Living with Blepharitis

In my adolescent stages, I received my first pair of prescription glasses. At the time I didn’t know what glasses had in store for me.

All I remember is the examination portion of the eye test, which was given by a school nurse.

The school ended up sending my parents a coupon to receive a free checkup. It was there way of saying something was wrong with my eyes.

Because of my new life change to wear glasses, several fellow classmates bullied me.

Eventually switching prescriptions from glasses to contacts, the bulling went away. However, that wasn’t the worst downfall, losing my confidence was.

My senior year in high school, health problems began to increase. Some days my eyes would become extremely inflamed and uncomfortable.

It looked as if I was having an allergic reaction to peanuts.

Even though I could barely see, I would still attend school. It would last for days on end, yet the cause was unknown. Once the swelling went down, my eyelids were left with huge bumps.

Whatever this condition was, my path to search for answers began.

Unfortunately, the bills began to rack up. My mother and I were desperate to find answers about this mysterious problem. However, the eye doctor we went to were useless as they would prescribe me antibacterial medicine and schedule me for another checkup two weeks later.

This was the routine for over a year.

I even received surgery in my left eye to remove one of these bumps. The surgery was a 15-minute procedure, without anesthesia, which only included numbing needle applied the eyelid.

Even though, I was 19 years old, my mother held my hand.

After twelve months of pure torture and uncomfortable pain, a solution was in sight.

Once my mother paid off my medical bills, we decided to switch eye care facilities to get another opinion from another eye doctor.

My new eye doctor did a series of tests. The first test examined my eyelids and eyes under a magnifying instrument to look at the front surface of my eyeball, eyelid structure, skin texture, and eyelash appearance.

The worst test was the second one because they swabbed skin for testing.

It would irritate my eye, because I already had an infection in one eye. The eye doctor would take a cotton swab to collect dirt, oil, or crust that forms on your eyelid. The second test determined evidence of an allergy or possible bacteria.

After series of tests, she diagnosed me with Blepharitis.

The condition ties why there are bumps on my eyelids, which are called Chalazions. The eye doctor explained to me, my eyelashes are sensitive to dirt and don’t know how to clean themselves. Another reason why the old method, using antibacterial medicine, would make infections leave for only a short period of time and come back once the medicine ran out.

However, the new eye care facility practiced a more natural remedy, helps a lot better, eyelid scrubs and heat compressions.

The eye lid scrubs are like gentle hand wipes made for your eye. While heat compressions consist of a warm rag placed on a specific area to reduce inflammation.

The last thing I learned is that my condition is chronic, meaning it will stay become part of me forever.

With that in mind, Blepharitis has affected me because I cannot participate in many opportunities. I cannot swim in a lake with my friends because of the dirtiness of lake water, which makes me feel left out.

I cannot wear makeup or even contact lenses because I found it makes the condition worse.

My eyelashes can be very itchy, but I cannot touch my eyelids in fear of getting another infection.

Even though this new method helps a great deal, it doesn’t eliminate Blepharitis overall.

There is no cure.

This is living with Blepharitis and I don’t feel beautiful.

If you would like to see more, follow me on Twitter @AmandaH23942284.