Hi from Cardiff, Wales - blepharitis

[dijon84]

Hi

Glad to have found this forum, this has obviously been a very good support network for people over several years.

I'm 26, from Cardiff in Wales, and got blepharitis just over 2 months ago (think it started from using a towel on my face that wasn't mine).

At the moment I just get the 'heavy eyes' feeling (obviously that is the eyelid inflammation), slight soreness in both eyes, and a bit of throbbing pain in my right eye (the foreign body sensation - started when I first got this problem). My eyes don't appear obviously red.

I have strabismus in my right eye from when I was very young - unable to read all but the biggest writing from that eye.

My eyelid margins are also enlarged, but have been to the doctor today and he says my right eye is not as bad as when he saw me last week.

Before last week, I think I was using compresses that were too warm. In the past week, I've added a step to my routine - rolling a cotton bud over the bottom eyelid margins after applying the warm compress (a tip I picked up from here). It seems difficult to do the same for the upper lid, any tips on this? After this, I do the usual stuff with baby shampoo, rinse, cold compress.

A few things have become apparent to me over the past two months:
- With these sorts of eye problems, opticians doctors and ophthamologists can only do so much. I've realised I'll have to deal with it myself (with their guidance), and will have to find out myself what works for me and what doesn't.
- Internet can be a great source of information but it can also mislead / confuse. I didn't know very much about eye problems a few months ago and when looking on the internet, I found it confusing to see all the variations on eyelid cleaning routines compared with what the optician recommended.
- We're all so different - slight variations on eye symptoms, allergies, long-term conditions, our daily lives have an impact, age gender and other differences. So what works for one may worsen for someone else.

Anyway, it's really good to find this forum and come across people going through similar things to me. Look forward to talking to you all.

Dijon

[Rebecca Petris]

Hi dijon and welcome!

I must say, for someone only 2 months along you sure have picked up a lot of core wisdom that all dry eye patients can benefit from:

A few things have become apparent to me over the past two months:
- With these sorts of eye problems, opticians doctors and ophthamologists can only do so much. I've realised I'll have to deal with it myself (with their guidance), and will have to find out myself what works for me and what doesn't.
- Internet can be a great source of information but it can also mislead / confuse. I didn't know very much about eye problems a few months ago and when looking on the internet, I found it confusing to see all the variations on eyelid cleaning routines compared with what the optician recommended.
- We're all so different - slight variations on eye symptoms, allergies, long-term conditions, our daily lives have an impact, age gender and other differences. So what works for one may worsen for someone else.

Great to have you here. Let us know how you get on!

[dijon84]

Thanks for the welcome, good to find a forum to talk about these issues with other people experiencing them. One of the hard things I am finding is reading other people's stories about their suffering, alot of which is to a greater degree and for much longer than my problems. Hope we can all find solutions to our different problems.