Sjogren's Eye Drop Klutz

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If I haven’t stated it before, I have always been a klutz and accident prone.  I sometimes trip just walking down the street.  If you leave a computer plugged in next to me, there is a good chance I will trip on the cord.

What most recently landed me at the eye doctor is slightly embarrassing.  (It is also not the first time that some variation of this has happened.)  I was doing a little reading in bed and started dozing off.  I hadn't put my eye gel in and decided in my half asleep fog that I might be able to do it without a mirror.  Well, I was able to get the gel in my eye while at the same time poking my eye right under the eye ball.  It did hurt and my eye felt achy.  I wanted to ignore that it didn't quite feel back to normal the next day, but on better judgment and my husband’s reasoning with me, I decided there was nothing to lose in having it checked out.  I have 3 or 4 ongoing issues with my eyes so taking good care of them is a big priority.

Well, the good news is that the eye doctor saw no abrasion of my cornea or the white of the eye.  I have poked my eye two other times when putting in eye drops or gels over the last two years.  Only one of the times did I need immediate medical care and actually scratched my cornea.  Usually I make this stupid mistake, when I am tired and not paying enough attention to what I am doing.  

In my defense because I have Sjogren’s, my eyes are extremely dry and require continuous drops to provide some moisture.   I also contend with other eye conditions such as corneal inflammation, uveitis, and blepharitis that require medication.  This means that I am putting drops in my eyes on average 12 times a day or 4380 times a year.   So by this calculation it is not unreasonable to mistakenly poke oneself in the eye three times in two years with an eye drop, right?  Still, feels pretty dumb to end up at a doctor for that reason.

I think that I will have to put a hand mirror on my nightstand for anymore attempts to put in drops from bed.  I can’t be the only person with Sjogren’s or dry eyes that’ve had this kind of accident.  What are your tips for avoiding those eye drop pokes?