Glass eyes

ayemmeff · Jan 13, 2003

ew.......!

Not something I ever want to become proficient in,I think! I have cared for a few patients with prosthetic eyes,luckily for me they were all well enough to do their own eye care.It was a long time ago now,and I guess if the need arose,I'd have to call the opthamology dept and wheedle one of the nurses up to my floor,with promises of favours and chocolate!!

memphispanda, RN · Jan 13, 2003

LMAO--We had that lecture my first semester, and I remember thinking that if it was a common thing, I wasn't going to make it. Our instructor (nurse for 20+ years prior to becoming a nurse educator) told us story about her only experience with a glass eyeball. At the time, she was a school nurse for a smallish system, and was responsible for several schools. She got a frantic call from a secretary at one of the schools she wasn't scheduled to be at that day, ad sped over there, expecting to find broken bones, worms, who knew what. She found a 6 year old boy with his eye in his hand. Only the secretary didn't realize it was a GLASS eye. SHe thought it was the real deal and had totally freaked out. My instructor said it took two tries to get the eye back in right--the first time it was in backwards (or upside down). I figured that if in all her experience, that was the only time she had to deal with it, then I could handle it.

ayemmeff · Jan 13, 2003

omg,Carol!

LMAO!!! :D

tabbeycatt · Jan 13, 2003

okay... that would freak me out. I hope to never have to do this but if the situation arises..... send me prayers!

Jennerizer, ASN, RN · Jan 13, 2003

Oh man....you are making my stomach turn just thinking about it!!

nursedawn67, LPN · Jan 13, 2003

I have 2 gentlemen that I care for that have a prosthetic eye, they both remove their eye for us and we just clean it and then they replace it themselves, occasionally I have to put it back for them. I thought this would be my weakness, at first I said there was no way in h*** that I was going to do this, and then one day I had no choice and just did it, it turned out to be no big deal.

DIPLOMATICRN4HIRE, MSN, RN · Jan 13, 2003

Remember with glass eyes their never PERLA.

Zoe

lisamct · Jan 13, 2003

Ive only had 2 experiences with prosthetic eyes. The first was a young woman with severe learning disabilities who had congenital eye defects. She had a sort of flat 'front plate' rather than a whole eye as she had no real socket, just eye lids. The staff ( I was a student in the ward) would only put her eye in when her mum came to visit and not until her mum was actually walking up the corridor, then, as soon as mum left the eye was removed. I remember thinking how terrible this was making the young girl go eye-less when she had no visitors.I found out the reason one day when the staff were held up talking to her mum and didnt get to her in time, the young girl promptly took the eye plate out, popped it in her mouth and swallowed it! Apparently this was her 6th eye in a year and she couldnt afford to keep buying new ones every time she ate one.

Second time was an old lady in a nursing home, it was my first night shift and she asked me to remove her eye for her, her eye was wet and covered in this whitish pus and I really didnt want to touch it. But as the good nurse that I am I smiled and reached out to do the deed when she stopped me, laughed, and popped the eye out herself.It was her staff initiation scheme she told me, and I'd passed the test. We got on like a house on fire after that.

Luckily Ive never had to deal with one since!!

Lisa

Love-A-Nurse · Jan 13, 2003

of the 11 years i have been a nurse [lpn], those very few patients that i have encountered with "glass eyes", they insisted on removing and returning them without assistance. i would make sure the area around the opening was clean/intact etc.

as an rn student, we have not yet gotten to this.