case of cold corneas

[psycholist]

Went out as usual yesterday...by now dressing is almost formulaic as long as I know the windchill. We finally have a touch of winter here and the skintemps were at 4F with the wind so I added a silk layer and all was well. Until I had to make an unexpected detour and wound up riding into the wind longer than expected. My body and extremities stayed toasty but I began feeling an unpleasant burning in my eyes despite my glasses. ALmost like they were trying to tear but couldn't. I put my head down, squinted my eyes, and slowed to a crawl to decrease added windchill but the irritation just persisted from that point on. Even after I turned south and headed home I had the feeling I'd done something to my eyes. Today they are firey and feel feverish or something, although my vision is normal and Visine Tears seems to help just a bit.
I couldn't figure it out at first...I have ridden in windchills similar or worse several times and had no troubles with my eyes like this. But I got new frames last summer and they take the wind a lot differently and I bet they channel the wind in such a way that puts it across my eyes.
Never thoought my corneas would get it when the tip of my nose and some of my cheeks were exposed and did ok.
Is there anything I should do other than time and visine? And I'm just guessing Visine is ok......

[martianone]

when the temp or wind chill is below zero, i put a on a ski goggles;
the kind that fit over your glasses.
i also use a Homeopathic product from Similason called
"Dry Eye Relief"; it nicely sooths my eyes.

[ghettocruiser]

After riding in the winter with my snowboard goggles, I'd never use anything else.


Except maybe fancier snowboard goggles

[TreeUnit]

I got some $8 plexiglass goggles at Lowes. They don't surround your eyes completely, like Snow Goggles, but they keep the cold off. I've used them at 2F and they work fine, but have the tendency to fog up when I have my balaclava on. I'm going to try applying rain-x and see if that keeps off the fog.

[vrkelley]

TreeU is that a safety goggle or something else?

[psycholist]

So have any of you that ever DID get your orbs too cold experience lingering irritation? This is day three and man I am going through the eyedrops like crazy. I know I didn't actually get them FROSTBITTEN but I do think I screwed them up.
Look like a major stoner. Where's my Sublime CD?

[squegeeboo]

I got some $8 plexiglass goggles at Lowes. They don't surround your eyes completely, like Snow Goggles, but they keep the cold off. I've used them at 2F and they work fine, but have the tendency to fog up when I have my balaclava on. I'm going to try applying rain-x and see if that keeps off the fog.

Dish Soap works great, as long as it's not snowing out. Also, Cat Crap is good, and around 4 bucks off of Amazon, but then with like 8 bucks shipping......

[Hezz]

My guess is that you actually did get a minor case of frostbite on your eyes. Also, known as frostnip. Not as serious as frostbite but you probably did some minor damage to your cornea which will take some time to heal itself. Probably a couple of weeks. I once burned the white of my eye with welding slag. Took about a month for the irritation to subside.

If your going to ride in this kind of cold you need googles. It doesn't matter if you don't feel cold. The surface of any exposed skin or flesh can get shallow damage in these temps when combined with the wind blowing over them.