[Heineken]

I often get little bits of stuff (grit, wood chips, etc.) stuck in an eye. There is nothing more annoying. Can also be frightening---and dangerous to the eye. Many years ago (before I realized how to take care of the problem myself) I had to go to an ophthalmologist to have a wood chip extracted. The eye was reddened and was criss-crossed by inflamed blood vessels.

Cost me a pretty penny---all unnecessary. Before I went to the doctor, I had tried everything, I thought. Including lying backwards in a bathtub with my face under the running faucet.

Here's how to get foreign matter out. There are other ways, but this way is the best way I've come up with. I've used it for about ten years now, and it's never failed me.

Go to the drugstore and buy one of those small plastic enema bottles prefilled with chemical solution. Back home, unscrew the tip and dump out the chemical solution the bottle is filled with. Triple-rinse the bottle. Fill the bottle with water of a very equable temperature---a bit cooler than lukewarm. Screw the tip back on.

Take a few practice squirts with the enema bottle into the sink to get a sense of its "action."

Now gently pull back the eyelid (upper or lower, depending on where you sense the foreign object lies). Look down or up (and/or left or right) to give the location of the object maximum exposure, and carefully squirt a stream of water into that spot. You are trying to irrigate the "pocket" between the eyelid and the eye itself, fairly forcefully but not so forcefully as to hurt the eye, of course. You may feel some stinging from the impact (and nonphysiological pH) of the water. It takes a bit of practice and discipline to keep from shutting or averting the eye (a reflex mechanism, after all) from the stream of water.

Now dry your face with a towel and go about other activities. As the stinging sensation subsides, you will get an idea as to whether the foreign object is still there.

It is often necessary to repeat the procedure, perhaps with a bit more force or a different angle of attack.

If you keep trying and failing to dislodge the object, give up and go to a doctor!

For me this method has ALWAYS worked, though!

OK, I've done my good bit for my fellow Peakoilers today.

[PrairieMule]

One sunny afternoon at the ranch, my stepmother got some metal flakes in her eye. She was using a wire brush to prep the pipe on our corral for a fresh coat of paint.

It was expensive 20 years ago, I can't imagine what it would cost now.

[jbrovont]

Also good to have a partner and a mirror handy.

[blukatzen]

How about wearing a pair of safety glasses? I wear them all the time when I am out trimming the bushes, etc. I don't want any stray branches whipping out at my corneas.

I've had Lasik surgery (had to do a repeat too!) and you have your "flaps" to watch out for the rest of your life. Plus, your eyes are also dryer than normal, due to the surgery. So I am often irrigating the eyes. Most mornings, I am putting in artificial tears or water. Sometimes at night, I have an artificial tears that is more gel-like of a lubricant.
I am out in the wind and sun all day at my garden centers, therefore, I wear a good pair of sunglasses with a UV filter. Often times, I have not only wood chips (Mulch) flying around, but open bags of Peat and Perlite in the "Potting mixes" fly around, which can contain perlite, vermiculite, etc. It's something I deal with for the whole season, so I know to "cover up" the eyes.

I don't wear as much makeup as I used to either. Only for parties or special events do I bother getting gussied up anymore. That can irritate eyes as well.

Wear those glasses!

Kind regards to my friend Heineken!



Blu

[blukatzen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', 'O')ne sunny afternoon at the ranch, my stepmother got some metal flakes in her eye. She was using a wire brush to prep the pipe on our corral for a fresh coat of paint.

It was expensive 20 years ago, I can't imagine what it would cost now.

[dinopello]

Yea, safety glasses are the way to go, but I never seem to have them on either. When I get sawdust or wood in my eye I pry it open, tilt to the outside and douse it with saline solution. It seems like metal would be worse so at work on the milling or grinding machines I always wear safety goggles. That magnet trick sounds nifty though I'd rather not have to see if it works!

[RedStateGreen]

Good tip, Heineken.

[BigTex]

What if you just got one of those big bottles of saline solution in the contact lens supply section of the store and did the same thing with it?

I'll bet Heiny just didn't think of that or he would have done it.

[Heineken]

You could certainly use that, BigTex. Anything that squirts a fine, controllable stream of water or physiological saline (0.9% sodium chloride solution). A "big bottle" might be hard to control, though. You need to be able to hold and easily squeeze the bottle with one hand and manipulate the eyelid with the other. For this purpose the small enema bottle is ideal.

About safety glasses: I wear them almost all the time while working. But even with safety glasses and a helmet with a visor I have gotten wood fragments stuck in my eye while using a chainsaw. They ricochet around and sometimes get in there (very small, and with their energy dispersed, but still quite capable of giving you a nice eye infection followed by blindness!).

Goggles are better, but they're very uncomfortable and tend to mist up.

You can get stuff in your eye while doing nothing. The wind can blow in a piece of grit while you're sitting in a lawn chair reading "Down and Out in Paris and London."

When you have something trapped in an eye, nothing else will matter to you but getting it out.

This is an almost surefire method for getting the damned thing out safely and without dependence on others, especially co$tly doctors. You don't even need a partner. Just a mirror and your own dexterity.

[hardtootell]

just a suggestion but instead of a rinsed out enema bottle you could try one of these;

Link

[Heineken]

The opening looks too large. The stream would be too wide, I think.

Enema bottle is better. Cheaper, too.

[blukatzen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'T')he opening looks too large. The stream would be too wide, I think.

Enema bottle is better. Cheaper, too.

[lotrfan55345]

Since I always have foreign objects in my eye (contacts), I just remove them and the foreign objects usually go along with them.

[Heineken]

I've used an eye cup, Blu. But often it didn't work. Sometimes the foreign object is deep under the lid (usually the upper one is the problematic one). Just soaking the eye often doesn't solve the problem. Neither does dunking your head in a sinkful of water and blinking like crazy. You need a focused stream of water boring way back into that pocket created when you pull the eyelid back.

It's worth trying things like blinking under water or using an eye cup first. But if they fail then you need to bring in the heavy artillery! ENEMA BOTTLE!

My grandmother used some sort of method involving the use of a cotton cue tip to evert the eyelid, but this strikes me as potentially dangerous and kind of gross.

[CrudeAwakening]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', '
')My grandmother used some sort of method involving the use of a cotton cue tip to evert the eyelid, but this strikes me as potentially dangerous and kind of gross.

[Heineken]

We all need to achieve a constant safety-consciousness about our eyes. They are almost as precious as life itself. (I don't think I could bear to live if I were blind.)

It horrifies me to recall that back in the 80s I built a house without wearing any eye protection. People were much less safety conscious then, or at least I was.

I don't see "safety glasses" or "safety goggles" on many (if any) of those 100-item lists of things to buy for post-PO survival.

Glasses and face shields will prevent direct impact of flying objects, but even while wearing them you can still get particles stuck in your eye through "ricochets" and other circuitous routes.

When you're out there (or indoors) working with your hands and tools all the time, getting stuff in your eyes becomes a ceaseless menace.

As I said earlier, if the enema-bottle method doesn't work, immediately see a doctor. But one day there may be no doctor, or no at least no doctor available to you.

The method I described provides a simple, cheap, independent, and in my experience highly effective way to remove most foreign matter stuck in your eye. I've probably used it on myself 50 or more times, and every time it has worked (although admittedly I had to repeat the procedure multiple times in many cases).