Pterygium anyone?

[pepsimax]

I know this isn't a skin condition but as I was here I just thought I would ask if anyone has suffered with a pterygium. I believe I have one and will be seeing my doctor about it in a couple of weeks when I have a routine appointment with her.

[vencasand]

you should use sunglasses that surround your eyes and use artifical tears a lot during the day. this is caused by sun, wind and sand. do you live near a beach? sundamage is the main cause. please wear sunglasses and the tears so this doesn't get worse.

[pepsimax]

Thanks Brenda. I live close to London. We generally get average weather, nothing too extreme for too long. And I generally do wear sunglasses when needed, especially when driving.
Last Monday my eye felt like I had something in it which felt like it was scratching my eye. I thought it was just a minor infection so went to see the nurse at my GP surgery. She advised I went to the hospital to get it checked out. The doc there said it could be Pterygium but we will treat it like an infection for now and he gave me drops. The thing is whatever it is that is attached to my eye has very slight movement and sometimes it gets caught with the bottom lid and when I blink it scratches my eye. I'm just slightly concerned as its my eye. I don't like the idea of having something 'scraped off' the eyeball.

[vencasand]

actually if you go to an opthamologist it won't be bad at all. they numb your eye and they can remove anything in your eye pain free. my neighbor had a paint spec that got stuck under the tissue in the white of his eye. he was really hurting so i drove him to the doctor and he put drops in to numb it and took this little miniature scoop and got it out. even if they do lazer it is in their office now not in the hospital.

[pepsimax]

Thank you Brenda. Reassuring to know its straight forward.
Our system works so differently here though.
You have to see your GP who has to refer you to the relevant department, usually at a hospital, should you need specialist treatment. You go for initial appointments then they decide if surgery or follow up treatment is needed, depending on what's wrong. Then and only then do you go on a waiting list for the surgery. All this can take anything from 2-18 months. Considerable shorter of course for life threatening conditions. :mad:

[pepsimax]

OK so recently I had to have an eye test and I was told I didn't have a Pterygium but a series of little cysts. She gave me a referral letter to give to my GP so a specialist could view them and decide on what action to take. I have not seen my GP since to follow that up.
The cysts increased in amount and size and when my eyes were tired or dry it did make that area very irritable and sore. I was using eye drops to keep the eyes from drying out and at night a sterile ointment called Lacri-Lube.
Around a few days ago I felt like my eyes blurred over slightly but there was no pain or discomfort. Just hazy vision. After an hour or two they were back to normal and actually felt better than they have for the past couple of months. I looked in a mirror and saw the little bumps had all pretty much disappeared. There is a tiny bump left but it now doesn't rub when I blink. So I guess that when I had blurry vision it was the cysts bursting. From what I read about them some went by themselves and if people went to get them popped it didn't prevent them reappearing so I am pleased they have gone by themselves.