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I have had ongoing bilateral conjunctivitis for a week and a half now. I am a contact lense wearer, with no health issues. It appeared suddenly on wakening after having a few days of feeling under the weather - headache,muscle stiffness and sore throat. I woke up with a thick white/cream discharge to eye, a red, burn/itchy eyes. Discharge was only pesent on wakening for 3 days, now gone and was never present throughout the day. I immediately got chloramphenicol from the chemist and used this as instructed for 5 days with little effect. Lights began to appear brighter and redness worsened. Was given fucidic acid from nurse and after 3 doses, eyes much worse in terms of redness and burn. Doctor suggested it may have been a reaction to fucidic acid and to discard same and go back to chloramphenicol. Went to a&e that night as concerned regarding treatment and time scale of complaint. Doctor there was concerned after a thorough eye exam ? Toxic keratitis. Saw ophthalmologist who felt it was viral conjunctivitis, plan continue chloramphenicol to reduce likely hood of secondary bacterial infection, use lubricating drops and wait for it to pass. This advise was 48 hours ago. Eyes feel worse, much more irritated and now have what looks like follicular bumps on lower eyelids or grazed? And on top eyelid I have a bright red spot slightly larger than a pin head. Is this the only treatment available and how long should I wait before I am reassessed? Thanks.
Optional Information: Person's Gender: Female Person's Age: 28 Already Tried: As per question and all available immune boosters and symptom relievers I.e eye masks and sterile eye washes.
Hi. I'm online and happy to answer your question today.
Have you seen an ophthalmologist or just your GP so far?
oops....I guess I should have read things more closely......
Did this start in one eye and then go to the other a bit later?
Ok. Well, I agree with your ophthalmologist. Given your history of flu like symptoms then the eye issues, this is very, very likely a viral conjunctivitis. The one thing I do not agree with is the the use of chloramphenicol "just in case" you get a secondary bacterial infection.
Secondary bacterial infections almost never happen in viral conjunctivitis and the chloramphenicol just irritates your eye more. I would stop that drop and ONLY use artificial tears and cold compresses.
This condition will take about 10 to 14 days to run it's course so it is not surprising that you are still miserable two days later.....
also, this is VERY contagious. Wash your hands a lot, do not share towels, pillows etc with family members etc.
Also, no contact lens use until you are completely back to normal. If you were wearing contacts when your eyes were bothering you, throw those lenses out....unless you wear hard contacts, in which case you can sterilize them.
Does this make sense to you?
I'm not sure if you are still in the chat room.........
Ok. Well, you should be getting to the end of your infection soon. I have, however, seen some cases go as long as 3 weeks....maybe you are just one of the "lucky" ones who get to suffer longer :(
From what you have posted I do not think that the ophthalmologist has missed any other, more serious, diagnosis.....
Just as an aside, what part of the UK are you in? I'm in Wisconsin USA
No. I was trying to ignore that part of you post hoping you would not notice lol!
I went up to see Nessi in the early 90
's You live in a very pretty country. I just love your hairy cows!
I think you may be getting a stye from everything that is going on........this is not unusual.
Warm compresses to this area and scrubbing with baby shampoo will help. And the baby shampoo scrubs will also help your viral conjunctivitis:
The best treatment for this condition daily lid scrubs combined with warm compresses. I like to use baby shampoo for lid scrubs. In the shower, place the shampoo on your index fingers, close your eyes, raise your eyebrows (to stretch the skin on your eyelids) and scrub back and forth along your eyelashes for 3 to 5 minutes. The hot water in the shower helps to soften the plugged oils in the glands while the mechanical scrubbing with your soapy fingers removes the oils.
Antiviral eye drops are very strong and hard on the eye and are used only for serious viral infections such as herpes. Ofoxacin is a great antibiotic but will not affect the virus at all and then you will have a yeast infection to treat :(
Steroid eye drops will make you feel a lot better but are very dangerous in this condition. Do not use them.
There are a lot of great places to see in America, my little town of 8K souls is not a large tourist attraction but I love living in the middle of over a million acre of National Forest. We have bears who come through our yard to eat the few acres of wild berries we have growing.....
It is worse when men get pink eye....we don't do pain well lol!
I'd give it another week. If things are not better...which I bet they will be.....then get back into see the ophthalmologist Don't waste time with the nurse or GP.
You too!
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Experience: Ophthalmology since 1994 with Retina sub-specialty interest
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