Does your eye ever feel raw?

[kitty]

Have any of you experienced the onset of unilateral eye pain that feels like it is boring, deep, intensely burning and your eyeball just feels raw? Might this be an erosion?

[odydnas]

Hi Kitty,

My eyes feel raw and cold much of the day...they are so sensitive that the air touching it is painful. Of course, air movement makes it worse. This has been referred to by many here as the "menthol sensation"...like the feeling you get when alchohol is evaporating from your skin, except we feel it in the eyes. I don't know if raw eyes is an indicator of erosions, but for me personally, I have raw eyes and no corneal erosions. I think raw eyes might come from the sensation of your tears evaporating. Do you have MGD, because this may be an indicator of MGD. I've noticed that many people here who complain about raw eyes and the menthol sensation have MGD and moisture chambers can help.

[kitty]

Hi Kitty,

My eyes feel raw and cold much of the day...they are so sensitive that the air touching it is painful. Of course, air movement makes it worse. This has been referred to by many here as the "menthol sensation"...like the feeling you get when alchohol is evaporating from your skin, except we feel it in the eyes. I don't know if raw eyes is an indicator of erosions, but for me personally, I have raw eyes and no corneal erosions. I think raw eyes might come from the sensation of your tears evaporating. Do you have MGD, because this may be an indicator of MGD. I've noticed that many people here who complain about raw eyes and the menthol sensation have MGD and moisture chambers can help.

Thanks. I suspect I may have MGD, was just diagnosed with ocular rosacea and MGD frequently is associated with that. Will see my regular eye doc next week and will ask him about the MGD. If it weren't for being sent for a second opinion with an opthalmologist for my plugs, I wouldn't have gotten the rosacea diagnosis.

[liz56]

Yes. I have this feeling, too, Kitty. It usually hits me in the evenings, but on bad days, I notice it about two hours after waking up. My hormonal cycle has something to do with it, because it is the worst when my progesterone levels, predictably, are highest. I used to feel like I was "tired," because it hurts to leave my eyes open. However, once I learned about my eye problems, I knew that was not the case. It is not like an erosion, however, for me. When I have an erosion, It is like someone sliced along the surface of my cornea with a razor blade, and I find myself with tears running out of that eye. It must be a natural response to losing that much corneal surface. I also notice double vision in that eye for three days afterwards, and it feels like there is a scab in my eye.

I think that odydnas is right about Rojzen's term a "menthol sensation." It's like someone is blowing air into the eye and drying it out almost immediately.

--Liz

[odydnas]

The "rawness" in my eyes go away during a hot shower. Does this happen to anyone? What could this mean?

[liz56]

Yes, that happens to me, too. It also gets better with dry heat, like if I open the oven door when I am baking and feed the fire when I build one in the fireplace. All heat seems to help me, but warm compresses, ironically, do not. That is what I don't understand.

[kitty]

A hot shower helps my eye pain, temporarily. I wonder if it is just a very dry spot that the humidity soothes for a time?

[Missie]

Hi all,
I am kind of new in here and a lot of what ya'll are talking about is familiar.
My eyes feel like open sores.

What is MGD? Sorry I don't know abbreviations yet.

[irish eyes]

Raw - Sore - Exposed - Sensitive - Burning - Tedious !

I am running out of adequate vocabulary when I describe my eyes - I think I should try and learn some words in other languages, just so it makes a change. I must get out my German dictionary.


Missie - MGD stands for Meibomium Gland Dysfunction

[Aaron77]

A hot shower helps my eye pain, temporarily. I wonder if it is just a very dry spot that the humidity soothes for a time?

Hot showers seem to help me out a lot too, my eyes feel just about normal when I go to the gym and sit in the steam bath. Unfortunately the steam bath usually feels so good that I'll stay in there for quite a while then the next day my eyes will feel terrible due to the dehydration. I do drink a lot of water when I do this, its only my eyes that bother me the next day. Maybe all the heat and steam really gets the oil glands going and they are what is actually all dried out.