help - eyelids stuck together in morning every day, painful!

[aerialknight]

Hi, I've been to multiple eye doctors and most said "there's nothing wrong with your eye, here, have some eye drops," and most haven't diagnosed me at all. IT'S FRUSTRATING. Then one eye doctor said I have blepharitis and to use compresses/wipe and to "not come back to my office, and keep doing it until you feel better." No eye doctor really has been helping me... I live in RI, any doctor suggestions are appreciated.

I pretty much am OK during the day with my eyes, it's just upon waking its super painful. I clean my lids with OcuSoft lid scrubs in the morning (the scaling is very minimal now, and I get eyelid mucus around perimeter of corner of eye a couple times a day or just once a day which I gently try to pull out with qtip sometimes), and I use warm compresses 2x a day. Originally the doctor had me wipe with face towel but that's too abrasive for me...so I switched to the lid scrubs.

However when I wake up in the morning I have my eyelids stuck together, OWWWWW, and when I blink my eyelids make nasty sticking noises, and not to mention there's a LOT of pain as soon as I open my eyes. When I first wake up the eyelids are puffy and reddened for the first 30 mins-1 hour I guess. Eye drops do NOT help me. The pain goes away probably 30 mins after I wake up? This really sets me back from waking up "early" because I can't really do much when it hurts; it really slows me down getting ready and doing things first thing in AM. Sometimes my eye is blurry when I wake up too. I have central air heating, and I have tried to set this on the lowest temperature possible so it doesn't kick in, but I can't remove the vent from my bedroom... I even tried moving my bed to the other side of the room, but my eyes still keep doing this overnight. I tried to move the vent angle down all the way so it would just hit the floor and not go over my bed, but nothing is helping. When I drive my car, I use the heat as little as possible and completely close the front vents because those bother my eyes too. :/

Anyway-- I need advice please: what should I do about the environment/my eyes? Like I've said I've been to multiple eye doctors now and they just keep giving me eye drops. I tell them it doesn't really help much. I'm about to lose my mind. I can handle the stuff during the day but the problem I want fixed is when I wake up and my eyelids are stuck and it burns so bad.... :/ what can I do for this??

As far as eye history goes, I've had this happening for 2 months now, ever since a "potential" chemical splash accident at work - I don't have a chemical burn in my eye, but it felt like something hit my eye/eyelid.... the eye surface is fine, but perhaps something got on my face/eyelid and I did touch my face a couple times later that night. I work at a hospital so there's staph bacteria everywhere. I never had this problem until the accident. Originally for the first couple of days the ER doc gave me erythromycin eye ointment just in case there was an infection-- but that irritated the eyelids SO BAD. I hated using it! I used it for a week, and I had so much eye pain. :/ Please anyone, thoughts, suggestions for sleeping/waking up better?

[nori2015]

I could be wrong but these sound like corneal erosions. I get them once every 2 months or so as a result of dry eye. I soak my eyes with drops, close my eyes and not open them again till morin bing. Basically going to sleep with my eyes full of drops! I then try to wake up gently and not open my eyes as quickly as I normally would(I've trained myself to do this now), just gently open them very very slowly, if I feel a sting, I know an erosion could be there so I get the drops and soak my eye. If there was an erosion and if I opened my eye very quickly I'd be in horrible pain, my eye would water, they'd be red and I'd have an ache for hours after. Preservative free eye drops like blink or systane vials are what I use. Thankfully mine are not too bad and drops heal them. But others on here have real problems with them and need bandage lenses. If I were you I'd go to an optician and ask them if there's any signs in your eyes that you've been getting corneal erosions. It sounds to me that you had an injury and every time you open your eye too quick or when your eyes dry out over night that the injury/scar/tear gets ripped open again.

Could be wrong, but that's what it sounds like to me. See if it is in fact an erosion problem and then take it from there.

[Max52]

You might try sleeping with tranquil eyes goggles. They're pretty comfortable and keep the moisture in and the moving air out.

[Phillips55]

You mentioned staph, I had a staph infection in my eyelids that doctors didnt catch for awhile. I was prescribed antibacterial ointment and it helped quite a bit. Ask your doctor to have an eyelash and a swab from your eyes tested for infection.

[aerialknight]

Thank you all for the tips and advice!!

-I'm concerned about corneal erosion just for the sake that it sounds really dangerous. For me, the white of my eye doesn't get bloodshot or anything, the pain does subside (actuallyI should pay attention to what EXACTLY hurts when this happens- the eyelids or the eye?), and when I'm awake, the eye itself also doesn't feel dry. The main complaint is itchiness of eyelid and the stuck together eyelids... hmmm. What do you think? Does this still mean I may have erosions? I'm gonna get checked by the eye doc.

-Can eyes "breathe" with these goggles? Sorry that may sound weird. I'm just worried it may damage them if the air is kept stagnant or something... hmm.

