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I was terrified of an eyeball injection

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Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#161

Post by randcraw »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #56
gdebel wrote: post #42

(Ophthalmologist): To any future HN reader scared by those intraocular injections: don't fear them. I'm on my way to the operating room and going to perform cataract surgery under topical (=eyedrops only) anesthesia, as I always do, and as most surgeons today do. Patients won't feel anything except water slightly flowing on the eye surface. The surgical knife is 2.2mm wide : the 25 Gauge needle is 0.260mm wide. Anest…

A couple questions: How are you using the surgical knife in your intravitreal injection procedure? Any thoughts on how often patients can see the needle? I always thought it was out of the visual axis, but some reports in this thread mention seeing it !?

I've had eye injections three times now and never saw the needle. I can't imagine you you could, since the eye can't focus on the needle since it's inside the lens which is necessary to focus what you see outside the eye onto the retina. I don't see how the fovea could receive a focused image of the needle without help from the lens.

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#162

Post by cortesoft »

anon9001 wrote: post #126
cortesoft wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't tell me not to fear it. I have a HUGE eye phobia; I can't even open my eyes under water. It doesn't matter what anyone says, it isn't a rational thing.

The trick is to take the entire day off of work, take xanax, and do the motions without panicking. The feeling you're describing is literally panic from an anxiety disorder. If it it's interfering with your adult responsibilities (like going to the doctor), that's the right time to use medication to get through it.

My toddler recently scratched my cornea with a finger, and while I was completely traumatized, I was able to go to the doctor and allow them to treat me. The phobia is not quite debilitating, just strong.

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#163

Post by cortesoft »

rblatz wrote: post #76
cortesoft wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't tell me not to fear it. I have a HUGE eye phobia; I can't even open my eyes under water. It doesn't matter what anyone says, it isn't a rational thing.

This is so bizarre to me, to be an adult and just unable to control your own body? I guess I'm lucky to not have this issue, but man it's so foreign to me that you can't even open your eyes under water.

I think you might be overestimating what I mean by "can't" open my eyes under water. I think the 'touching a hot stove' metaphor is a good one. It feels like that to me.

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#164

Post by cortesoft »

rblatz wrote: post #135
burnished wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you also not struggle to touch a hot stove? I think it is a similar feeling. Genuine question too - I've got a friend who is comedically brave and doesn't experience pain the way that other people do who might express a similar idea. He just already knows that its unusual and not the default.

That’s an interesting idea. I think I’d be able to touch it, I know I’d dislike it immensely though. But this question helped me clarify my thoughts around this more. It’s the distinction between rational fear vs irrational fear. Assuming clean water the fear of opening your eyes underwater is irrational, it’s not going to hurt you or do any long term damage. The example from the story about getting an injection on y…

If I absolutely needed to open my eyes under water for an important reason, I likely could. That is just not a common situation and I haven't encountered it.

I don't think not opening my eyes under water is THAT irrational, really. My reason for keeping my eyes closed (my fear and not liking the feeling of water touching my eyes) is greater than my need to open my eyes under water (which has been no real reason so far).

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#165

Post by glxxyz »

DantesKite wrote: post #101
foobarian wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My problem with LASIK is the rare issues. It looks like it works fantastically when it works, but it seems to also cause fantastic problems when something goes wrong. Given my high negative prescription I just can't bring myself to do it.

Excellent thinking. I've read enough horror stories to know it's not worth the risk, especially when my optometrist told me my vision would worsen anyways in 10 years.

I had LASIK almost 20 years ago and for me it's been wonderful. My vision settled down to a small (about -0.5) prescription which hasn't changed since then. Legally I can drive without glasses but I basically only wear them for driving and the cinema. Multiple optometrists in the years since have told me that I have no corneal flattening, no scarring, and I've had no dryness.

Relevant to the OP it was quite a procedure to experience. I was a little concerned before but it was quite interesting to watch the corneal flat be cut open (with no feeling at all) and peeled back, then see the little laser flashes accompanied by (weirdly) a smell of burned hair. When they dropped the flap back down my vision was instantly corrected, although initially a bit cloudy.

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#166

Post by glxxyz »

deepspace wrote: post #147
DantesKite wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent thinking. I've read enough horror stories to know it's not worth the risk, especially when my optometrist told me my vision would worsen anyways in 10 years.

Yes, even if I could overcome my phobia of things touching my eye and bring myself to have LASIK done, I would never do it, for the simple reason that my prescription keeps changing year by year. The glasses I was prescribed a few years ago are almost useless today, so I cannot help thinking that LASIK would just correct my vision at a point in time, and then a couple of years later it would be back to glasses. Not w…

Yes a stable prescription is one of the recommendations, mine had been unchanged for about 10 years before LASIK, and hasn't changed in the 18 or so years since then.

I'm not big on the idea of touching my eye but the numbing drops are amazing- after I'd had a couple of eyeball pressure tests I got used to the odd sensation of things touching my eyes without me flinching.

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#167

Post by ignoramous »

xattt wrote: post #138
notJim wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense to you, but this attitude is exactly the problem here. I know it's not rational to be very concerned about this, but I also know that the entire duration of that procedure, I will be thinking "KNIFE. IN. EYE." In the world I normally inhabit, knives should not ever be in eyes, so this is an incredibly stressful thought, stressful enough that I might do something crazy like MOVE WHILE A KNIFE IS IN MY EYE.…

Anything can be dissected (pun intended) to the point of disgust. Milk? That’s just cow blood that goes through one weird sweat gland. Honey? That’s bee vomit.

Thanks. I hate you.

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#168

Post by ignoramous »

saruken wrote: post #127
iKnowKungFoo wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had multiple eye surgeries. Prep includes putting lidocaine jelly over the eye, which will immobilize your eye from movement during the procedure.

Thank you for this. That's the primary thing I wanted to know from this post too. Although I will say having my eyes immobilized also sounds scary. And I feel like I would constantly be "checking" that I still can't move them.

Don't stress-test stuff in prod.

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#169

Post by ignoramous »

randcraw wrote: post #159
hinkley wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talking about eye surgery is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I don’t want to talk about yours, let alone think about mine. I have joked with my friends and family about giving them a limited power of attorney that in the case of eye or testicular surgery they can dose me with tranquilizers or anti anxiety meds without my knowledge and deliver me to the surgeon, having not told me that my surgery is today. They’re n…

Have you tried watching videos of surgeries to see if you can acclimatize your fear? Starting with something trivial like a skin suture or mole removal might be tolerable. Exposure therapy is an established way to gradually inoculate yourself against a fear that seems inescapably overwhelming.

> Have you tried watching videos of surgeries to see if you can acclimatize your fear?

If you're anxious enough already, then: Don't. Ever. Do. This. Videos don't help, at all. And your brain is constantly thinking about ways things might have gone wrong, while simultaneously looking (no pun) for comments from people explaining how exactly things went wrong for them!

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#170

Post by ignoramous »

bobobob420 wrote: post #77
cortesoft wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't tell me not to fear it. I have a HUGE eye phobia; I can't even open my eyes under water. It doesn't matter what anyone says, it isn't a rational thing.

Yeah if you are afraid to open your eyes underwater there is no way your letting a needle come near your eye when you are conscious and can see it. I have never heard of this eye phobia very interesting

I don't open my eyes either but mostly in swimming pools full of chlorine. Didn't know it was a phobia, because all I'm trying to do is avoid annoying eye irritation.
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