Possible conjunctivitis but not quite

[unders]

Hello,

A year ago I caught something (I suspect from the university) which looked like a mild conjunctivitis. My symptoms were and are:

* -Sometimes- my eyes feel dry and I have a bit of a difficulty reading on the PC
* Small veins on the white part that won't go away
* The inner lower lid is red
* Troubles with night vision. Now this is interesting: If I'm looking through a very narrow hole I can see perfectly but if I look freely I have trouble reading street signs.
* When I wake up my eyes feel dry (even though they were closed for 6-7 hours) and I have kind of like a reddish 'blanket' on the whole white part which goes away withing the hour.
* If I watch tv at night with the lights off after 1-2 hours more veins seem to appear and sometimes it hurts (it's like I can feel them breaking in my eye)

I've been to three ophthalmologists: one said it's some form of conjunctivitis, gave me some drops, didn't help. The second said it's blepharitis  but I've read this is not contagious and my mom got the same thing from me therefor I don't think it is blepharitis. The third one said it's some sort of conjunctivitis, it's not viral nor bacteriological, something in between. Every single medicine from these doctors hasn't helped me a bit. Does anyone know what this might be? I can't visit another MD right now.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

This is as much as I can tell you in an internet forum.
JCH MD

[unders]

Thank you for your reply. I looked up blepharitis and besides the symptoms listed I have no other (no discharge, no tiny flakes, no swelling); can blepharitis be contagious? I've read that blepharitis means that something is wrong with me internally (poor health) and often there is no cure, just keeping it under control, is the first part true (poor health) ?

Also, I've done my blood work and included the thyroid hormones twice 6-7 months apart and they resulted normal. Is it possible to have hyperthyroidism which doesn't show on the blood tests? I asked for the test because 6 years ago I developed a weird cold intolerance (I discovered that this may be due to stress, anxiety and depression as I do suffer from them).  

Thank you,
unders

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

First you have a chronic problem and it's possible that you need to think along the lines of "control" rather than cure.

Second it does not fit the description of a chronic conjunctivitis which is relatively unusual

Third it does fit the description of a combined blepharitis-dry eye. (all except the problem with night vision and better vision looking through a hole (the well known pin-hole effect) that sounds like a low grade refractive error usually myopia and is helped by glasses at night.

Would suggest you use the search features and archives and "Today's Pulse" on this page (scroll through all the papers by clicking on blue dots) and read about "dry eyes" and "blepharitis" and begin Rx of same.

There are medical conditions such as over-active thyroid that can cause this. When you're able see a cornea-external disease specialist, suggest Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of U of Miami. Bring summary of previous visits.

JCH MD