My eyes won't stop itching... what gives?

I decided that my debut patient education topic will be (drum roll, please)... Ocular Allergies! Allergies have certainly been on the minds of many of my patients lately. Springtime in Jacksonville brings quite a bit of pollen to the air, leading to itchy, watery eyes.

So, what causes allergies? And what the heck can you do to make them go away?

An allergic reaction is your body's way of telling you it doesn't like that allergen. When you encounter the item you are allergic to, your body tries to fight it off via an inflammatory response. In the eye world, this response often involves:

• Redness
• Itching
• Watering
• Discomfort
• Eyelid swelling
  

In this post, we will discuss just allergic conjunctivitis, and will leave other types of allergic eye responses (such as eyelid swelling from contact with a new soap or eye product) for another time.

This is the part when I put in the disclaimer: Redness of the eyes can be caused by a number of different things, and some of them can be a little scary. You need to visit your eye doctor (we're nice, I promise!) to properly diagnose your condition.

So back to the allergies... We optometrists use our cool tools to look for a few different things when we suspect allergies. First, we'll check your vision to make sure it has not been affected. Then, we will use a cool microscope to look for signs of allergy in each eye. Some things we look for include:

Papillae: Ever flip your top eyelid up to freak out your younger sibling? We optometrists flip up eyelids quite frequently, but not to freak you out. We do it to look for little bumps called papillae that are often a sign of ocular allergy. These bumps rub up against your eye every time you blink, causing the itching you might experience with allergies. Some allergy eye drops are made specifically to shrink the papillae and stop that annoying itching.

Ocular hyperemia: That's just eyespeak for dilated blood vessels on the white part of your eye. The vessels surrounding your iris become much more red and noticeable if you have ocular allergies. However, redness of the eyes can be from a number of different causes, including infections or abrasions. Redness does not necessarily mean allergy.

Mucous Discharge: You lucked out, I decided not to put any pictures of mucous discharge on here. But yes, often with allergies you can have stringy, watery stuff coming out of your eyes.

Also, usually allergies tend to affect both eyes fairly equally. Other causes of red eye are usually just in one eye or start in one eye and pass to the other.

So I have ocular allergy. Now what?

I'm supposed to tell you to avoid the allergen that is causing the allergy. However, this is often very difficult to do, since usually eye allergies are caused by something in the environment. Living in a bubble would be a great way to get rid of your allergies, but who wants to do that? Also, pet allergies are very common and can cause allergic reactions, but please don't get rid of Fido, he needs a good home like many of the other dogs and cats in this world. Did I mention I'm a bigtime animal lover? We actually have hypo-allergenic dogs that don't shed because the dude I married suffers from pet allergies.

So, if you can't avoid the allergen, I like to start with a few easy things to help your allergy symptoms. Cool compresses (cold towel or one of those fancy gel pack things) are great for swollen eyelids and ocular irritation. I also like to use artificial tears to flush out whatever allergen is causing the reaction. If you put the artificial tears in the refrigerator, they feel nice and cool when you put them in, also helping with discomfort.

If cool compresses and artificial tears aren't enough, there are some great prescription eye drops that can help with itching and allergy symptoms. If the allergy is severe, sometimes we will prescribe a mild steroid (not THAT kind of steroid, you won't grow huge muscles and get all angry) to help with the redness and swelling.

Oh, and I almost forgot, but have had a lot of patients ask me this lately... suffering from allergies does not necessarily mean you cannot wear contact lenses. I usually fit my allergy patients in a daily disposable lens that is used only once and then thrown away. While this might seem a bit wasteful, it is worth it for allergy patients to have a clean contact lens on every day.

I think I mentioned before that I want to try to incorporate optimism and healthy living whenever I can in this blog. Allergies in the eyes can be annoying, but they almost never threaten your sight or life like other health conditions. Living a healthy lifestyle and keeping a positive attitude certainly can't hurt!

Hope everyone has a wonderful, allergy-free day!