Dry eye relief in Greenfield, Indiana

In Greenfield, dry eyes tend to follow the furnace from late fall to spring, plus the wind and dust that sweep across the open farm fields of Hancock County at planting and harvest. Relief comes from adding moisture indoors, shielding your eyes from wind and grit, taking blink breaks at screens and using a lubricating drop as the label directs. An eye doctor is the person to work out anything that lingers.

Greenfield’s climate, from its own station

Greenfield has a NOAA cooperative weather station of its own, so there’s no need to borrow numbers from Indianapolis. Its 1991–2020 normals say:

• January’s normal high is 34.8°F and its normal low is 18.5°F.
• About 119 nights a year reach freezing, and around five drop to zero or below.
• Some 34 days a year never climb above 32°F.
• 20.2 inches of snow fall in a normal winter, most of it in January.
• 47.77 inches of precipitation come in a year, with June the wettest month.
• July’s normal high is 84.3°F, and about 15 days a year hit 90°F.

So Greenfield isn’t a dry place by rainfall. The issue is the long heating season. When 18°F air comes inside and the furnace warms it, the relative humidity in the room drops, and you spend most of the winter in that air. NOAA’s humidity table for Indianapolis, the nearest city it lists, puts the average January afternoon at 70 percent outdoors, but that moisture doesn’t survive being heated to 70°F.

Wind and dust across Hancock County fields

Head out of town on any county road and the land opens into flat fields of corn and soybeans with very little to break the wind. In spring, tillage and planting lift fine soil into the air; in fall, combines throw chaff and dust across the roads. Anyone who farms, drives a tractor, coaches outdoor sports or just walks the Pennsy Trail on a breezy day gets that grit at eye level.

• Close the cab or truck windows when you pass a working field.
• Wear safety glasses with side shields for anything that kicks up dust, including mowing.
• Rinse your face with clean water after a dusty job before you touch your eyes.
• Wash your hands before you handle eye drops, every time.

If dust is part of your workday, dry eyes for outdoor workers goes further.

The National Road commute

The city’s own history notes that Greenfield was placed on the National Road, today’s US 40, and many residents now drive west along it or I-70 into Indianapolis every morning. Thirty minutes or more with the heater on high, the low winter sun in your eyes on the way home, and the concentration of highway driving all lower your blink rate. Aim the vents at the floor and the windshield, keep sunglasses in the car for the evening drive west into the sunset, and pull over rather than fiddling with a bottle at 70 mph.

Riley Festival weekend and fall outdoors

James Whitcomb Riley was born in Greenfield in 1849, and the city’s history page describes school children parading to his statue in front of the courthouse with flowers during the Riley Festival each October. Festival weekend means hours outdoors on Main Street, often in a cool, breezy fall wind, with smoke from food vendors drifting through the crowd. Sunglasses, standing upwind of the grills and a break indoors now and then make the day easier on your eyes.

How Quell fits a Greenfield routine

Quell’s label lists its Uses as For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. The formula is designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss, with Glycerol (1.0%), Polysorbate 80 (1.0%) and Light Mineral Oil (0.5%) as its active ingredients. Follow the directions: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. The full Drug Facts include a caution about egg or bird allergies, worth reading before the first drop.

Storage matters in a Hancock County winter. The label says Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F), and a pickup parked at a job site through a January day will get colder than that. Keep the bottle in a coat’s inner pocket, a lunch bag in the cab, or at home on the nightstand.

Ordering to Greenfield and Hancock County

Quell is sent from Brentwood, Tennessee, to Indiana addresses. Shipping costs $10.00 per order and is free with 3 bottles. Rural route and farm addresses work as long as the street address is complete, and no arrival date is promised. The Greenfield page and the Indiana page have the details.

Signs it’s more than the weather

Grit that keeps scratching after you’ve rinsed, a sudden change in vision, or dryness that carries on into the humid days of June all mean it’s time to see an optometrist or ophthalmologist, not to keep adding drops. Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours.