Mucus Fishing Eye Syndrome

[mrkat]

Hi there, I hope I've come to the right place. I'm pretty sure I have Mucus fishing eye syndrome brought about by severe seasonal allergies which aren't helped by eyedrops. I'm really trying my best now not to touch my eyes but a lot of the time, I can feel mucus at the back of my eyeball (under my top eyelid) or I can see the mucus over my iris and it drives me insane so I feel like I need to take it out. After I do, my eye is still irritated but that insane uncomfortable feeling is gone. So my question is, is this ok to do? When I read things about Mucus fishing eye syndrome, it seems as though it's an unnecessary compulsion which I agree with when it comes to those small strands that aren't doing anything but when huge clumps of mucus itself is irritating the eye, I don't understand how you're supposed to just leave it in there when it feels like you have 5 eyelashes stuck on your iris. Can anyone offer any advice? Thanks

[Rebecca Petris]

Hi mrkat and welcome!

Haven't experienced this myself, but we've had some folks here over the years with the same experience, for sure, and I know it's a much bigger deal than it sounds like to those who haven't been there!

The problem with removing mucous strands manually, as I understand it, is that it perpetuates the cycle. Is your eye doctor involved in this? A cornea specialist? There are mucolytic eyedrops that some people use to help dissolve the strands - that's probably worth asking about. For myself in brief periods when I"ve had mucous in forms that really were stubborn, what I tended to do was use preservative free saline (which I always have around because I use scleral lenses) to rinse my eyes and at least be able to loosen them up if not actually rinse them out. Chilled saline is actually particularly helpful (soothing). The thing you have to keep in mind though if you use saline is that it washes away natural tears so if you overuse it, you also need a good preservative free lubricant drop (like refresh or systane or something) to compensate. Anyway my 2c for what it's worth!