Lose one eye and without the right stuff and people to use it on you... might as well eat a bullet.
Today's Topic is: Penetrating Eye Injuries
This is the kind of eye injuries like, oh let's say, you get a piece of glass shoved into your eye by someone that you're fighting with. Now what? You just take the glass out and you're all hunky dory? Fuck no. And here is why:
Your eye leads to your brain. Any good zombie slayer knows this. You can make a nice path to the brainstem by shoving an object deep into a zombie's eye socket. That being said, any infection can get into the brain too!!! You can get a pus pocket (called an abscess) in the brain or you can get meningitis. Any penetrating eye injury will need IV antibiotics to avoid a brain infection.
Introducing an object into the eye and destroying the eye will actually destroy the other eye. Strange, I know. Let me explain. It doesn't happen too often now, because we have medicine and we catch these injuries early, but in an apocalypse, you will lose the other eye if the first eye is not fully removed and a course of steroids is not immediately given. And even then, there is still a large possibility you will go blind in the other eye. You see, the immune system knows the difference between your body and anything "foreign" except for a few of your body's organs (there are 4 total): brain, a fetus (if you are pregnant), testicles, and eyes! This means if there is trauma to any of these "organs" and tissue gets into the bloodstream, the immune system actually thinks these organs are foreign and will attack and destroy the organ. Like how the body rejects a transplanted organ. Giving steroids and removing the eye are your best bets. In the setting of a hospital, we do not remove eyes unless they are completely unsalvageable because we have great medicines and great operative techniques that would not be possible during an apocalypse.
Dosages:
Vancomycin 15mg/kg IV every 12 hours for 3-4 doses. Can NEVER be used orally.
Ceftazidime 50mg/kg IV every 8 hours until Vancomycin is finished (can switch to oral after first dose) (if Penicillin allergic, Ciprofloxacin 10mg/kg IV every 8 hours until Vancomycin is Finished [can switch to oral after first dose])
Steroids are the tricky part. It’s a guessing game. You start at a low dose and then increase it if there is inflammation of the eye (seen on a slit lamp exam). We won’t have these luxuries in the apocalypse so the dosing is truly going to be guessing. And the duration can be for 6 months or more. And high dose steroids cause you to heal slowly and cause you to be more susceptible to infection. Suddenly stopping high doses of steroids because you can’t find anymore or you have moved to a location and there is no pharmacy, will cause a withdrawal-like reaction and can actually cause the patient to die, so this is nothing to mess with. Best not to play with this unless you have a medical professional in your group who knows what they are doing.
Moral of the Story: Wear Your Fucking Safety Goggles At All Times!
♥, Samantha
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