Conjunctivitis going for on for 3 weeks so far..?

[TnF]

Hello. Exactly 3 weeks ago i woke up with my right eye almost fully red on the white part, and my top eyelid moderately swollen. I knew at that moment i got an infection.

For 3 days i didn't seek any treatment figured it would go away (only had this happen once in my life before, and it was very very mild unlike this time). After these 3 days i managed to get Tobrex eye drops from the local pharmacy of which i used normally until next Monday (i.e exactly 1 week after) of which i visited an ophthalmologist because i wasn't seeing any improvement.
Doctor checked me up which the "eyes microscope" and even dyed my eye and gave me a prescription to continue using Tobrex eye drops along another gel (will edit with the name after) to use only before sleep.
Since i wasn't seeing any improvement i revisited the ophthalmologist for the 2nd week of the infection which checked me up again, told me to use the antibiotic drops and gel for a few days more, and prescripted me just dry eye drops (Thealoz Duo) since he concluded it must be viral conjunctivitis.

Now it is one week after my last visit to the doctor, so 3 weeks exactly since the symptoms appeared. Here are the symptoms:
- Redness in the white part of the eye, typical conjunctivitis type (aka not bloody or damaged). The redness is highest in the morning after sleep and gets much better during the day. Also the longer time i sleep and my eyes are closed the more redness in the morning.
- Top eyelid is swollen moderately; it is most swollen in the morning after sleep and it is proportionally linked like the redness i've mentioned above. Still even after the whole day it stays swollen even a little, and i can't open my eye the same amount as my non-infected eye.
- Eye discharge is frequent and seems to dry out causing a blockage in the tear duct thus i hypothesize that when i sleep the blockage prevents more of the discharge to come out that's why my eyelid gets swollen and makes things worse. I believe this is the case because if i take a short nap or a long nap i end up with proportional amounts of swelling.
- Eye discharge was more pus like at the start of the symptoms but now is more watery; this is really irrelevant though unless you have something to compare to
- There is no significant pain or itching, just a very little annoyance and the need to clear up the discharge frequently.
- My left eye has not been infected at all so far, and while i take care not to contaminate it, it is really weird that it has not been cross-infected so far.  
- I don't think there are more symptoms to mention but i can provide some photos.

The doctor said that there are cases where you can have both bacterial and viral conjunctivitis but in my case it seems to be viral conjunctivitis and could last up to 4 weeks. Funny enough at the times i had my doctor appointment my eye was pretty good unlike how it is in the morning (since i had to go after my work hours).

What strikes me with surprise though is how persistent it is, and how the symptoms appeared fully in just one day without any notification.

End of the day this is really annoying and messes up my daily life so i am looking for your opinion and advice on the matter.

ps. I'm a 27 year old male, 20/20 vision, fit, working out regularly, no medical problems or so whatever.

[TnF]

Well to update, in the last 3 days it has stopped getting red, but the top eyelid is still swollen a little and getting more than normal eye secretion which makes that eye blurry. I am going to visit an ophthalmologist this week and report back

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

Thanks for the follow up. Glad you are headed in a better direction

[TnF]

Well last Wednesday i went to another ophthalmologist which is much more qualified, he examined me again, and he came to the conclusion that it is either viral or chlamydial conjunctivitis, and he took a culture sample to test against. I expect the results today or on Monday.

[JohnHaganMD]

Best of luck. Sounds like very qualified Eye MD

[GladysH]

I think you must consult a well-known doctor. It might not be a big issue, but consulting make it more clear.

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

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

We rarely use tobrex that long and in many cases the problem is that the infection is gone but the tobramycin in tobrex is irritating the eye. I can't tell you what to do but might ask ophthalmologist about stopping tobrex and just using preservative free artificial tears during day and a lubricating gel at bedtime.  Don't sleep under fan or have air blowing on you at night.

[TnF]

Hello and thanks for the reply. Didn't realize you can't edit the original post, but here are a few photos i took for reference:
https://imgur.com/a/zAaanBA
Also regarding the gel i was prescripted, is Isopto Maxitrol.
Also you maybe got confused a bit with the timeline but the ophthalmologist told me to stop both Tobrex and Maxitrol 5 days ago of which i did. Now i can only use Thealoz Duo which is pretty much artificial tears for hydration from what i can understand.
I don't sleep under a fan or have air blowing at night but the climate is pretty hot and humid at the moment.  

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

Maxitrol is even worse than tobrex because it contains neomycin. It may take a couple of weeks for topical allergy to clear. If you are really concerned you could go back to ophthalmologist and consider JUST a steroid drop like pred forte for a week or so.

[TnF]

So you think it will go away on its own? Isn't more than 3 weeks a lot of time to get healed?

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

Obviously I can't tell you for sure.  However you have been on two drops that very commonly cause irritated, allergic reactions.

[TnF]

That's unlikely the case here though as the symptoms are the same as the start of the infection and even after i stopped taking that medication. However i'm starting to believe it is really a bacterial infection due to my eyelids getting glued together while i am sleeping, and that the antibiotics in the medication were totally ineffective against this infection.