Red eyes for the past 6-7 years.

[qwertyu]

I think that this started about 6-7 years ago when I where ~14...

At first I didn't do anything... then after maybe 3 years I started to see doctors but all the 'all-around' doctors said I where allergic to something despite antihistamine (Histamine antagonist in English?) did nothing.

The first eye-doctor didn't find any "eye problem" and gave me steroids drops to settle the redness. The steroids did help for about a week (and I were ****ing happy), he told me that the steroids might "remove" the inflammation even when I stop taking it. But after about one week it slowly came back (1 week after taking the steroids drops, where still using it atm).

Then he had no clue and basically told me to accept the situation. But I found another eye doctor, when I called the first one to get a copy of my "private journal" he told me I might have blepharitis. Which he never told me in person.

The second and last eye doctor (about 1 year ago) told me I do not have an allergy when he looked in my eyes. Like the other one he gave me steroids with the thought it would cure the redness even in the long term while I go off it. But a different type without "preservative" (Benzalkonium chloride) and told me to ONLY use eye drops without "preservative" because that could be the cause of the redness. Like before I had perfectly fine eyes for a week or two, then the redness came back while i where still taking the drops.

...

That's what the doctors have told me, no answers.

...

My symptoms a ordinary day if I stay at home:
I make up and my eyes are 'more red' than usual. It will slowly be a little bit better after 1-2 hours and then maintain that level of redness through out most of the day. In the evening it get worse. Then I go to sleep. And while I sleep my eyes are extremely red, if I wake up after 2-3 hours my eyes look like ****. Then better after 7-8h of sleep. Repeat.

If this were the case every day, everywhere I would accept it and move along with my life.
Some locations are worse, some locations are much better. Like my home is good, and my workplace is a mess. But sometime my home is a mess for my eyes and sometimes it's decent at my work. And it's not always worse in the evening, it's not always extremely red while I sleep. Some days it's much better no matter where I'm, this period can stretch for 1 day up to even 4 days if I'm lucky. (and of course the opposite with 1-4 days of it being worse)
For 2 years ago my eyes were completely fine without any redness for a full week... I have no idea what happen then, but I want it back.

I can't find any solution or hint what cause the redness or what makes it better.

Antihistamine does not help.
Artificial tears does not help.

That's about what I'm sure of. I did blepharitis cleaning after the first eye doctor told me I might have it, after about 6 weeks I couldn't really tell a different and stopped.
My problems are going like a roller coaster so it's hard to know if a method help or not. I decided to start the blepharitis cleaning again, but only in 1 eye so it will be easier to spot any different... Good idea?

I did try to tape my eyelids closed if they maybe were opened during night, but it was really annoying and I never managed to try it more than a few days.

Could it be ocular rosacea?

-

What shall I try to do? Any way to find out if it can be X or not X? Should I see a new eye doctor? What should I tell him or her?

Any hint will be awesome!

[Nanerpus]

You sound SO much like me it's not funny. I'm 26, and have only reallly been dealing with "red eyes" for this past summer, but have had eye inflammation on and off for years because I have a pinquecula (uneven "bump" in my eye from wind) that would get inflammed from not having enough tears, so I'd need steroids to get it under control.

Then, this summer, I started having red eyes, especially at night and during the night, and when I woke up. throughout the day it gets better, only to get worse again at night and sometimes if I went out my eyes would literally EXPLODE with redness, and they would sting.

I got tested for all the diseases this might be associated with, and even saw a rheumatologist who didn't think there was anything going on.

Back to the eye doctor who has believed that allergies could be playing a part all summer, and now when I saw him with my eyes so red, stingy, and itchy, he said it was definitely allergies. I'm off to get allergy testing next month, and am on an allergy drop. So, looking back I'm fairly certain allergies have been leading up and getting worse all summer, which is why the redness was coming and going, and now they are REALLY bad with all the hallmark symptoms - red bloodshot in both eyes, itchy red skin in the corners, nose/skin around eyes itchy, etc.

So my advice would be to look into allergies.

I feel your pain about the redness. I'm pretty depressed right now.

Best Wishes

[qwertyu]

Nanerpus, thanks for the reply.

