One of the hallmarks of a geekparent is a hunger for knowledge. RSS feeds, news and magazine subscriptions and observations make us pretty well-informed members of the societies we inhabit. But, there are some things that can only be lived. Taking a Lego to the cornea is an experience we hope not to repeat. I never wanted to know about a corneal injury.
The school morning routine was interrupted by screams from our middle kid. After his screams briefly subsided, we found that he had been attacked by the two-year old wielding an outthrust Lego brick. Although he seemed to be well enough to head off to school, the pain in his eye kept coming back throughout the morning. He went from no pain to 10 in an instant, shouting for the pain to go away. It was doctor time.
So now, I had to know what was happening in his eye. To Wikipedia! The cornea is the outer layer of the eye, serving as the first clear layer for the lens. Because it is clear, any scratches or injuries are difficult to see unaided. A heavy concentration of nerves in the eye is probably responsible for the amount of pain he experienced.
Our doctor placed yellow drops containing fluorescein sodium in his eye. Under UV light, the scratch was clearly visible and bright yellow.
Some antibiotic ointment and an eye patch encourages him to keep the eye closed and allows the scratch to heal over. A stop for ice cream on the way home probably won’t hurt much either. You can see by the picture that he wanted to extend ITLAPD. The eye isn’t causing him any more pain and he’s not reported any vision problems since the accident.
A fortunately minor accident boosted my previously limited medical knowledge. And now yours.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=7a0dd7f7-fb47-41c2-9714-e8395ff668a9)
