Eye Injuries: Preparing For Your Appointment

Content provided by Healthwise

Preparing For Your Appointment

To prepare for your appointment, see the topic Making the Most of Your Appointment

If you have had an eye injury that affects your vision, have someone else drive you to your doctor. If you are wearing contact lenses, remove them and take your glasses with you.

You can help your doctor diagnose and treat your condition by being prepared to answer the following questions.

• What are your main symptoms? How long have you had your symptoms?
• How and when did the injury occur?
• Have you had any injuries in the past to the same eye? Do you have any continuing problems because of the previous injury?
• Is there a foreign object in the eye? What is the object? Did it fall into the eye or did it fly into the eye at high speed?
• What type of substance was splashed into your eye? How and when did it happen? Take the container with you.
• How did the heat (thermal) burn occur?
• How did the ultraviolet (UV) light burn occur?
• Do you wear glasses or contacts? Did you remove your contact lens? Has the injury affected your vision (as corrected with glasses or contacts)?
• What kind of vision changes are you having (not related to removing your eyeglasses or contact lenses)?
• What home treatment have you tried? Did you flush your eye with water for 30 minutes as a first aid measure? Did it help?
• What prescription and nonprescription medicines do you take?
• Were drugs or alcohol involved in your injury?
• Do you have any health risks?

E-mail This | Print This Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Last updated:	December 13, 2005
Author:	Sydney Youngerman-Cole, RN, BSN, RNC
Reviewed By:	William M. Green, MD - Emergency Medicine, Ian MacDonald, MDCM, FRCSC - Ophthalmology
Editors:	Susan Van Houten, RN, BSN, MBA, Tracy Landauer