Styes, plugs and little red bumps

[Súil Eile]

Earlier this week I had what I assumed to be a stye in the inner corner of my left eye. It was swollen, painful and was putting pressure on my eye. I have plugs in my lower puncta and I was worried that the pressure of the stye might dislodge it. By Thursday I was in agony and it seemed to have spread to my right eye. The plug in my left eye was now very visible above the opening of my tear duct and the swelling was larger and more solid. It felt like I had splinters in the corners of both my eyes.

I went to my opthamologist yesterday. Turns out I have a cyst. I was somewhat relieved that that was all it was. He also said I have something called follicles (sp?) on the inside of my lower eyelids. These are red dots/ bumps all along my inner lid and concentrated at the inner corners (hence the irritation).

I'm now using Maxitrol ointment for the cyst, and Pred Mild drops for the follicles. The Maxitrol contains a steroid and 2 antibiotics, and I have to use it for 3 weeks. Pred Mild is a mild steroid drop that I'll be using for up to 4 months. I'm only using it in my right eye until treatment of the cyst is finished and then I'll be using it in both eyes to treat the follicles.

The cyst miraculously shrunk yesterday evening and the plug is no longer visible. I'm not sure whether the plug fell out and the cyst subsequently drained, or whether the ointment is amazingly fast acting and the plug just wne back into place when the cyst shrank. To be honest, I don't really care which at this stage as it already feels a bit better

Does anyone on here have these 'follicles'? I'm usually good at pushing for details from my doctor, but I was in too much pain yesterday to even think about it.

[littlemermaid]

Textbook of Ophthalmology Eyelashes (cilia) grow out of follicles, like hair does, and there are sebaceous Glands of Zeiss feeding them to keep eyelashes oily. There are also sweat glands, Glands of Moll, which can also infect. Sorry to hear about your pain, good the ophth is on the job. Good news if it wasn't canalicular infection from plugs - not looking forward to that one - do you think the cyst might have been? LM had infection that was not meibomian glands (which are different, along lid margin closer to eye surface) or follicles and this is how I found out about the Glands of Zeiss and Moll which can also appear as red infected dots between lash bases. Sorry if I'm wrong on anatomy but it's a toughy. Are you able to use a warm damp flannel to keep the glands clear?

[Súil Eile]

Hi LM,
Thanks for that! I never heard of either of those before - you learn something new every day I'm not sure that was what my doctor was referring to though. These 'follicles' aren't along my lashline and are not visible on the outside of my eye. They are basically little red bumps on the inside of my lower lids, which can only be seen if the lid is pulled down. They seem to be quite far down the lid, away from the lashline and concentrated in the inner corner. I've been using warm compresses and cleaning my eyes regularly just to make sure dirt and oil doesn't exacerbate the situation. Come to think of it, the skin around my eyes and lids has been a bit oily of late, so perhaps there is something to do with those glands.