that i knew it at the time. Hope you and your little one both had a rest last night! BTW I have twin girls of my own due in july, I know nothing about babies and nothing of little girls, so if you see a parenting HELP thread pop up around july feel free to HELP ME!! Have a great weekend mum's!!!

[Sephrina]

Dear @UGAgal

I'm so sorry your daughter is in pain. I'm glad she is doing a bit better. You sound like a really great mom - very nurturing. Which is how moms are supposed to be - but many are not. I do not have kids - or will have them - so I do not post much on these threads. But, I just wanted to let you know ur both in my thoughts & prayers. I only have had pets. As u know - my pet bird is my baby - when she is sick I worry myself quite ill. I can not imagine the emotional & physical demands & stress over being an actual mommy.

Hugs
~ Sephrina