Why is pus leaking from my eyes?

In My Humble Opinion
1

(Yeah, I know. I come out of lurking to post this.)

I know medical advice threads are frowned upon so, before I say anything else, let me mention that I already saw an urgent care doctor about it this evening and have started taking the meds he prescribed, I’ll be talking to my primary doctor on Monday, and if I feel worse before then I’ll go to the ER. No advice in this thread changes any of that, unless of course you all think the urgent care doc is actually an assassin who is trying to kill me to prevent me from turning into the worst superhero ever, Amanda, the Girl Who Can Shoot Pus From Her Eyes. (And no, I am not making that my new username.)

Also, I am terribly sorry about the horrifying thread title. But you have to admit it caught your attention. :slight_smile:

OK, so here’s my story: Woke up on Monday with a fever, vomiting, and a slightly sore throat. Assumed it was a stomach bug. Tuesday, more of the same, but the nausea was gone. Wednesday, I had a slight fever and my sinuses were stuffed up, so I figured maybe it wasn’t a stomach bug after all. Maybe it was an incredibly bad cold.

And then it got weird.

I woke up in the middle of the night to find my eyelids had crusted shut. This probably should have freaked me out, but I remembered that this used to happen when I was little and would get sick, so I washed the crust off and that was that. Went to work that morning (for the first time all week) feeling like I was getting over a cold: coughing, blowing my nose, but otherwise fine.

End of the day rolls around, and I start feeling sick again. My throat suddenly hurts again, and my eyes are red and watery. I get on the bus to go home and by the time I get to my stop I can barely see because of all the watery pus that’s coming out of my tear ducts. My dad drives me to an urgent care facility.

The doctor seems like he’s in a rush to get this over with, so he looks at my eyes and throat and then this lovely conversation happens:

Doc: “Don’t worry, this is all normal. Here’s a prescription for eye drops and antibiotics”

Me: “You’re giving me antibiotics for a cold?” :dubious:

Doc: “No, your throat looks like you have strep.”

Me: “Wait, I have strep throat? And the eye thing? Do I have pink eye or something?”

Doc: “No, that’s a symptom of strep.”

So now I’m on the antibiotics and eye drops, it’s 4:30 AM and I can’t sleep because my throat hurts so much and my eyes are annoying as hell. And so I turn to the smartest internet group I know to ask the questions that plague my mind:

Is it normal to diagnose strep without doing one of those throat test things? To be fair, my throat feels exactly like it did the one other time I had strep, so I’m not really doubting the diagnosis. I just think it’s weird.

What the hell is wrong with my eyes? The internet doesn’t say that it’s a symptom of strep. If it’s pink eye, will the antibiotics help it anyway?

Did I somehow manage to have three different diseases all in the span of one week? My throat hurt when I had a fever but not like this. And I still have a stuffed up, runny nose. That’s not a strep throat symptom, right? Can I have a cold, strep throat, and pink eye all at once?

Assuming it’s strep, how long until the antibiotics do their thing? I took one at 9 PM and was told to take them twice a day for ten days, so I guess I’ll be taking the next at 9 AM (in about 5 hours). Am I looking at more than 24 hours of feeling like a sword swallower who made a terrible mistake (and also has pus-filled eyes for some reason)?

(oh, and I apologize if this is the wrong forum. I debated back and forth over GQ and IMHO, but settled on GQ because my questions are mostly factual.)

2

Amanda, marry me. You’re a sketch, and I’m sure my wife won’t mind.

No clue about your questions, though.

3

Sure you can have three infections. But its likely to be ONLY strep.

Puss is white cells ‘following the scent’ . They are there to protect your eyes from bacteria. So they’d do better in your throat… well true, but nothing perfect.

4

Had strep in '96. Diagnosed via throat culture. I had an agonizing sore throat for far longer than I should have let it go, and borderline delirium. I finally went to the doctor when I developed the same eye symptoms you did. He diagnosed it with a “rapid strep test,” a throat culture with a fast turnaround time. He took a culture from me and came back in about ten minutes with a script for antibiotics.

“Pink eye” is a generic name for inflammation of the surface of your eyeballs, and it includes multiple causes, ranging from physical/chemical irritation to (more commonly) bacterial or viral infection. Apparently it’s not uncommon for the strep bacterium to spread from your respiratory tract to your eyeballs, causing pink eye, if you let the infection go on untreated for long enough.

In my experience, antibiotics work pretty quick; you should be feeling much better within the first day or two after beginning them. Make sure you finish all of them in accordance with the prescription labels.

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Moderator Action

They used to be, but not any more. We changed that a while back. Medical threads are now allowed but we prefer them in IMHO to emphasize that the replies you get are just opinions and aren’t the equivalent of professional medical advice. The factual aspects of your post may be addressed there as well.

Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.

6

Yeah, I was gonna say…“sounds like you have pink eye.”

Very common.

7

Too bad it’s already April.

Pink goes well with Valentine’s Day.

:smiley:

8

A strep infection to the eyes is not common. On the other hand there is a continuous connection from the throat to the eyes–oral cavity, nasopharynx, nasolacrimal duct, eye ball. And the bacteria never enters your body the entire time, it is always on the outside.

9

I had mononucleosis back in the 1984 which manifested itself as a severe sore throat, major nasal blockage, eye infections and earaches! Good times!

10

Antibiotics should not be prescribed for a sore throat without both a story that is consistent with strep and a test that confirms it (rapid or culture). Does not mean that many docs don’t do a crappy job and prescribe based on a look - and are very often wrong.

The combination of pink eye with sore throat is classic not for strep but for adenovirus, the combination refered to as Pharyngoconjunctival Fever. That said it is not typically so pussy (purulent) so covering that with antibiotic drops is reasonable. And you could have strep (the fever and vomiting go with that as well as with adeno, althought the nasal and eye symptoms do not) … or not. More likely not. Group A Beta hemolytic strep, the strep that causes strep throat, is not a common cause of bacterial conjunctivitis. It can happen, but it is very rare.

Do you have a real doc to go to or call or e-mail a question to? After just one day a Rapid Strep shold still be postive if it is Strep. I am sure there are some fine providers at Urgent Cares but the hit miss ratio I am not so sure about. Very rarely is a sore throat or conjunctivitis a medical emergency that cannot wait a half day.