Something caught in my eye is causing pain when I blink. How do I get it out?

I clean and safe way is to cut up a big onion put it close to your face and breath in the fumes. This will make you cry and wash out the offending particle. If that does not help – i would go ot er

If you have saline solution, you can pull out you top eyelid a bit and squirt it up there and let it flush out.
I’m sorry this happened to you. I know how much it hurts :(

Also, it might be a bump on the the inside of your eyelid that formed over night. I’ve had that happen before.

I’m glad you asked this! After getting out of the shower today, I rubbed my eye and felt something sharp in there. I don’t see anything when I try to get it out but I sure do feel it. Maybe we should pouring some eye drops in there to flush it out?

You can get a sterile eyewash at the pharmacist and squirt that in. It also usually comes with an eye cup that you can put the solution in if you can’t stand the squirting. I like the onion trick above. One other approach is to gently lift the upper eyelid out, then close your eye and release the eyelid. This should result in your lower lashes brushing your upper eyelid. If whatever it is is stuck to the back of your eyelid this will remove it. If none of this works you may want to see a doctor. It’s also possible that some minor damage was done but nothing is actually in there anymore. Try looking at it in the mirror and moving your eye around, sometimes you can see what’s in there.

You can try flushing your eye under the faucet. Run room temperature water at a medium speed, hold your eye open with your fingers, and stick your eyeball under there for a bit. You’ll be a sopping wet mess afterward but it will probably do the trick.

Flushing it either with real tears (via onion-smelling) or a saline solution is always a good idea. If the pain persists, or you can’t seem to flush it out, you may have a scratch on your cornea. Happened to my dad a few years ago and he had to go to an eye specialist to get it fixed. Other suggestions for treating a scratched cornea can be found here.

Does anyone believe in Dr.s or emergency rooms any more?

@nitemer – Sure, I believe in doctors and emergency rooms, but people get painful things in their eyes all the time that don’t require a doctor’s care. Some simple first aid can often solve the problem and should be tried before going to the ER in most cases.

@nitemer Plus, doctors cost money.

If you cant get it out with saline solution or other methods I would suggest calling an ophthalmologist, and explain the situation over the phone. I’ve worked in an ophthalmologist’s office, and they’re usually very understanding and willing to work people in, in that type of situation. There is absolutely no need to go to the emergency room.

Sharp’s method of pulling the top lid out and down has consistently worked for me many times in the past. It takes a few tries to get the hang of it cuz it’s a little hard to get a firm grip on the upper eyelid without it slipping. But just keep trying.

I would just add one more little maneuver which works as well. As soon as you have the top lid down over the other one, GENTLY rub towards the inside corner of your eye (towards your nose) to coax the particle out to that corner. Hopefully there will also be some tearing so the fluid helps to wash it out in that direction.

Use a soft tissue or cloth (again sweeping inward) to wipe it out altogether hopefully.

Sometimes I have to repeat this a few times to coax out the particle which is many times not visible to the naked eye. But you can definitely feel the difference when it’s gone.

However, if you also irritated or scratched the cornea with all the previous rubbing, there may still be some pain but it will most likely be diminished once the particle is flushed out
.

If you scratched your eyeball you may have already gotten it out, but it still feels like there’s something in there because of the scratch.

See similar answers to another fluther question here

How is your eye now? Did you get it taken care of?

Update: Didn’t go to a doctor, felt pain the rest of the day and some soreness the following day. All better now!

Well thanks God for that and the fact it was not one of hundred of other things resulting in infections and complications.

Ik exactly what it is. I also get this every so often. I bet anything that if you kind of pull your top lid out and turn it a little inside out, you’ll see a VERY small little bump(s) on the rim of your upper lid. Idk why they happen, but if you scratch at them, they usually come off or pop. It’s disgusting, but you’ll have instant relief. :)

I Went to a doctor to get my eye checked out for a similar situation. It felt like there was constant scratching in my eye whenever I moved my eyball or blinked (the scratching worsened when my eyes were closed). I told my doctor that whenever I moved my eye with my lids closed I could feel it scratching, but if I pulled out on my lid a little it didn’t scratch anymore. He and the nurse basically fought with me saying it was pink eye. I explained that yes, I can see how it looks like that since my eye is now pink from rubbing it for the past 6 hours, but it was not pink eye, I was familiar with pink eye and knew it was not that, it was ‘something’ under my eyelid scratching me, and i could feel it very clearly. He stuck a small stick in my eye and scraped across my eyelid and he said a small particle came out, and it may have been it, but perscribed me an anti-biotic ointment anyhow (by the way I’m not convinced these ‘ointments’ work for crap, I think a strong eye drop would have been MUCH better, this shit just makes my vision super ridiculously blurry).

Today I made it on here, after days of pain, and something Tiphanie said made me think “screw it, this has been hurting for days and my vision is blurry and I can barely see”. (I’m a graphic designer and IT guy by trade, so not being able to clearly see was essentially destroying my abilities / making me DREAD work tomorrow). My wife picked up an eye patch at the store and it let me focus enough throughout the day to start reading online.

When I saw Tiphanie’s comment it reminded me of a tiny (very tiny, tip of a tooth-pick tiny) white dot I saw waaaaaaaay up in the top of my eyelid when I had been examining myself the day before. I Went in the cupboard and grabbed a few toothpicks, and reached up in my eyelid (steadily, trying not to gouge myself) and poked / prodded at the little white thing a bit. I barely touched it and it looked like it moved a little, I didn’t know if I popped it or what, so I slid my toothpick accross it sideways and it wiped out and into my eyelid, like a white-head pimple or something, a small white dot. One more good wipe and I had it out of my eye, all scratching sensation immediately stopped. my vision is still blurry but I imagine that will fix itself shortly now that my eye is done attacking itself. Thank you Tiphanie for that somewhat gross but great tip, it worked and I can’t thank you enough!

Also I used my super-macro lens camera, I have pictures! If there’s a way to post images on here I’ll post them, but I’m new to Fluther so I just wanted to make this post and say thank you!