Does a swollen, tender eyelid require immediate attention?

Flush your eye carefully and keep it covered with a cold, damp cloth. If it gets worse, consider emergency.

If it were me I would probably wait; unless it continued to get worse, or my vision seems affected. But, that is my non-professional, tend to wait and see, type attitude I generally have with medical things. I obviously can’t know how uncomfortable you are.

Good idea to stick to glasses, and keep your eyes moist for now.

I’m having problems with my eyes too… I’ve been using those preservative-free artificial tears in the little individual vials to keep things moistened. As long as it doesn’t get any worse, I would probably wait and see how it goes. It may just be swollen and sore because of you rubbing it too much. Leave it alone!;-)

My biggest determining factor would also be my vision… if the irritation seems isolated in just the one eyelid, I’d probably flush and use a warm compress, and massage around the tear duct in the inner lower eyelid, to feel if it may be blocked. I’ve had mysteriously swollen lower eyelids that I honored and they went away, but again, the eyeball and my vision were normal so there were no other symptoms.

I would say as the others – flush and warm compresses and wait til you get home if your vision is not compromised. I currently have a stye that i am treating.

My advice is don’t touch it. Take a shower so it’s clean and see how it is later on. It should go away. Rubbing your eyes is not helpful as the skin on the eyelid is delicate. If it continues, I’d not go to any doctor or ER until Monday – it does not sound urgent.

Thanks guys! I feel better about it now.

@livelaughlove21 My brother actually had the same issues about a month ago. He wore his glasses for a few days until the irritation went away. All is fine now. As long as your eyes are crusty or anything I wouldn’t worry about it.

I use a drop of baby shampoo (to prevent stinging) on a clean washcloth every morning to wash my eyelids as sty prevention, which I used to get frequently. When I do occasionally get one, I use a very warm compress, wrung out, and held to the eye for 5–6 minutes 5–6 times daily.

Did you turn both lids back to look for a small whitehead or reddish area?

I also occasionally use OTC eye drops for dry eyes.

I know that trying not to rub or scratch when your eye is itching is really difficult but that will only exacerbate the problem.

Don’t put your contacts in again until your eye is better.

If its swollen and tender I would get it looked at.

@Rarebear She was wondering if it is ok to wait a day, are you saying she needs to go to urgent care?

I can’t say based upon current info. And I probably wouldn’t if I could. Swelling around the eye is nothing to take lightly.

I’m home from vacation and the outer corner of my lower lid has gotten a bit more swollen and red. I think it may be a stye. I’ve never had one of these before, but WebMD says rubbing your eyes can cause them, which I was doing a lot of the night before the swelling began. It’s tender to the touch and when I blink, but there’s still no crusting or discharge or changes in vision. My eyes don’t itch or anything. It’s just a reddish lump right there on the edge of the lid along the lash line.

I don’t want to spend a $50 copay for my ophthalmologist to tell me it’s just a stye. Since there’s no signs of an actual eye infection, should I hold off a couple more days and see what happens?

I applied a warm wet compress for 5 minutes today and I’ll do it again before bed. I’m not using contacts or eye makeup so it can heal. I hear styes clear up in about a week.

Just got a stye this week. The doc prescribed warm compresses and anti-biotic drops. My gut feeling is that it would have cleared up in a week without the drops and in about 7 days with them.

@janbb When I was a kid I used to get styes and I don’t remember ever using antibiotics for them. I don’t even know if I went to the doctor for a stye? Just going on memory, I could be wrong. I very much remember having to use antibiotics for pink eye.

Here is a picture, for those not grossed out by eyeballs.

Looks like a stye to me, but if I were you I would go to the doctor tomorrow to be on the safe side since it is your eye. If you ever get it again you will know what it is.

I was thinking conjunctivitis for some odd reason, but that certainly does look like a stye as @JLeslie suggested, in which case, you should see a doctor cause those can be pretty nasty little buggers if they get any worse. My Mom had one removed surgically because it was really rooted in, because she left it so long before she did anything to get it seen to. So get yer butt to the docs!

@janbb:: I had a stye in April and could recently feel mild irritation and so I went to the eye doc last week and she diagnosed it as blepharitis and gave me a prescript for Azasite drops. Is that what you got? I see it’s azythromysin ophthalmic solution. $50 was the part not covered by insurance. I am going to see if she can prescribe something that my insurance will pay for totally. Anyway, it seems to be working so far.

I agree with the others about having it check out. It looks like it has to potential to get worse.
You don’t want to mess with your eyes, you know?

@SamandMax Conjuctivitis usually has the tell tale symptom of your eye being stuck together in the morning, the OP doesn’t have that.

Update

I didn’t go to the doctor. I applied warn compresses a few times (not sure how people do it multiple times a day – I don’t have time) and wore glasses for a week. The pain went away, but it was still red. I started wearing contacts again Saturday and all was fine until this morning. It is uncomfortable when I blink, once again. I’m going back to warm compresses and if it gets worse, I’ll just have to come up with $50 to see the eye doctor (damn that specialist copay!).

Not sure what it could be other than a stye. Still no crusty stuff or other symptoms of an infection. What are the chances of an ingrown eyelash? If you look at the photo, it looks like I’m missing a couple eyelashes. Just an idea…

WebMD says styes can take two week to go away on their own, so I’ll go in on Friday afternoon if I’m still having problems.

Damn girl. I’m sorry. I give u props though, I would have freaked out by now.
I hope it clears up on its own and saves you the 50 bucks.

Sorry to hear. That is why you make time 5 or 6 times a day for the compresses. If the area was still red you were very foolish to start the contacts again. I hope that you will not have to see the doc. but better safe than sorry.

an inflamed swelling on the edge of an eyelid, caused by bacterial infection of the gland at the base of an eyelash.