Monday, June 7, 2010

Scleral Edema or Swollen Eyeball

Sunday I was sitting on my deck, enjoying the cool air, when all of a sudden, I felt an allergy attack come on. Not unusual, considering I do have hay fever, but I usually don't suffer with allergies until Fall. I really didn't think anything of it until my kids kept walking over and looking at my eye, telling me how weird it looked. Finally, I looked into the mirror, and this is what I saw.








The white of my eye was completely swollen and looked like a giant oozing blister. Normally, when my eyes start itching, it's the pink skin near my tear duct that swells. Never my EYEBALL! To get the swelling down, (because swollen eyeballs can't be a good thing) I hurried and took some allergy medicine and that seemed to do the trick. Still, totally weird and a little unnerving...


...but today it's just fine. Think I'll pop another pill just so I don't wake up in the middle of the night with a swollen eyeball that's gotten too big for its socket.

29 comments:

Mel said...

My gosh, thank you thank you thank you for posting this. I woke up with the exact same thing this morning and was somewhat freaking out about it (I mean, ew, my eyeball was SWELLING) so your post helped me out a lot -- I wasn't sure if it could be something really serious or what. The swelling is already going down, though...

Unknown said...

I was just watching television when myeye started itching, and now it looks exactly the same as yours. I don't have any allery meds lying around, so I hope it will have gone away by the time I wake up tomorrow.

wendyj said...

Yes, great photo. Just like mine was 2 weeks ago. Just frightened myself to death on Wrong Diagnosis as I came to the conclusion it was either herpes or scleritis. I actually thought allergy was the probably the underlying cause, but in one eye only it seemed odd. Obviously it's not so very rare. After anti allergy drops I've now been left with a clear blister which hopefully will go shortly. Thanks for your blog!

Jonesy said...

I'm so glad that I could be of assistance to you all! Having a swollen eyeball is freaky to say the least! Hope it cleared up for you bjorn!

Debbie said...

I was freaking out because this happened to me this afternoon! I felt so much better to see yours went away with allergy medicine. Thank you! My eye is doing better already.

blueconder said...

This morning I started itching my right eye and looked into the mirror to see that my eye near my tear duct looked like it had a mucus film over it approaching my iris. After about 30 min it started to turn yellow. I didn't know what was happening, so I popped some Claritin and found your post. I feel so much better seeing your pictures and everyone's posts. It is a comforting thought that I'm not a freak of nature. Guess it's a good thing I work for an eye Dr. I'll have him look at it tomorrow if it's not better... Thank you so much!

Melissa said...

I was driving some place and within a half hour my eye ball went from normal to completely swollen. It swelled around my iris too! I took a benedryl and it worked wonders. I thought my eye was going to pop. Thank you for the sense of mind

Unknown said...

When I was ten I woke up one morning with my right eye swollen around the iris. My mom thought it could POP. But a cold compress with Epson salts calmed it down and I went to school. Mom blamed it on a bug bite during the night . A few weeks later my right ear was swollen and the same treatment brought it down. Other weird afflictions happened at that house which was built on a WWII battle zone and these things stopped when we moved .

Alice Marques said...

I am feeling better now after i saw your post, Saturday my daughter saw a big blister in my eye, the picture of your eye look like mine, Only the blister is bigger, I will go to a eye doctor today. ask for a medicine against allergy.
Thank you again. I am in less panic now. xoxo
Alice

Stephanie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Stephanie said...

Wow!! Thank you a thousand times for posting this! My eye is doing the same thing right now immediately following a hayfever attack. And this is the second time it's happened. It's allergy-related for sure, plus I rubbed my eyes too hard. Your article was a godsend, thank goodness! My very best regards to you!

Comet Halley said...

I was just on my computer when my eye started itching madly. I rubbed it (too hard and then it started to feel funny) went to the bathroom and saw the same thing on the other corner of my right eye. It gets all squished when i move my eye. So gross! I thought perhaps I caught some other eye infection but after reading your post, I went ahead an popped a zyrtec. I've been feeling symptoms of allergy for the past 2 days, hopefully this will do the trick. Never happened to me before and really freaky. Thanks so much for your post.

Anonymous said...

First time I've seen your blog. Yeah, I just had this today after I rubbed it after an allergy attack. Going down now... doctor said it was a virus that was affecting my lymph nodes but I think this is different. Exactly the same thing with me except on the other side of the eye on my left eye. Mine was actually a lot more severe (covered roughly 1/3 of my eye at the time). Rather freaky. I would have thought it was scleral jaundice but the fact that it wasn't on both sides of the eye and was opaque told me that it probably wasn't.

