eye infection :(

Submitted by Christine on April 28, 2010 - 9:23pm
Body: 

Hi All,

I came down with a terrible eye infection last night. Actually, I think it was coming on for a week or so, but figured it was muscle soreness, as I’m way overdue for new glasses. I noticed I had a lot of discharge in my eye yesterday, but didn’t think much about it. Then last night it felt like something foreign was in there. It all broke loose in the middle of the night. When I got up to wee there was a flood of water from that eye, which was a very weird experience - to have that much fluid, which was not tears, just fall out of the eye. In the morning I woke up to it crusted completely shut and had to open it with lots of warm water. It has been swollen almost shut all day, but is gradually getting better. My daughter had this very thing about two weeks ago.

When I was a kid we used to get “stys” in the eye once in a while, but they were always on or just below the eye lid. This was somewhere out of sight, but felt like it was up on top of my eyeball. If I had to guess, I bet the infection came from my granddaughter’s preschool, although she never came down with it.

Just wondering if anyone has experienced anything of this sort?

Thanks!

Christine

aza

April 28, 2010 - 9:27pm

That sounds horrible. I have nothing to offer other than breastmilk for eye infections works absolute wonders ;)

Christine

April 28, 2010 - 9:45pm

I feel a bit silly, as it seems these are the classic symptoms of "pink eye". I have never contracted it, nor had my kids before now. It is not pleasant, but better than whooping cough! (which I had about this time last year - ugh!)

Oceanblue

April 29, 2010 - 6:16am

Dear Christine,

How absolutely dreadful, that you should contact such a nasty.

Mega hugs for you, and may you overcome this terrible infection soon.

Love for you, Oceanblue

louiseds

April 29, 2010 - 8:54am

Hi Christine

Preschools, and places where little kids put their hands are prime sources for this sort of thing. Sorry to hear that you copped it.

Sorry, but I think you should see a doctor, and get it checked out, because viral pinkeye can affect the cornea and you can get secondary bacterial infections. Then you really have an injury.

In the meantime I would suggest warm salt baths for cleaning all the gunge out, rather than wiping it off. Be careful of cross infection, and do a thorough cleanup after bathing your eye. You don't want it in the other eye too.

Rest up.

Louise

alemama

April 29, 2010 - 9:35am

we love it!
comes to visit
leaves quickly
in and out no big deal
and yes yes yes to the breast milk for it
in absence of that- go with the homeopathic drops- similasan or something like that- very soothing

Christine

April 29, 2010 - 10:05am

Although I've had many dreams of breastfeeding - come to think of it, I don't think I've had one since menopause :( why is it that the thought of doing Anything with human breast milk is so disgusting - when we would drink cow or goat or sheep? Thanks anyway...lol.

I think this is bacterial, Louise, coz I have swollen glands and slight, general malaise. I did figure out the sea-salt water last night and the soreness went away almost immediately. One more thing to add to the salt-water cure list. Both eye and throat are better this morning, but I'll keep up the salt.

Love you guys!!

Christine

Sammy

April 29, 2010 - 5:44pm

My boss at work told me to stay away cause he had pink eye one day last week.... My husband has had this many a time - he worked with children- your description of the fluid in an adult eye is not within my experience but having had 11 younger bros and sis i saw this weeping most winters....

Christine

April 29, 2010 - 7:37pm

Amazingly, it's almost gone! You are right, Alemama. Good thing, because I was pretty uncomfortable yesterday and would not have wanted that to go on.

Sammy, I just want to say again how good it is to have you here with us. I'm so glad you like the Village, which will be great fun once we get rolling.

There is a possibility we might tape Nikelle's band this weekend to put up in the Tavern. Believe it or not, she has created night scenes for all the directions of the Village center. But they're not installed because Lanny is tearing his hair out over how to get the Town Hall clock tower to show the right time in each of the different time zones - ha! When you scroll over the Tavern you hear music, glasses clinking and people talking. What a trip...

louiseds

April 29, 2010 - 9:22pm

Christine, I would think trying to get the clock in the bell tower to show the right time in all timezones would be a bit like solving Rubik's cube.

Town Hall clocks are rarely right, so their credibility is low all over the world, even if they are right in just in one timezone! It would be a neat fun trick if he can pull it off.

I think you need to tell Lanny to take a holiday instead, and take you with him.

Louise
;-)

granolamom

April 30, 2010 - 3:51pm

chiming in late here, happy to hear that its almost all better.
what we do here is a warm compress with a tea bag. orange pekoe usually. read something about the tannins being antibacterial?
works for us.

