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This is my first post so please be warned that I'm not sure I know what I'm doing. It took six years for me to even find a doc that listened to me and actually knew what I was describing and how painful it is. I went from doctor to doctor and they all looked at me like I was crazy. One even told me that dry eys dont hurt as bad as I describe. Well, the mucous hurts. It feels like I have a hair stuck to my eye and I don't get any relief until I get it out. So I poke and rub all day trying to get relief. I've tried so many drops,sometimes I feel like my eyes can't take anymore, but when I hear of something new, I still try it. Once I ended up at the emergency room with both my eyes swollen shut because someone told me to put wet tea bags on my eyes. It felt great for awhile, then powie. At least I got some pain pills and had relief for awhile. I can't use steriod drops because I'm borderline glaucoma and it raises my eye pressure to crazy levels, but what I found with this was that it turned the mucous white and I could see where it is stuck on my eye and pull it out. If I can get it out in a long strand, that is wonderful, but if it breaks...mercy! I have even put milk in my eye so I can see where it is,yes I'm sure this is bad, but it is a last resort because it is so painful. HELP!
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Hello and Welcome to the forums!
Mucous Strands--you described it perfectly. Like there's a hair in there that drives you nuts. And the art of dragging out those long strings...I can totally relate.
I usually have a few strings and mucous blobs in my eyes and can tolerate it as long as it's not too much. Seems like it gets worse when my eyes are reacting negatively to something new---pollen, pollution, a new eyedrop, a medication, fumes from paint.
As Indrep (a member here) says, that's part of dry eye. Check out Delilah's posts, too---she has the mucous strings problem.
I think it's a bit unfair for there to be a NAME for this, like a person's neurotic or something because they pull the mucous out of the eye. Sort of like they're blaming you for being a bad person. Not true. The key is to find out why you have dry eye, and be able to treat it. Then the symptoms of imbalance between the tear layers (too much or too little aqueous, mucous, lipids) may get better.
That said, it's better to avoid sticking fingers in the eye so much--that adds to the irritation and bacteria. But I go through times when I do it too much, out of necessity.
You'll find good people and ideas on this forum, and hopefully you'll find a good doctor to get you more comfortable. It takes time.
Calli
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