STYE IN THE EYE!

Ever get that annoying feeling something is stuck in your eye and no matter how much you try, you can't get rid of it? Save yourself the trouble and take a closer look. You have a stye (hordeolum). This pimple-like growth under the eye-lid is an infection of its secretory glands, which causes inflammation, redness, swelling, tenderness, crusting of the eye-lid margins, burning sensations, blurred vision, mucus discharge, scratchy sensations and pain. These lumps can either point inward or outwards, are whitish or yellowish in colour and usually appear in one or both eye-lids simultaneously. 

The culprit causing the stye is usually a bacteria known as Staphylococcus which infects the oil glands in the eye-lid. Excessive discharge from the oil glands increases the chances of developing a stye. What causes this bacteria you ask? You ofcourse! When you forget to (or are too lazy to) remove your make-up properly at night, when you can't be bothered to buy new make-up and use outdated and infected cosmetics, when you are absolutely gross and don't bother maintaining eyelid hygiene, or you have an eyelid disease like blepharitis, meibomitis, or androsacea (okay fine it's not always your fault). Stress and hormonal changes can cause this as well.

Although styes usually disappear in a few days, sometimes, complications may occur. If you notice that your eye is swollen shut, the area around your eye is red, you can't see properly, the stye doesn't go away for weeks, the stye keeps coming back or bleeds, you lose your lovely lashes, the annoying stye appears on the bottom lid close to your nose, the whites of your eye turns red and you start resembling Cyclops, you keep tearing up unnecessarily, you have thick discharge oozing out of your eye, you have a high fever, the lymph nodes on your neck swell up, you see two of everything—be smart and go to a doctor. You may need pain meds or even surgery.

However, most of you will not be that unfortunate. For regular styes, apply warm compress four to six times a day for about 15 minutes. Gently scrub your eye-lid with tap water or with a mild shampoo (baby shampoo works). Make sure you close your eyes when you do this, so you don't cause more damage as you are obviously prone to do. DO NOT no matter how tempted you are, squeeze or puncture the stye. Stop wearing contacts and eye make-up for a few days (yes it's a tragedy but would you rather see, or look hot?). Do not use eye-creams or lotions incase they are infected.  

In summary, keep your eyes clean by washing frequently, do not touch your eyes with dirty hands, throw away all your old cosmetics and buy new ones from reliable shops that won't sell you contaminated rubbish. