Jabbing pain in right eye

[LasikLady]

Hi all,

I have been doing quite well this week. No bad eye days. Drippy a bit still but tears don't burn and eyes feel pretty good. Then yesterday I started having this shooting pain through my right eye. I get this pain about once every 30 minutes or so. Just hits me then receedes. The only time I ever remember having a pain like this was once way back in my 20s I used to sleep in contacts and I got a nasty eye infection. My eye was red and there was that shooting pain but much more often than now. It's in my right eye but the eye doesn't look red or hurt other than that occasional shooting pain. I'm bewildered and sick of it. Could it be an eye infection even though my eye doesn't look red and doesn't hurt continually? Could this be something to do with the new upper plugs? Any thoughts? I really can't take any time off this week to go to the doctor. Sound like an infection? I also have no unusual discharge either. Help I'm worried.

[Rebecca Petris]

I really can't take any time off this week to go to the doctor.

As a minimum please CALL THE DOCTOR and describe exactly what you're experiencing so s/he can make the determination about whether you need to be seen. I would, if I had what you're describing.

[Rojzen]

call, and do not fear; paresthesias?

Yes, a call to the doc is a must, right now. . .If it turns out that there is no infection or other process detectible, I, for one, am still interested in hearing how this develops. . .

I have had stabbing pains around the peripheries of my corneas on and off for years. . .Check-ups reveal nothing, but more and more, I'm thinking that some of us have, in our eyes, what people with other disorders have in other parts of their bodies, i.e., paresthesias/funny/strange/inexplicable sensations caused by nerve activity and damage. . .I came out and used this word "paresthesia" today on the blog attached to the new NYT piece by the LASIK patient who had an adverse outcome. . .

Maybe if people know that we are feeling, in our eyes, what MS patients, and others with nerve damage, often feel in their limbs and backs, our story will be better understood. . .

Hoping to hear good news on how that eye is doing. . .

[eva b]

sometimes pain is a result of the eye being made to work in a different way to what it is used to.

To give you an example - as a child I had a squint in my left eye, which was surgically corrected age 5, but that eye then became "lazy"....the right eye was the one which did most of the work and focussiing.

When I got scarring on my right cornea from shingles last year, and the vision became permanently blurred, the left eye had to start taking over the work, and for several months I had exactly the type of pain you're describing. First for short periods, then for hours on end. I went to all the specialists and had all the tests, and no-one could find a reason for the pain...I even thought I had a brain tumour in the end.

Eventually, the pain went away, after the left eye got used to working harder. I believe it was the focussing muscles going into spasm which caused the problem, though no one has officially confirmed this.

maybe since your vision has been altered by the surgery, what you're experiencing in something similar.

But I think you've had excellent advice above - always check with the doc. first...

good luck

[Zarla]

I've had this - like someone pricking a little pin in the back of your eyeball for a second or two and then it goes. Really horrible. Recently I have experienced a lot of the 'menthol' feeling which seemed to spread down my face into my nose and teeth, all seeming to stem from left eye. The most recent non eye specialist doctor I saw found a swelling in my left nostril and suggested it could be a sinus problem which was affecting my eye rather than the eye affecting the nose etc. He recommended taking the ordinary Sudafed without paracetemol and I've had a lot of good days this week. This makes the swelling almost disappear and the dry eye symptoms with it.