Been there done that huge! Do you know that if you move one eyeball, the other one follows, even if it's patched? Do you know that if one eyeball retina reacts to light, the other one does, even if it's patched? Yep.
Fyi if I sleep in too dry of a house or under a fan, I have huge issues. Abrasions being the extreme's extreme and wrinkled eye "skin" (surface) that causes blurred and double vision being the low end. I use at least coconut oil up on the eyeshadow spot to help moisturize my eyeballs. Currently using CBD oil. It gradually seeps into the eye socket. Be highly selective. Really cannot recommended cinnamon oil, for example. :-D
Yeah I know from experience :P. I have to close both eyes in a dark room for an hour to actually feel any better! And my doc actually told me no patching as new data has indicated that patching doesn't help at all and even indicate it might make it worse!
Yeah I was mischievous laughing the whole time I wrote. There is no way you couldn't know. It's instinctive to try to cover the wounded eye with a hand and try to see with the other eye. I well remember being curled up in a ball in a dark room for three days BEFORE I was even willing to attempt to leave the house. It was a 3 day weekend, too. But the eye is amazing to try to heal itself very well. Half way through the first day, I could tell it was improving. So I was perfectly content to avoid ER and all light! I only really went to the doc to get a sanity chec. As I suspected she would, she prescribed a precautionary antibiotic just because I was still on a long healing journey. It was 3 weeks before she was happy with the way the eyeball looked.
Smart doctor's haven't patched eyes for stuff like this since at last 1978 when my little 6 week old daughter hit her own eye with her fingernail. They weren't even an extreme length. The eye doc said it happens all the time. I personally crawled up and grazed my dad's eye. He said it was the worst physical pain of his life. He didn't tell me though until my daughter reminded him.
So truly. Nothing but empathy from me. Well and a little bit of sick humor. Itty bitty bit.