However I can only make a quick reply before I go to sleep. I have made a simple blood allergic, and I pretty much scored full points. That mean I'm allergic to cats, dogs, trees, grass, and whole pile of stuff that I can't say in English, even those little bed/dust mites in my bed.

But I feel nothing around dogs or cats, nothing in my bed or in a bad cleaned location. In the summer I might get itchy, more redness and watering eyes, but antihistamine takes it all away (only the extra redness from allergy, not the other redness). When the summer is gone (like now) I 'never' have itchy or watering eyes, and antihistamine does not affect my eyes. That's why I doubt allergy, but I have no other lead so I'm opened to ideas.

And anti-bed-mites-sheets does nothing, not even cleaning the bed really good.

I guess it's possible that I have lots of problems, maybe allergy, blepharitis and ocular rosacea at the same time. And only treating one thing wont help?

I feel your pain about the redness. I'm pretty depressed right now.

Don't tell me about it. Can't really decide if I should be a truck driver and avoid social encounters or get a fun social work. But that's another story.

[Nanerpus]

I woke up this morning (Thanksgiving here) praying my eyes would not be all bloodshot and red. I even slept at my parents in laws house next door in desperation because I don't know my allergies. All night, my eyes itched and burned. They itch right now. They are all bloodshot and disgusting. I'm so depressed, and would have looked forward to a big Thanksgiving get together with our families, now i am dreading it. My husband says i don't look that bad, but I do. Its gross. and it's fall here, so I'm worried I'm allergic to something in the house, because the only thing outdoors is mold.

It sounds like you do have some allergic componenet going on. did you give the allergy drops a while? It takes usually 3-4 weeks to show results. I'm still waiting (and hoping) the Pataday helps.

Cold compresses and chilled PF tears might help with the redness. It does for me.

I would make another apptment with another doctor, write down your history, and let him/her know how this affects your life.

Best Wishes

[qwertyu]

I recognize that, a day when your praying for it to be good it's not. You even went to bed earlier to maximum the chance of it being better.

I have never tried cold compress, only hot. I have never heard of "chilled PF tears" before, I tried to google and get the Swedish name or tears based on that.
"chilled PF tears" -> Hypotears -> Ocular lubricant -> Ordinary artificially tears?

I have tested allergy drops for quite some time.

[magoo]

Naner, I have allergy to mold. It is inside houses as well as outside. Especially in a damp cool climate, or a damp warm climate for that matter. I lived in Ontario, Canada for awhile and I remember my itchy eyes there when everything was covered with snow. I couldn't figure it out until later when I found out it was the mold that was in the house. Invisible, but a test showed there were lots of spores in the air.

quertyu, chilled pf tears just means to put the preservative free artificial tears in the refrigerator, it feels really good in your eyes when they are inflamed.

[Nanerpus]

Naner, I have allergy to mold. It is inside houses as well as outside. Especially in a damp cool climate, or a damp warm climate for that matter. I lived in Ontario, Canada for awhile and I remember my itchy eyes there when everything was covered with snow. I couldn't figure it out until later when I found out it was the mold that was in the house. Invisible, but a test showed there were lots of spores in the air.

quertyu, chilled pf tears just means to put the preservative free artificial tears in the refrigerator, it feels really good in your eyes when they are inflamed.

Magoo, this is what we are thinking too. I called the local allergy place a few days ago just to ask what allergens might be in the air around me, and they said right now there are lots of molds outside (fall in NH, lots of rain). Also, we built our house last year and only this month when I was cleaning did I notice mold build-up on the windows in the bathrooms DESPITE a fan and regular cleaning - so I guess we've been living here only long enough for it to grow.

Any tips on reducing mold in the house. I vacuum everyday and try to wipe down all the surfaces, etc. with cleaner, but maybe it's not strong enough? Do I need to bleach regularly the showers, window frames, etc.?

[magoo]

The best thing I have ever done for the mold is run a fan, a regular fan into the shower room to thoroughly dry it after a shower. Also I used air cleaners/filters.
And yes, a lot of bleach to kill the mold.

The thing that has really worked for mold is moving to the desert , but I still run the fan into the shower room just to make sure it doesn't grow.

