URGENT! - infected tear duct

[Súil Eile]

My right tear duct has been a bit red and swollen for a while. This morning it 'popped' and a lot of puss and yellow gunk came out, along with what I think was my punctual plug. I rang my opth but he hasn't gotten back to me yet. I'm really worried about my eye getting infected! Has this ever happen to anyone here? I really need help with what to do next. Is there anything I can rinse my eye with to kill bacteria etc??

[littlemermaid]

Can you get to Eye Clinic A&E before 5pm-ish so they can start you on eg oral antibacs or at least have a look? Keep phoning Eye Clinic. His registrar can speak to you on the phone - they will bleep, may be on the ward or floating about. Meanwhile, normal saline rinse?

[Súil Eile]

He just rang me back. He's leaving a script for an antibiotic/ steroid combo at the front desk. I'm off to collect it now.

Im a private patient, so he just has a receptionist and no beeper as he's in his private rooms today. We have a couple of eye hospitals in Dublin that are on speed dial, but my doc is always pretty good at getting back to me. Seeing as he charges €150 per visit I get my money's worth with phone calls and extra help whenever I can

Thanks for getting back me so quickly. I was having a bit of a panic moment!

[littlemermaid]

I get my money's worth with phone calls and extra help whenever I can

Absolutely. Has he got anything PF? Private pharmacist could order anything he specifies.

[Súil Eile]

Sorry, what do you mean by PF? He prescribed Maxitrol, and I'm feeling a lot calmer about it now. Was having visions of waking up with a green eye tomorrow!

We are poorly lacking in proper pharmacies here - they really are just dispensing pharmacies. It can be very frustrating.

[littlemermaid]

Sorry about the shorthand, supposed to be packing for a trip - PF preservative free. Independent pharmacies in S England are telling me they will order or formulate anything subject to doc's prescription and paying. But not the high street chains, which are restricted to their approved supplier. Anyway, enough to worry about

[Súil Eile]

I feel like such an eejit - I use PF for preservative free myself but just didn't twig it yesterday.

The Maxitrol isn't PF, but I don't really have a choice. I also paid for the prescription to get it quicker. I have a medical card which means I only pay 50cents for a prescription from my GP. A private prescription needs to be transcribed by a GP onto a HSE form. Since it was a Friday afternoon I probably would have had to wait all weekend to get the form so I just went straight to the pharmacy so there'd be no delay.

And no green eye this morning!

Enjoy your trip!

[littlemermaid]

Hope that sorts it out fast. We've got refrigerated chloramphenicol 0.5% PF Minims drops, which goes in very well because it's so cold. As you say, the problem is getting the prescription same day where we're not using hospital stock.

A private prescription needs to be transcribed by a GP onto a HSE form

What's the point of that, I wonder.