Day: October 8, 2013

It’s Tuesday and that means I’m in a ranting state of mind. Not that I have much to complain about but this week, one thing does stand out. You see, about two weeks ago, I woke up to find that my eyelid was surprisingly dry. No matter what ointment I tried to apply to it, it just wouldn’t heal. And while any sane individual would make an appointment at the dermatologist, I just continued to self medicate.
First I used some fancy Chanel sample for eyes that burned my eyelid upon application and pretty much did nothing.
Next, I used Cetaphil moisturizer but again, no luck.
I also spread some Aquaphor, a Vitamin E stick and more eye cream on it and that’s when my scaly eyelid revolted. This past Saturday, while my husband and I returned from a Bar Mitzvah service, he glanced over at me and gave me this weird look.
“What happened to your eye?”
You know something is wrong when your husband gets alarmed looking at your face. And so, I pulled down the visor, flipped open the mirror and I looked like Woogie from “Something About Mary.” Okay – maybe not that bad but for anyone who saw the classic comedy, Woogie’s eye starts getting puffy and red with boils on it after he is reunited with Mary — the girl he stalked after she broke up with him in high school. But I digress.
As I kept rubbing my eye (not a good thing to do when it’s already in bad shape), we got back to my house and I showed my mom my eye and she became concerned. And trust me, if my mom gets concerned about me, then something is wrong because she’s usually not an alarmist. As I spent the day trying out another batch of ointments on my eye, my family convinced me to go to a walk in clinic if it didn’t get better.
But I didn’t.
Instead, I called the dermatologist the next day and found out she couldn’t fit me in until October 28. And it’s only October 8! So I did the next best thing. Tried to diagnose myself on Web MD and when it came back that I probably have eczema or an allergic reaction, I decided I could handle a little dryness and spare myself a clinic visit. I did take the site’s advice and attempted to put hydrocortisone on my eye and while it did seem to heal pretty quickly, it also burned when I applied it, so I decided to discontinue use before my eyelid started to shrivel up.
So I am back to using Aquaphor and you know what? It seems to be working. Hopefully, this dry eyelid patch will go away on its own because honestly, I am losing patience for doctors.