Here goes another unrelated off grid story but wanted to pass it on.
I have several Euphorbia Grandicornis, Big Horn cactus, that I have grown from buying cuttings years ago. They grow like crazy in the summer, I am talkin about a few inches a week. So yesterday I decided it was time to take a new cutting. I had a hard time with my old pruners but got through it. I have been told several times any cactus that has a white sap make sure and wash it off and never get it in your eyes. Well of course I had the sticky white sap on my hands and the pruners. I went over to the faucet and did a quick rinse on both. I then quickly patted dry the pruners and worked on them a bit to reshape the pulled apart blades. I went on about my morning and all of sudden my left eye was burning. I put in eye drops and it just burned more. The pain got intense so the first thing I did was wash my hands with soap and water like I should have done earlier. I then flushed it with more eye drops and washed around my eye. The pain got worse and worse. I have had jalapeño juice, cajun spices, gasoline, hot slag, and all kind of other crap in my eye but nothing that burned like this. Sandy
So; If working with cactus and any sap gets on you wash it off thoroughly with soap and water and don't stick you finger in your eye. Lesson Learned!
18 comments:
I had no idea that would happen, I thought you could drink cactus juice.
Thanks for this post. I was watering a potted cactus in the sink, and the top of it got caught on the cabinet knob above the sink. As I looked up to see what the problem was, a drop of sap landed squarely on my right tear duct. Nothing happened until about 15 minutes later, as the pain grew. I googled "cactus juice in the eye", and landed here. I had no idea what kind of cactus mine was, so I identified it as a euphorbia thru Google images. Rats!
2 ER's and two days later, I'm better, but boy, the pain was unreal...
This just happened to my husband who was pruning back a very tall cactus next to our house and a small bit of it fell into his eye. Lesson: Wear goggles when trimming this type of cactus. We tried an eye wash solution that I had and then milk. The milk seemed to help more but - slowly, his tears and sinuses were very active. In the morning he felt better but had a swollen bag under his eye. That day it progressively felt better and in the evening he said it felt normal, finally.
Cutting cactus with no gloves. Sap got on my hands and transferred to eye. Within 15 minutes, pain set in and flushing eyes with water did not solve issue. Blood shot eyes, sweeping around eye, and extreme pain. Trip to emergency room. Eye flushed with saline bag, attached to eye with contact type device and given topical eye drop pain medication. Left ER with liquid eye antibiotic.
Well, this evening I found myself in the emergency room due to the same thing. I was moving a very tall (but very thin) cactus between room and kicked the top of the door way. That's when a glob of cactus sap made its way off the cactus and right between my eyes. The Droplet splashed on the bridge of my nose and infected both eyes. I guess now it the sitting and waiting game until my eyes are 100%. I was given a numbing solution but that only works for 30 mins. Now for antibiotics. Thanks for posting this. I would have never known what caused this crazy extreme pain. Nor would anyone have believed me.
Glad my info was of some help. I have all kinds of cactus and take great care now to be extra careful. I have started wrapping them with a beach towel... especially at eye level and always thoroughly wash my hands after handling.
Just did the same thing. My glasses fell off and the sap jumps right In It is is like having pepper in my eyes. Totally my fault, I was talking on the mobile while cutting. Thanks for the post. I was really in a panic.
I was having a call when I accidentally play about with flowery cactus when suddenly the sap enters into my eye it was like pepper I need your advise
I was having a call when I accidentally play about with flowery cactus when suddenly the sap enters into my eye it was like pepper I need your advise
Robert,
As per the comments above flush with milk and keep flushing. After a while flush with water.
Not a lot you can do but let it do its think and yes it hurts and is very uncomfortable.
Sorry this is of no more help.
I got a drop above and one just below the eye. Thankfully nothing in the eye itself. Burns like hell though. Washed it off right away, but didn't help. Now to wait for it to become bearable. It's been almost 4 hours
Wow, relieved to read these comments. A few weeks ago, I trimmed some dry areas of a mariscal cactus (by the looks of pictures I've seen) in our yard. Got a white milky substance on fingers which dried like glue on fingertips. Not concerned,I fixed lunch and by the time I did the dishes, my eye was irritated (I do have extremely dry eyes so figured this was a flare up). I looked in the mirror and found no irritation or particle in my eye and continued to massage my eye, then the other one. All of a sudden, they were both burning like I have never felt before (i cook with jalapenos frequently and never experienced anything like this and was no where near any hot peppers or the like at that time). They continued to burn profusely to a point I could not open my eyes. My husband came home and read about using milk as a rinse...we tried that, I used various lubricating drops I use often...flushed my eyes with water several times...I was getting frantic because nothing but time seemed to lessen this pain/burn. After about 4 hours, and soaking my eyes constantly with ice packs to help numb the burning sensation, the pain started to lessen, leaving my eyes looking red and swollen. Horrible experience. Until today, I did not know what caused this event. But I remembered the cactus and touching that milk briefly. I will NEVER get near that again. And we just planted a CACTUS GARDEN!! Good grief!. Thanks for your comments.
Job Plug.... UV Air Purifiers, Air Oasis UV PCO sanitizer. See https://www.uvairpurifiers.com/.
how to get off the eyes from burning
Thanks, think I need to do that now.
As I was reading all these stories my husband was laughing saying, "yes! That is how it feels!". So what we tried was chamomile tea as eye drops and kept leaving the bags on his eyes. It started feeling better but It wasnt till added milk (thanks to you all) that he felt ALOT better.
How do you flush your eyes with milk
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