Eye Aye

So, since November, I’ve had an unwelcome bump on my left eyelid. Sometimes more visible than others. I had this before on the right eyelid, and it eventually went away. The left one, not so much. While I refer to it as a stye, technically it is called a chalazion — it is a cyst caused by a blocked oil gland in the eyelid (blepharitis).

Basically the best way to treat it is preventative. Unfortunately for me, I was past that point. My family doctor made an incision from the outside earlier in the year but that didn’t help; it was already at the point of scar tissue from the buildup of pressure. So he referred me to a specialist and meanwhile my lump got less red and smaller, almost to the point where it was not noticeable. Until last week when it flared back up again: red, raw, ugly, and painful.

I was surprisingly nervous about this visit. While the Doctor I saw was an opthamologist, his office also does a wide variety of cosmetic surgery procedures — lifts, peels, tucks, implants. The referral letter had mentioned that there might be a fee for procedures not covered by MSP or other insurance and I was as concerned about the potential fee as the work around my eye. On consultation, the doctor informed me the excision was covered.

I’m going to be honest, the procedure was one of the most difficult things I have endured. Tiny, sharp needles suck, and several were needed to add enough local anesthetic to set in (I always need more than “average” for dental procedures too), but weirder was the pressure he used to put the clamp in place to basically turn my eyelid inside-out (chalazia are characterized by generally pointing inward rather than styes that point outward). Frankly, although the manipulations the doctor was doing were much more subtle, they felt like this:

Once the clamp was in place, the substance and some of the scar tissue was scraped out — it sounded like a variation of the noise made when you drag a finger across a damp inner tube; the vibration sensation was similar too. (If you want to read about the procedure, the article on Wikipedia is pretty solid.)

I was shaken by the whole thing, really, I was not mentally prepped for more than a consult today and I was kind of a wreck when we left. I have some ointment to goop over my eye for the next week (four times a day) after the bandage comes off tomorrow.

Until then, I have to weather pirate jokes…. yarr.

P.S. If you want to make me smile, go purchase Third Party Eyes, three stories about eye surgeries that didn’t go so well — written by me, Shawn and our friend Jason.