What Is An Eye Emergency?

What Is An Eye Emergency?

The first vision that comes into most people's thoughts when you say emergency can be pretty gruesome, but that does not have to be true. So what actually falls under the category of an eye emergency? The most common would be injury or trauma to the eye such as getting something in your eye like metal, wood or some other foreign body, or maybe a scratch or a burn of some type. Maybe you woke up with your eye swollen and red or oozing something that, well, it just shouldn’t be. Then there are those not so typical emergencies; these would include if you were to experience any pain or double vision without warning, the recent onset of flashes of lights or floaters in your vision, or the sudden loss of or shadows in your vision.  Also if you’ve had recent eye surgery and you are experiencing any pain, redness or change in vision you should contact your doctor.  When it comes right down to it, any change in your vision/eyes, big or small, if it has you worried you should feel comfortable calling and talking to us about it!

When you call in you should be ready to answer a few questions such as, when did you first notice the symptoms? Did anything happen that caused the symptoms; for example were you mowing the lawn, playing a sport, at work? Have you noticed any loss/change of vision, is it limited to one eye, which eye,or both eyes? There may be questions about other possible symptoms that you may not have noticed or have possibly not considered relevant. Please don’t let these questions cause you more concern, it is just our way of getting all the information possible for our technicians and doctors so they can be fully prepared for your visit. 

Which leads us to when do you call the doctor and which doctor do you call? Most often when you think emergency you think of the emergency room.  What we’d like you to know is that here at Oneota Valley Family Eye Care our doctors are on call 24 hours, 7 days a week to help with emergencies as well. You should feel free to call us any time of the day or night and leave a message and one of our doctors will get back to you as soon as possible to help you. This is what we do, Preserve Vision Throughout Life!