-OK I will ask for that! What were your symptoms for the staph infection? I have discharge/mucus stuff that is sometimes white sometimes yellow (mostly white). It's gooey. There isn't a TON of it but it's over my eyelids when I wake up and throughout the day it shows up (either a little and then it's gone after I clean, or it keeps coming back multiple times in a day). The white stuff shows up again after I wipe it off the perimeter of my eyelids too... very weird... like it's protecting something?? No clue.

[Amyfloor]

I never, ever open my eyes in the morning without putting drops in first. I "feel" around for the alarm clock when it goes off but I do not open my eyes until they are lubricated. Too many corneal erosions taught me this little trick!

[aerialknight]

Hello again, I have seen another eye doctor, and she basically pushed some products onto me and wanted to get out the door as soon as possible. She looked at my eyes under the scope for about 2 seconds, and couldn't be bothered. I was very firm with talking (sick of being ignored) and said I wasn't done yet, and asked questions about testing for infection, corneal erosion,etc. Basically all she told me was that I should keep cleaning my lids with ocusoft, didn't tell me anything about it getting better or not, I mentioned the discharge around my eyes and it being yellow.. she said all she sees is white and it's mucus and it's not an infection. I asked why there's mucus coming out so frequently and she just said that's what you get with blepharitis. I mentioned that the cleaning is irritating my already inflamed puffy lids, she had nothing else to say, honestly. I told her my eyelids are so greasy and oilly and she said no they aren't. I'm like --- my eyelids have become the MOST oily part of my body because of this problem! Oh and the only helpful thing she told me was to use ointment at night to prevent the lid sticking in the morning. I mentioned I originally was given an erythromycin ointment and that made my eyelids even more greasy and incredibly difficult to clean!!!! AND THEY itched even worse.

Does anyone have any tips on how to gently get rid of oil on eyelids (I mean the whole lid not the lashline). I've tried water nope, I've tried scrubbing gently nope just red irritated eyes for the rest of the day.

I AM SO FRUSTRATED its like no one is listening or helping, they just throw more stuff at me that I have tried or know will aggravate my eyelids. I have super thin skin around my eyes to begin with so more irritating products aren't helping. No one is telling me "well if its doing ____ that means your eyelids are getting better!" no. no one is talking about recovery time either. Since I've been told multiple times that I can only clean my eyelids 2x a day, I'm stuck with itchy eyelids the other hours in the afternoon and early evening. Of course by the time they see my eyes during at appointment its not as puffy and red so they immediately dismiss me because of what they see visually..."they arent red and puffy" im like they are puffy right now because my eyelids normally arent this thick. I feel like i'm gonna lose my mind at this point. I can't use warm compresses around my eyes anymore because it's making many permanent red capillaries around my eyes and the bags under my eyes.

This whole last 2 months since Blepharitis showed up, I feel so depressed honestly waking up like and the itching -- this is severely eating at me mentally. I feel so dejected when I look at my eyes, I clean them only for hours later the gunk to come back. i'm so exhausted. I just want it to stop or the cleanings to actually WORK because all its doing is irritating my eyelids further!

[charlotte88]

I know exactly how you feel, it's so frustrating not being able to find anything that helps. I luckily found something that helps me with my blepharitis, maybe it can do the same for you. I don't know if you heard about blephx but this product is basically the same thing but way cheaper. It's an electrical device you can use to rinse your eyelashes and it comes with a cleansing gel that's done wonders for my redness and soreness. You can attach a sponge to a pen which you can heat up and then turn on so that is rotates, this way you can clean your eyes very effectively. I started out using it twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, but now I'm down to once a day. It's called the style'n'clean pen. Just hang in there, it will get better!

[aerialknight]

Thank you for the suggestion. I totally appreciate the help!

I have ongoing dandruff of the lids I clean off with qtip and also with eyelid scrubs...

I was crying earlier today in front of a mirror (in my car, I just left the doctors office and they gave me bad news unrelated to my eyes) and I noticed when I was crying (emotionally) that I saw a ball of mucus come out of my eye with the tears... I was kind of freaked out by this, but I just left it alone figuring my eye was going to wash it out later. Unfortunately some hours later my eye got blurry very badly, and I looked at it in the mirror again...it was the same mucus ball (it's clear-ish, not entirely see through)! It was stuck to my eye! I blinked and tried to move it by moving my eyeball but no change... yuck. I'm not sure what this means? This is the first time it's happened to me, and I was hoping it would collect to the side of my eyelid/eye perimeter like the white mucus usually does. Anyone have any ideas??? I haven't tried to remove it because I don't wanna irritate my eye, and I'm not sure how to really. All I did was pull my lid down and the blob went somewhere else (I'm assuming under the lid). Weird... I hope this isn't a reoccurring thing...

[Guest]

Go to a doctor who can check you for the tiny mites, Demodex. Here's an academic article that you might find interesting: https://www.reviewofoptometry.com/ar...e-than-dry-eye