Quote:
Originally Posted by 123boyzz  The problem is when i fall asleep at night i literally will wake up in severe pain for about 20 minutes and then it slowly goes away. Like i said its strange that this only happens at night. I can rub my eye during the day and live a normal pain free life until i go to sleep. Does anyone know what is happening? |
This is the classic description of "recurrent corneal erosion." It almost always happens at night while sleeping. Eye dries out, and when you open your eyes part of the top layer of the cornea comes off. The damaged part heals enough to not hurt usually within an hour or so, but depending on how bad your initial abrasion was it can take many weeks to be truly healed. Since your eye stops hurting in about 20 minutes, they are probably minor erosions right now.
Look up "recurrent corneal erosion" or "RCE" on this board or the web for more information and tips. If you don't have any other underlying problems, you may be able to just be diligent about applying drops etc until the cornea really heals. Often an initial abrasion like you describe leads to these erosion events. If you have bad underlying corneal problems, it can be corrected with laser surgery (which is what I had to do to cure it).
Next time it happens, do a walk-in to an opthalmologist - they will be able to see how big it is if you go in within a few hours of the pain. It's probably best if the opthalmologist specializes in corneal problems, but it's common enough that that's not required.
Even though it doesn't hurt during the day, don't ever rub it. Get some preservative-free drops, and use something like "Genteal Gel Severe" at night. Stay away from any ointments that have "petrolatum" in them (like Lacrilube, etc). Don't let your eyes dry out during the day, and use sunglasses if it's bright out.
Again, look up RCE or recurrent corneal erosion.
ebmd.