Does your vacuum have a hepa filter?

[Nanerpus]

We just put a dehumidifier in the bathroom, and I'm going to clean really well again with some bleach today. We do have a large hepa air purifier in the main room, plus a small one by the bed. Our vaccumm in a Centra Vac unit, so it's essentially a hose that you plug in that is embedded in the walls and all the dirt goes downstairs into our basement in the reservoir. I'll have to look into how and if we can put a hepa filter in that.

We had a freezing ice storm last night, and the entire outdoors is covered in a sheet of ice. Turning to rain now. I'm going to St. Thomas in 1 week, it will be interesting to see if I find any relief there.

Thanks for the help!

gwertyu: How are you holding up? Did you try putting your drops in the refridgerator? How about a cold compress?

[qwertyu]

gwertyu: How are you holding up? Did you try putting your drops in the refridgerator? How about a cold compress?

I did try putting the drops in the fridge and using a cold compress in the morning and night. I know it's early but I can't say that I notice any different.

However this only treat the symptom and not the cause. How can I find out what the cause is? I know it's worse at my work than here at home.
Air? Mold? Lights?......

Late edit to prevent bumping:
I found some old pictures of my eye(eyes) in the middle of the night. But I find it really hard to post decent pictures. In one angel it might look perfect, in another bad. Without flash too dark to see, with flash it might be completely white.

But I have to say these pictures pretty much describe what I might see in the bathroom. These pictures kinda resemble the "worst" period of a day.
I guess one picture is before I go to sleep, 2 pictures in the middle of the night, and one when I decide to go up.
http://img94.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=42585784.jpg

This week I will probably visit a new clinic and try from the beginning one last time.

[qwertyu]

I'm back, same as before but I have one question.

Sometimes when I wake up one part of my eye is really bloodshot. So either left/right side of my left/right eye. Two days ago it was decent in both eyes, then I went to bed and when I woke up yesterday the left part of my right eye was really red. I also had some foreign body sensation there.

Later that day it went away by itself without any trace of it...

Today when I woke up it was the same but in my left eye. Has this anything to do with allergy? Why does it only show up after sleep? What can it be?

http://tinypic.com/r/258b14k/7

[Rebecca Petris]

It MIGHT be a mini-erosion. Redness and pain would be consistent with that, as well as the rapid healing. In an erosion, there's an injury to the cornea either spontaneously (like in severe dryness) or when cells are ripped off the surface of the cornea like when the top lid 'sticks' down to the cornea slightly at night. Bad erosions will cause a great deal of pain, redness, blurred vision etc. but very mild ones have mild symptoms. - You won't get an erosion diagnosed unless you see the doctor while it's still happening.

[qwertyu]

It MIGHT be a mini-erosion. Redness and pain would be consistent with that, as well as the rapid healing. In an erosion, there's an injury to the cornea either spontaneously (like in severe dryness) or when cells are ripped off the surface of the cornea like when the top lid 'sticks' down to the cornea slightly at night. Bad erosions will cause a great deal of pain, redness, blurred vision etc. but very mild ones have mild symptoms. - You won't get an erosion diagnosed unless you see the doctor while it's still happening.

Thanks for that! Never heard of it before but sounds plausible. After reading on Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recurrent_corneal_erosion ) it seems that I can prevent it without contact a doctor? So I will give it a try.

But what does "not sleeping-in late" mean?

[Nanerpus]

My eyes are IDENTICAL to yours *almost* if I close them for a nap or look at them in the middle of the night. Mine is always a half moon red spot on the nasal side. But that's where I have the pinquecula in each eye, and I have always assumed it's that raised area being a bit irritated by lack of tears.

Also, my eyes are VERY bad with allergies. I think possibly you are having some allergy problems - they look similar to mine when they are bad (at the present moment). Very red.

Do you know if you have a pinquecula at all? That might be worth looking into. It's a harmless raised area, but can cause problems if you have dry eye - in my case. It gets red and irritated all the time, especially after I have been sleeping or exercising - lack of tears.

[soxboy]

Eye Whitening

After years and years of suffering from constant bloodshot and glassy eyes , I will have the surgery on Thursday........I pray it works and ends my years of agony with this relentless condition.................