Blecchh to blepharitis

Pretty clouds and trees

I'm starting this post with a picture of some pretty clouds, so that those who don't want to go further and see pictures of blepharitis can leave now!

Last week I noticed that my left eye was itchy and uncomfortable, tearing badly, but then again, it didn't seem all that bad. Until a few nights ago when I could hardly stand to touch my eyelid, and it had become very painful and swollen. Like this:

From ByeByeDoctor website

I found this picture that pretty much shows what my eyelid looked like. I've never had anything like it before, and although I do get an occasional stye, this was different. No bump and WAY more painful. So of course I went to the internet to find out how to treat this condition, and I learned that warm compresses applied several times a day would help to unplug the glands in the eyelid, and that there was probably a bacterial infection as well.

I went to the drugstore to buy myself some stuff to help me out, so that I wouldn't have to apply a warm washcloth for ten to fifteen minutes by continually having to change out the cloth, as it would only stay warm for a few minutes. I bought a hot water bottle and some eyelid wipes, and something that appealed to me called "Eye-Press" that promised to get warm on its own and be reusable up to ten times (in a package of ten). Well, it sort of worked the first time I used it, but I was then supposed to put it in a bowl of water in the microwave for four minutes to get it back to a usable state. It exploded. After wondering what I had done wrong, I found some reviews on line and learned that I'm not alone in being very unhappy with this product. Don't buy it!

The hot water bottle would have worked, but it's big and unwieldy, and not what I needed. Back to the warm washcloth, trekking back and forth to the sink. Little by little my eye has been getting better, and now a stye has formed and the swelling of the eyelid has begun to recede. I managed with my trusty iPhone to get a picture of my own eye to show you.

The stye is in the outer corner, inside the eyelid

You can see how much better it is today, but I am still applying compresses. In the middle of the night, the solution hit me! How about those little hand warmers that I carry on my hikes? You take it out of the package and it stays warm for hours. So at midnight last night I opened a package and wrapped it in one of the eyelid wipes. It soothed me enough so I could get back to sleep, and this morning that little hand warmer was still ready for me to use on my eye. I had tucked it under my pillow and was astounded at how warm it remained! Here's a link to the hand warmers (Hot Hands) that I bought from Amazon.

So remember, any time you need to apply warm compresses to something, this trick should work for you. Plus those hand warmers are great to tuck into a glove or mitten when your hands get cold while hiking or otherwise playing around outdoors in the winter.
:-)