My right eye is somewhat irritated. I wore my contacts for a couple of days (overnight too), due to a lack of lens solution. They felt a little dry the second day, and my eyes were a little red. Cut to now, 2 days later. My right eye still feels irritated. I don’t think its an infection… I think it just got irritated/scratched from the contact lens. Is there something I can do to reduce the irritation? It’s a little hard to tell for certain, but I think the irritation might be to the inside of the lid, rather than the eye itself.
P.S. My dog’s vet gave us an eye ointment because she had somehow scratched her eye. It has “a steroid” in it to combat swelling/irritation. The misses mentioned it, but I’m leary of trying it…
Evidently if you have a corneal ulcer you might not want to add the steroid, that could be bad. I’m trying to extract more info from my wife (4th year optometry school) but she’s on the phone, sorry!
You’ve taken your contacts out by now, right? That’s step one. My wife suggests artificial tears every hour to keep the eye lubricated, but make sure you don’t use any that say “gets the red out”. There’s not really a home remedy that she can think of, but see a doctor if you have pain. Do not use the steroid.
I get allergic conjunctivitis several times per year. I’ve found exactly two things that help me:
[ul]
[li]Tea bags – brew yourself a cup, then wring out the bag & put it over your closed, lensless eye. Wrap it in a paper towel if it’s too hot.[/li][li]Blephamide – a prescription corticosteroid/antibiotic mixture. Of course, you should use this only if your doc prescribes it.[/li][/ul]
I don’t know if it works for other causes of irritation, but when I tried out for the swim team, the old-timers rinsed their eyes out with milk to reduce the chlorine redness.
I had a similiar situation happen today i fell asleep with my contacts in on accident and couldnt hardly open my right eye when i woke up. I immediatly took my contacts out and my right eye was really red and irritated. But my left eye is perfectly fine. Ive been using redness relief drops every hour but they are doing no good so im gonna try the artificial tears. I really hope its not an infection. Please say a prayer that it heals up on its own and if u have any input or advice please feel free:)
Do not use “redness relief” drops for this sort of thing! All they do is temporarily “shrink” the blood vessels so they aren’t as noticeable, and they will come right back once the effects of the drops wear off. They do not soothe or lubricate the eye. The artificial tears are definitely the first place to start, and after that, go to an eye doctor if this doesn’t improve fairly quickly.
Actual eye infections can spread quickly and start damaging the surface of the eye. My husband picked up some kind of bacteria from visiting his mom in the hospital, got it into his eye, and woke up with an eye that was very red and had been “weeping” all night. He already had the start of damage to the surface of the eye, which the doctor could see with a simple test.
Oh yeah - I work in ophthalmology but IANAD/N (not a doctor/nurse). And yes, I know this is a very old thread that was brought up by the most recent poster.
