Eye redness please help

[Erick1234]

Hello my name is erick and i am 18

About a month and a half ago i woke up with my eyes very red and crusty in both eyes. I believed it was pink eye and when i went to the doctor they prescribed Pataday as well as some other drops i would apply 4 times a day. My eyes got better and i did not wear my contacts at all. They said to only put your contacts in after 2 days of my eyes bein completely white .
Weeks passed  and i did that. Then i noticed my eyes started getting red again. Not itchy or hurting just red. So about 3 weeks later i got checked out again. As my eyes stopped using contacts and i used the drops my eyes seemed to get better . But this time when i saw the doctor he said i had some conjunctivitis in the eyelids and that i would just continue on Pataday and some more drops for at least a month. I did tht and when i came in for my checkup the doctor said my eyes only looked dry. He perscribed more Pataday and some eye drops and told me in about a week i could resume with contacts that were dailys . A week after has passed and my eyes are getting red. Please help because i hate wearing my glasses and want to return to my contacts and this is not working .

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

In a young and otherwise healthy young person with a history of recurrent redness, watering, some discomfort and mild mattering that wears contact lens 95% of the time its the contacts.  In many instances the symptoms take week to months to clear up after the contacts are stopped (especially GPC). In the other 5% its often a different problem or a problem like dry eyes that is made much worse or symptomatic by the contacts (much more common in patients older than 25 and female

JCH MD

[Trojan444]

Having almost same problem here. One time I'm wearing contact lens, enter an air conditioned room and after about an hour my eyes looks tired and red in color. Watery also. As I leave the cold room, my eyes gradually normalizes. It happened to me twice. At air conditioned room, my eyes turns red, watery and looking tired. I then decided not to wear contact lens anymore and back in using eye glasses, but the problem still persisting. Even without using contact lens, my eyes turns pinkish when inside an air conditioned room. Not sure if this I due to dry eyes or other eye problem.

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

Pataday is for allergy. While I cannot give you an exact diagnosis the most common problem by far is contact lens related problem not dry eye which is extremely rare in a male age 18.  Generally it means your contacts are not fitting, you are not wearing them properly or disposing at correct interval or have developed a problem called GPC (giant papillary conjunctivitis).

you will need to work through this with whomever fits your contact lens.

JCH MD