Unknown said...

I have gone with that situation twice.. once last year and today is the second time. It is very itchy and very frightening. But thankfully, I just did nothing and let it be..Now it's gone.. my eyes are fine now.

Madeline said...

Bless you for this. I was about to take my 8 year old to the emergency room for the exact same thing and I went online just to double check before we headed out. 5 pages in I found your blog.. Thank you again!

Tammy said...

I also suffer from this if I come I contact with benzocaine. The eyeball it's self swells. I have had it swell much larger....about the size of a plain m-n-m candy under the surface of my eye. Sometimes I get short of breath and hives. It has been witnessed by my eye doctor. It is an allergy reaction.
As a teenage, I overused solorcaine on a bad sunburn and since then, if I am exposed to benzocaine on any part of my body, I have a severe allergy reaction starting with ichiness in my eye and I know it's happening. I immediately take benadryl and keep an epipen handy.

::highlander:: said...

Thank you for posting this, this happened to me second time this year.
I'ts freaky to see something like this in mirror but it's easier when you read this. It seems that for me it was contact with my parents cat. As I recall last time I played with him this happened. Not sure but something to think about. FYI I love cats.

Unknown said...

I am with everyone else greatly thanking you for posting this. The exact same thing happened to me today and I went to the ER because I had never seen anything like it. They didnt make a big deal out of it so I was still somewhat worried. So your post is giving me hope that this will go away later today or tomorrow. Thanks for putting me at ease a little.

JR WEST said...

I think this is happening to me now, i'm freaked out, i was watching TV and my eye just felt funny.
I am not sure if i should go to emergency room, so i started researching and came across this. I popped a Zyrtec and i am hoping it goes down. If I close my other eye and look at this one, my vision is slightly blurred...I didn't see anyone mention that. not sure if that is normal. Anyway Thank you, I am going to give the medicine a chance to kick in.

Loveunderlaw said...

I get this when I've got bad allergies and I can't stop scratchinb\rubbing my eyeballs. What a miserable feeling :( Thankfully it usually goes away after a few days, but it still prevents you from operating at peak efficiency.

Megan McD said...

I'm so glad you posted this! I have been having a little hayfever lately and then something blew into my eye tonight and immediately started irritating it. I wear contacts and wasn't able to get home and take them out until an hour later. That's when I discovered the swollen white part that looks like a blob of clear jelly. That is some freaky stuff! But after some research I popped two Benadryl and am now just waiting it out. Sheesh!

Unknown said...

This happened to me a couple times now. When it first happened i made an emergency visit to my opthamologist and he said he never saw it before but it looked like a hive on my eyeball. It just happened again a few weeks ago where I touched cut grass and apparently touched my eye. I too get a swollen eyeball, yellow color, and when I blink or touch it it actually folds like I have a piece of plastic wrap on my eye! Not to mention seeping & itching! It's freaky & I really thought it was just me, so glad I came across your blog & saw I'm not the only one!

Unknown said...

Wow thanks for posting this. This happens to me very often in the morning and subsides by the time I reach the hospital and I freaked our like all of you here. Hopefully it's an allergy and should go away.

Unknown said...

Hi all I'm still facing the swollen eye but mine is like a blister in the corner of my eye. The doctors did not know what it is as it usually subsides on its own. They gave me tear drops and diclofenac. I think that it's due to allergy or season change . Could someone please tell me some names for anti allergy over the counter pills cos I cannot see a doctor for the next 2 days as they don't work the weekends.

Pamela Jaye said...

Benadryl - but it might put you to sleep. Loratadine/ Claritin, or Zyrtec

I don't know whether an antihistamine eye drop would work or not but if so there is naphcon a. I've gotten it at Target. Also you could try a cold compress or squirting cold saline solution into your eyes. I keep a bottle of saline solution in my refrigerator. I have hideous eye allergies! In fact my sclera is swollen right now. Expect by morning it will have drained into my sinus and I will have an exciting sinus headache. Good luck with yours

ML- PA said...

This has happened to me a couple of times most recently this morning - my right eye looks like an undercooked egg white! Big mistake Googling it and self diagnosing auto immune disease! This post helped me to realize it is most likely an allergic reaction to eye makeup I tried last evening. Popped an allergy pill ( generic Benadryl) and hoping it subsides soon.

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Unknown said...

I'm having this happen right now, do you have any additional information on this topic you could share? I'm really not wanting to hit up the emergency room