Eye surface pain or inner eyelid pain?

[jlg_uk]

I've been regularly using artificial tears (Clinitas Soothe and Clinitas Ultra 3 aka FreshKote) for about a month now, and in addition to the warm compresses and humidifier I just bought, am not doing too badly at present.

Sometimes though, eye burning pain doesn't seem to be helped much by drops. I'm starting to consider the possibility that I have 2 types of pain:

- Occular surface pain due to tear film problems,
- Inner eyelid pain due to inflammation/irritation.

I'm guessing that in the first case drops help me, but if my inner eyelids get sore drops do little. I've got another post on here asking what colour inner eyelids are supposed to be, but I think my left eye, which gets more pain, has slightly redder inner eyelids than the right (which themselves may be more red than normal).

As always, I suppose I'm really just posting to share my thoughts and see what anyone else thinks - but here's a key question in my mind:

Can you tell the different between the surface of your eye hurting, and the inner eyelid hurting?

My guess is that you can, but that it's often very difficult to tell the difference and these two surfaces touch each other and are very close. This might also be a reason why sometimes it seems to hurt more to keep my eyes closed than open.

Sorry if I'm rambling :P

[acarol]

I also feel pain along the inner eyelids - in fact when i woke up this morning i could feel it. I don't know why this is - maybe bacause my oil glands are clogged up. I am concentrating on steaming, massaging and cleaning the lids morning and evening and then applying drops. I do feel little bit better after the steaming but after an hour or two can feel it dry again along the lower lids.

I was thinking is the steaming, massaging and cleaning the lids irriating the lower eyelids.. BUT it seems to help the rest of the eye as regards providing moisture.

[marykate]

Are your inner lower eyelids very red and covered in blood vessels?

[acarol]

Are your inner lower eyelids very red and covered in blood vessels?

No there not like that - they look normal enough.

[jlg_uk]

Here are my inner lower eyelids at different times of the day. I'd welcome any opinions or views. Note I've tried to keep lighting levels etc the same to keep the redness consistent but it's always a problem to do that.

It's not very nice to see one's own eyes come up in google images in all their up close glory, so in the hopes these images won't be indexed, I've added jlg_uk to the URLs which you'd need to manually remove to see them.

Bed time (last night): Prattstar - links to pictures removed at user's request
Just woken up - Morning (today): Prattstar - links to pictures removed at user's request
Office (today): Prattstar - links to pictures removed at user's request

Unfortunately these pictures make me look like a demented killer - I promise I'm not (well, the killer part anyway).

Interesting how bad the morning pic looks - and the "sleep" I have which I assume is a reasonably normal amount?

My left eye (on the right of each image of course) is the one that gets the most sore, and I think the lower inner eyelid get's redder than the right sometimes. You may be able to tell that my margins are normal skin colour.

[acarol]

Here are my inner lower eyelids at different times of the day. I'd welcome any opinions or views. Note I've tried to keep lighting levels etc the same to keep the redness consistent but it's always a problem to do that.

It's not very nice to see one's own eyes come up in google images in all their up close glory, so in the hopes these images won't be indexed, I've added jlg_uk to the URLs which you'd need to manually remove to see them.

Bed time (last night): Prattstar - links to pictures removed at user's request
Just woken up - Morning (today): Prattstar - links to pictures removed at user's request
Office (today): Prattstar - links to pictures removed at user's request

Unfortunately these pictures make me look like a demented killer - I promise I'm not (well, the killer part anyway).

Interesting how bad the morning pic looks - and the "sleep" I have which I assume is a reasonably normal amount?

My left eye (on the right of each image of course) is the one that gets the most sore, and I think the lower inner eyelid get's redder than the right sometimes. You may be able to tell that my margins are normal skin colour.

Mine can get red like that after i steam them or when they are irriated under air conditioning but they are usually a normal colour in normal conditions.

The whites of your eyes look very white - my left eye in particular is full of visible red veins and they look worse when my eyes are red. Do the whites of your eyes go red sometimes too?

[jlg_uk]

Mine can get red like that after i steam them or when they are irriated under air conditioning but they are usually a normal colour in normal conditions.

The whites of your eyes look very white - my left eye in particular is full of visible red veins and they look worse when my eyes are red. Do the whites of your eyes go red sometimes too?

Well, I'd say the scelera part of my eyes are usually pretty white, although you can see from the just woken up part they go a little red sometimes. I've got better pics of my eye here:

http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showthread.php?t=5321

Interesting your lids are usually "normal colour" - I'm guessing that isn't the way mine look to you.

[acarol]

Well, I'd say the scelera part of my eyes are usually pretty white, although you can see from the just woken up part they go a little red sometimes. I've got better pics of my eye here:

http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showthread.php?t=5321

Interesting your lids are usually "normal colour" - I'm guessing that isn't the way mine look to you.

They look pretty red alright but at least the whites look normal. Have you been doing the warm compresses and lid massaging?

[jlg_uk]

They look pretty red alright but at least the whites look normal. Have you been doing the warm compresses and lid massaging?

Yep for about a month - though I've now started to wonder if my problems with my MG are primarily due to the inflammation of my inner eye lids (i.e. reducing the openings of the glands). I'm wondering if the warm compresses just make things worse and perhaps I should be using cool compresses instead to calm any inflammation down.

I will be raising the issue of my eyelids with my optometrist next Friday though. I'm hoping he'll recognise it as a definite problem (and cause) and recommend some effective treatment. At the moment I'm thinking it's posterior bleph - we'll see.

Maybe I could ask my Dr for Doxy or something that could help.

[acarol]

Is it only since doing the warm compresses that your eye lids have been getting red?

I find when i steam my eyes they look pretty red afterward.

[jlg_uk]

Is it only since doing the warm compresses that your eye lids have been getting red?

No I don't think so - I think it may be that I've had red lids since the beginning of my eye troubles, but was never sure what colour they were supposed to be.

[acarol]

How long have you been having eye problems? Do you have dryness issues too?

[jlg_uk]

About 8 months now. Some detail is here
http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showthread.php?t=5321 , but a quick overview is that I had sore eyes, light sensitivity and aching eyes - this could lead to tension in my forehead and headache. Over the months, I think I've figured out the light sensitivity contributes to the ache, which leads to the headache - and these days I'm more tuned into my eyes and can take preventative action earlier - so all in all, I cope better these days before the major eyeache + headache that I used to get meaning I had to go to bed by 8 often.

I was told I had blocked MGs about a month ago, hence the heat treatment + massage + scrubs. No one has ever looked at my inner lids though. I do get sore eyes when I need to blink much more frequently, and drops help. Sometimes though, it seems to hurt more to blink, and drops don't do much. It's my inner eyelids being inflamed/sensitive I'm theorising are the problem when this happens.

Then again, I'll probably go and see the knowledgable people and they'll have a quick look and say everything's fine.

[acarol]

When i look at my upper lids the lid margin seems to be quite red looking - i have blocked glands too so maybe that whys, i find doing the lid massaging on the upper eye lid harder! I get quite a lot of stinging and buring of my eyes too.

[jlg_uk]

When i look at my upper lids the lid margin seems to be quite red looking

That's where we're different I think - my margins look fine and have normal colour (i.e. the same as the skin on my outer eyelids). But beyond the margins into the inner eyelid (particularly the lower ones) it goes very red.