"is that the same as pink eye?"

DON'T go to sleep on the same pillow case you were sleeping on w/ the one eye that has conjunctivitis now. Or something.

the touching thing i seem to be managing so far

alternately: go and ask the learner saxophonist to come, y'kno, and sleep on your pillow case at your place!

me: can i have some 'millionaire's shortbread' please?
shop assistant 1 to shop assistant 2: is tht the same as 'caramel cake'?
shop assistant 2: aye.
shop assistant 1: here you go.
me: thank you.

I wonder why I thought of this, frankly to me unfamiliar store, rather than ARRRRGOS.

turned out it was allergy based, they put some shit in it and gave me a prescription. well, i wasnt going to shell out 90 bucks for meds just to make my pansy ass eye feel better from allergies, but damn it hurt before they put their stuff in. it's been fine since.

but man, my sympathy for someone with bad pink eye.

v.young doctor: "i expect so"

OMG I'm dying over here. I don't think I have pink eye because that itches, right? My R eye is bright red and hurts when I touch the eyelid or move it in certain directions. I think it's either some lens related thing or I've scratched my cornea. OWWWWWWWWWWWWW. It looks pretty gross too.

you still have your contacts in?

No, I haven't worn them since Saturday. I can't find my prescription sunglasses either so being outdoors isn't much fun.

I have a Dr. appt this afternoon so I guess I'll find out more then. Hopefully it's nothing serious but just serious enough to require that I don't strain my eye and should therefore stay home from work tomorrow. ;-)

E, I had an inflamed eye a couple of years ago. It turned out to be a scratch and not an infection, but I don't think you can get that info without going to doc. Cleared up in a day or two.

Re pink eye, I was surprised to learn that there's no particular bacteria for conjunctivitis, it's not like strep throat in having one cause. A whole bunch of different bacterium could cause inflammation of the conjunctiva, and the name of the condition only describes the CONDITION, not the CAUSE.

My first doctor told me that but she was kind of kooky in other ways, and my boss didn't believe her and wouldn't let me come back to work without a second opinion, so I went from the doc to the eye doc where they, SHOCKER, confirmed the original diagnosis.

Laurel - thanks for the info. That's interesting re the bacteria thing because I did think it was a certain infection rather than just a generalized term for inflation etc. This is going on 3.5 days now and is getting old quickly. Hopefully will clear up soon. argh.

It could be a sty, as well. That can be painful when blinking/moving the eye without being itchy.

My bacterial conjunctivitis (just about gone, touch wood) wasn't really itchy - it just gummed up my eyes, made them zombie-red and caused vision problems (blurring/clouding/very tired). It started in the right, moved to the left, receded with antibiotic drops, came back with a vengeance in the right, moved to the left again and hung around there for about 6 days longer than it should (antibiotic ointment by this time, the application of which caused its own vision problems).

My left eyelid is still slightly swollen and there is some redness in the corner which - who knows - may never fully go away.

Oh God. I thought because it didn't itch and was only in the right eye that it definitely wasn't conjunctivitis. Ack. I guess I'll find out later.

I'll report back after the doc tonight because I know you''ll all be on the edge of your seats waiting to hear what it turns out to be.

My bacterial conjunctivitis (just about gone, touch wood) wasn't really itchy - it just gummed up my eyes,

ugh, had that last year. eye doc scraped the inside of my eyelid with a wooden stick to clear the shit out. fucking horrible seeing someone sticking something that close to your eye.

at the risk of telling something everyone already knows, anything that ends in -itis refers to an inflammation, and so is a description of the symptom not a label of the cause.

We already knew that.

Actually someone I sort of know was in the hosp last weekend for pancreatitis, speaking of inflammation. Apparently the rubric for remembering possible causes is fairly awesome:

Gallstones
Ethanol
Trauma

S etc
M
A
S
H
E
D

ugh, had that last year. eye doc scraped the inside of my eyelid with a wooden stick to clear the shit out. fucking horrible seeing someone sticking something that close to your eye.

omg. I will lose it if they do that.

Acutally I once had a sm piece of plastic fly in my eye. I couldn't get it out and a layer of cells formed over it and a few days later the doc had to scrape it off my eyeball. That was pretty horrible.

this was the inside of my lower lid on my left eye. he said "look up. this might freak you out a little." on the inside i was thinking "how bad can this b-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" then immediately thought i was going to get blinded by some involuntary tic or spasm.

So it turns out I have two different types of itis going on - the reg old conjuntive kind and something more sinister called keratitis. It's so uncomfortable but the hourly (!?) application of the steroid drops they gave me will help. Boo.

Ok, now I'm convinced I had/have keratitis too (despite what that so-called doctor said - hey, we have the internet now, I can diagnose myself!), especially as the non-prescription drugs weren't terribly effective and here we are, on day 16, with it possibly starting to come back in the right eye.

My eyes get tremendously tired and achy in the evenings now - even after an evening not spent looking at a computer screen; they actually start to get heavy and close on me, before the rest of my body is telling me to go to bed.

hey, we have the internet now, I can diagnose myself

If the internet was right about every symptom I typed into some Web Doctor site, I would currently have gout, herpes, St. Vitus' Dance, gingivitis, and an ectopic pregnancy.

One hell of a party was it?

I think I had this around Memorial day. Both of my eyes were super pink, gummy, but didn't itch or hurt. It passed after 4-5 days. But they still get super dry at night and I get squinty while looking at bright lights. I never went to the doctor and just did the old teabag on eyes thing and eyewashes.

^^

Apparently keratitis can be bacterial which would require antibiotics or viral which would clear up on its own so maybe you had that.

MJ - can you get a 2nd opinion? The steroid drops have really helped and the inflamation and pain is already going away. I saw Docs yesterday before being sent to the opthamologist and the fact that my eye was aching was the red flag for them. If yours are getting achy it might be worth talking to someone else.

keratitis is inflammation of the cornea, rather than the conjunctiva. so you're shit is just all inflamed. it's not necessarily more sinister, but there can be more sinister causes for it than are typical with conjunctivitis. you hadn't worn contacts for a few days, and then your eye started bothering you?

No, it started bothering me while I had my contacts in. Doc said that some bacteria probably got under the lens which started the whole thing and it just escalated from there.

good, that means you don't have anything sinister going on like HERPES OF THE EYE

Ha - I know I saw that somewhere online. It sounds so nasty.

i think i have pink eye (viral) so i came home from work. what kind of otc drops do i get? i can't go to a doctor.

it'll go away in a few days on its own

i know that, but for the inflammation. i'll just guess at rite-aid

ugh, my left eye has been v. irritated and constantly tearing up for about 36 hours. should i bother going to the doctor?

and should i be using some kind of drops?

Bob Costas had pink eye and still hosted the Sochi Olympics

left eye has been v. irritated and constantly tearing up

it could be a scratch on your eye's surface.

should i bother going to the doctor?

well, it's hard to advise a person to blow off an eye problem as insignificant. good thing it's just in one eye, so you have a spare.