December 10, 2008 by Amy

The eyes have it

Or, rather, one eye has it. A virus. A veyerus, so to speak. Well, not so much the eye as the eyelid, which is much preferable to having a virus in the actual eye. Basically, I have a cold sore on my left eyelid, which is itchy and painful and quite disgusting.

It’s not something that the average person would notice, except for the fact that I am wearing no eye make-up (it hurts to blink…I can’t imagine jabbing it with an eyeliner pencil). It’s puffy and swollen, but not so much that small children run screaming from me. In fact, I don’t think Zozer even noticed. She was too concerned with the ampersand on my spa shirt, wanting to know what it was, and if it was in the name of Daddy’s work, too.

Yesterday my eyelid started itching. So, like anyone would do, I scratched it. And scratched it. And scratched it. By the time my IAS board meeting was starting at 6:30, my lid was puffed up like a blowfish and I felt horrible. I chatted for a few minutes and bolted for home, where Dr. M inspected it and diagnosed, “Ewwwww. It’s all puffy!” I figured I’d sleep on it and see how it was in the morning.

At 3:30 I woke up from the pain. More saline drops, and tossing and turning, and that was it for the night. Since I hadn’t gone to bed until midnight, I’m running on very little sleep, which makes me even more grouchy. Thankfully, my eye doc is in our building, and when I called at 8:30 this morning (as soon as they opened), they got me right in.

First a “Contact Lens Specialist” took me to a room and assured me it was just a sty. “You have millions of oil glands along your lash line, and some of them are blocked. Just use warm compresses and you’ll be fine.” I explained that due to the appearance of the little white dots, I thought it was more like a fever blister. “Yeah, the white dots are the blocked oil glands along your lash line. It’s just a sty. You’ll be fine. But the doctor will be in to see you.” And off she went before I could point out that the white dots aren’t, in fact, along my lash line at all, but right on the lid.

In comes the doctor, who takes one look and says, “Yeah, that’s not a sty.” No shit. I’ve had a sty before, and it wasn’t like this. The sty looked disgusting but didn’t hurt. This hurts like a mother.

Doesn’t it just figure that it’s on my left eye, too? I’m left-eye dominant, so the vision impairment is really bugging me.

Anyway, I’m to continue taking the Valtrex (kudos to Dr. M who pushed me into taking the first dose this morning, as soon as I got up), plus have two bottles of eye drops: a steroid and an anti-biotic. It should clear up in a few days. Silver lining: I don’t have to fuss with eye makeup for awhile! And, because of the swelling, it takes much less effort to wink!

(Birfday shout out to Beanie! Hope you have a great day, sweetie!)