Itchy bumps

[dominorose]

Please, do you have any ideas of what this could be?
Its really itchy!!

[dominorose]

This is so weird I dont get it!! Is contact dermatitis itchy?

[littlemermaid]

At first it looked like eczema, but you don't have eczema anywhere else do you? eg behind the ears, corners of mouth? Do you have this in both eyes? It does look like contact dermatitis/reaction to eyedrops, or something you're doing like compress. Is there any chance eg your eyedrops at night are seeping down that way while you sleep? I would get diagnosis before using steroid eyedrops near that open skin. If it doesn't clear easily with eg pure Vaseline, I would see an Eye Doc or Optom again, if you can face it, to get help clearing it up and just in case it's viral (herpes simplex) although it doesn't look like it. Make sure you don't get a secondary infection on the broken skin by keeping your eye clean, but gently. No makeup or skin products, of course, in case it's that.

Is this a problem reaction to tea-tree extract wipes? TTO is evil stuff used too much. But then maybe it would be on the eyelids too. Do you have eyelid or under-eye swelling? This is more like moisture caught in the skin fold.

Hopefully someone will recognise whether it's contact dermatitis if we keep asking.

[dominorose]

Hi LM,

As usual : thank you for replying (hopefully you're here to answer when I post !)

I've been using castor oil drops for 2 weeks now and wonder if they can't be the culprit... That's a shame because they're the only drops that are actually helping. When I put them I let them spread around my eyes because the skin is quite dry, but it could explain the reaction.

As for TTO, Ive stopped Cliradex more than a week ago. I still use the TTO foam cleanser from the Bodyshop on my face but never around the eyes... I don't think it could be related?

Im in the sourh of France for the holidays and dont want to bother my mother who seems to be fed up with my eyes problems, but I dont want to take any risk... I will try to get an emergency appt with an opt as soon as possible.

[littlemermaid]

Hi Dominorose, Good, that sounds like maybe it's a reaction rather than a bug. We use TTO products for maybe 4wk, then stop and use them weekend only (see demodex life-cycle). And re-start if needed, usually after 3m. Honey and beeswax products have been nice on the face, and not drying. We even use medical honey (Medihoney, antiseptic and antifungal) as a facewash, which is not drying. I can't use TTO facewash for long because I start to get sensitive to it, and LM's twin uses it only occasionally for light acne then very mild products normally (Simple) otherwise it makes her sebaceous glands panic more. Same with TTO shampoos. LM likes aloe vera moisturiser - she says it calms down her face. Keeping in mind we are dealing here with sensitive 'rosacea' ie red nose and mouth which flares up red, then the eyes go. If we didn't need to control that 'rosacea', we wouldn't use anything.

LM junior is in Holland with school, then Italy, having a great time and managing the dry eye and skin fine - I'm around most of the summer. She is using 50+ perfume-free, hypersensitive, baby UV sunblock every day - just lightly. And wearing the hat and sunglasses, hopefully. Ultraviolet light is a big problem with rosacea - where she wears sunglasses, the skin is not red. Have a great holiday and keep your face screened from the sun! Hope your eyes feel better soon x

A word in support of your mum - eye problems are so difficult, exhausting, frustrating and scary, trailing from doc to doc wondering why they don't seem to know what they're doing as they would with other conditions. She has her own problems that she doesn't want to worry you with, but maybe you can support each other as companions in troubled times.

[dominorose]

Thank you LM I will use the TTO foam less often and see how it goes. The bumps have nearly disappeared in 2 days, since Ive stopped using the castor oil drops. I will wait and try to use them in one week.

I got an emergency appointment yesterday for a conjunctival cyst. I dont know how I got it, but the doc pierced it quickly and it was not painful at all.

Im really worried for something else: on my left eye, I can clearly see spots on my conjunctiva, tiny irregularities, I dont know how to describe it. Do you know what this could be?

[littlemermaid]

That's great you got fast treatment - where was the cyst?

And where are the tiny bumps exactly? are they 'medial' in the sclera, temporal or nasal? It's been a big help to compare what we see with 'normal' eyes because we've been forgetting how much variation there is, age, veins, colour etc. Then we've noticed what a chronic dry sclera looks like - like orange peel for us. She doesn't feel it because it's desensitised so I have to remind her to use thick drops.

Have you got a thicker tear substitute to replace the castor oil drops? they do change the eye surface a bit eventually (search PubMed) and it would make sense to have some reaction if you had a skin reaction. Should go back to normal with lubricant drops and eye protection, if it's that.

Are you wearing wraparound moisture chambers? I just saw LM on her friend's Facebook and she's not even wearing the hat and it's full sun in Amsterdam today...

[dominorose]

For the "bumps" / wrinkles in the conjunctiva, they are in the white nasal part. The cyst was in the outer part of my eye. Yesterday I got a new weird thing (my eyes really dont want to stop bothering me these days) on my right lid margin : a tiny (really small) yellow/clear bubble. It looks like a meibum nodule, but its situated at the very edge of my eye, where the skin meets the eyeball, not exactly where the MG's are supposed to be...

For LM, how old is she? 16? Its hard to deal with all these "health obligations" when you're a teenager, my sister is the same age she's a red head with very sensitive skin so she has to be very careful all the time and sometimes she just want to say "whatever"...

I will go back to Celluvisc drops I think, they are my favorites. For the wraparound glasses no, because I am very myopic (- 4.25 and -3.75) and the prescription plus the glasses would be too expensive for me...

[dominorose]

Ok after reading a lot on my new symptoms (watery eyes / toxic tears / dry white deposits in the outer corners), I know think those bumps were salt deposits from the aqueous layer evaporating too fast. I think my main problem is hypertonic tears, which cause the inflammation.

Am I the only one experiencing this? Ive read a lot of posts from Colin P who had the same problem, hope he will write me back...