Christine

April 30, 2010 - 5:09pm

I will take your advice - as I woke up this morning with the other eye glued shut. Not fun.

kiki

May 3, 2010 - 1:49pm

having had my first child who spent a year with constant infections (blocked tear ducts) i sympathise...they are not fun!
we found washing with salt water was super good. also homeopathic euphrasia is good, and eyebright or chamomile compresses are all good (search online for dilutions)
just be sure to use separate cloths for each eye or it spreads back and forth... and change your pillowcase daily if you can, plus wash towels
and yes, breastmilk.

but salt water (even saline for contacts) a few times a day did clear most quite well.
feel better soon!

granolamom

May 16, 2010 - 7:12am

baby and I woke up with eye infections this morning. lovely.
will be trying all the tips listed here and hopefully we'll clear up soon. dh is getting antsy and wants me to take baby to dr (he has no patience to wait out sickies in the babies) and I'm buying some time before he goes and brings her himself. hopefully it'll clear up soon.

Christine

May 16, 2010 - 9:04am

Sorry to hear this, but hopefully it will pass very quickly...breast milk for sure for the little one. Salt water not only hurried resolution of the eye infection, but made me much more comfortable. I made my water pretty salty and was amazed at how well the eyes tolerate salinity without burning.

I do believe human pathogens are becoming more virulent in general, tho. Remember that horrible sore throat Lanny had that just wouldn't go away? Well, my eye infection seemed to infect my eustachian tubes and glands of my throat, too. Unless it was another bug, but it didn't seem like it. Anyway, I still have swollen glands in my throat! First one side, then the other side...on and on. If I had kept up the salt water I'm sure it would be long gone - just barreling through life trying to get my work done.

louiseds

May 16, 2010 - 10:43am

It's weird. My mother has had about one disprin in her life and has an incredible pain threshold. She is 99. DH's mother died in her mid-80's but had similar tolerance to pain and discomfort.

Are we really as wussy as we look? Previous generations in Australia did not live as close together as we do now. Children lived their lives as part of a family group. No playgroup, no kindy, no wide circle of friends, no cars, so limited mobility, minimal processed food, and slower lifestyle. I suspect childcare, playgroups and early schooling have a lot to answer for, by continually challenging little immune systems too much while they are not fully developed.Then kids go down hard with large numbers of germs being passed on to each other and on to family members. That's without the added problem of bugs that have selected themselves as being able to survive antibiotics!

There is also a drug or product for every pain, so we don't get used to pain and discomfort as being a warning of dis-ease, and we don't experience pain and discomfort as being normal experiences, which I think is the major reason why earlier generations never got sick. They did, but they didn't whinge and moan about it, and soldier on, spreading it to others. They went to bed and stayed isolated until they were no longer contagious. There were plenty of stay at home women to look after sick members of the family, and keep the household running. So illnesses ran their course without infecting everybody else. I think diseases like measles, polio and diphtheria taught humans a lot about contagion. Isolate and conquer were the tools they used, if the person didn't die in the meantime.

My generation is probably the first to have not lived through epidemics and have family members die of contagious diseases. We take our health so much for granted.

L

granolamom

May 16, 2010 - 9:25pm

not sure why I'm having trouble with this one, but I'm sorta scared to put salt water in my eye. what ratio salt/water did you use?
and yes, I'm squirting the baby's eyes with breastmilk every chance I get.

interesting to hear that your eye your ears and throat. I feel like I have sores inside my ear too. not like an ear infection, but just that - sores inside. ouch.
baby seems comfortable considering her eye keeps gunking up and is all inflamed. she's been blessed with a fabulous temperament!

granolamom

May 16, 2010 - 9:31pm

not only is there a pill for every ill, but we also are encouraged to ignore initial pain and discomfort. I dont' know but I wonder if my great grandma sent her kids to bed when they weren't quite themselves while nowadays moms are working and kids go to school when fighting something. the adults I know go to work when sick all the time! nobody wants to be the wuss who stays home just because they've got the flu. so not only are we spreading all these germs, but we arent helping ourselves heal until we're really good and sick.
and dont' get me started on the 'no pain, no gain' thing.

aza

May 16, 2010 - 9:35pm

Definitely salt water. When I used to swim a lot and get gross eye infections from yucky pools, the only thing that healed was swimming in the ocean and opening my eyes underwater for as long as I could stand. Immediate relief. I use very dilute warm salt water for newborn gunky eyes too (can't remember how old your little one is?)

louiseds

May 17, 2010 - 3:08am

Hi Gmom, if your eyes can still open wide enough to read the screen. (((HUGS))) but don't come near me. ;-)

I did some research on this because I object to paying good money for saline from the pharmacy when I can make it up myself.

I found that normal saline is basically a teaspoon of salt in a cup of water (which just happens to be the folk remedy recipe as well - boil the water and cool it if in doubt). It is that simple. I just googled seawater, and it turns out to be about the same as a teaspoon in a glass of water, so there you are. There are bells and whistles if you want to get fussy. You can google normal saline if you want a recipe. Just remember to not cross contaminate. Use different container, and different eyebath/syringe for each eye, and clean them well in between times.

Hope you get better soon.

Louise