"Condescending eye treatment"

I am writing this at 3:33 am whilst not being able to sleep well for the second night after accidentally getting some rust in my left eye, in the hope that future patients may get better treatment.

I have been to the Eye Infirmary many times over the years, with the first 16 years of my life for treatment of a lazy left eye, having to wear a patch over my right eye for quite some time.

You can imagine the kind of cruel comments I used to get from other children..

I have also made several visits for getting foreign parts in my eyes, whilst working in the agricultural and automotive industries.

On this occasion, I got some rust in my eye on Saturday morning, which I thought I had retrieved. On Sunday morning my eye was a bit sore still, which I thought was because it was scratched. As the day went on the pain didn't seem too bad, but after using the computer in the evening the pain gradually got worse again, so I decided to have a look in my eye with a magnifying camera that I have & then saw that I did still have a tiny speck in my eye. My wife suggested that I called the Eye Infirmary.

Whilst speaking to a triage nurse, I got the usual condescending talk about how important my eyes are, which is mostly why I am writing this letter.

I have an appointment at 14:00 tomorrow (Monday), but am not looking forward for being told off again like a child as if I had got something in my eye on purpose. I am also not looking forward to having an intense bright light shone into my eye which is now extremely sensitive to light and painful, only to be moaned at for not keeping it open wide enough, whilst tears are streaming down my face.

I do really appreciate the work that the eye infirmary staff do & do not like taking up their valuable time, with my petty problem. I have not purposely got a foreign object into my eye & do not like the pain that if causes either. I have sometimes succeeded in removing foreign objects from my eye by myself & have therefore not needed to bother the eye department, which partly answers the triage nurses question, as to why I left calling in so late.

I do wear goggles when needed & have also tried glasses, which don't seem to be much use as foreign objects still get around them. On this occasion I briefly looked under the vehicle before starting work on it, which is when the rust fell into my face & eye. It is impratical for me to wear goggles throughout my normal 12 to 14 hour day, with them steaming up & being uncomfortable to wear. I have also found that when removing goggles I have sometimes got foreign particles into my eye still, which have dropped down from my hair or forehead.

I think that the treatment may be a bit more sympathetic if the doctors & nurses had experienced the pain of a foreign object in one of their eyes, which by the way that I have been treated over the years, they can't possibly have done.

I am sorry for taking up the health services valuable time, but hope that this may make future patients experience better & therefore maybe more willing to go to the eye infirmary sooner in such incidences, which I am sure would make treatment easier & maybe less costly.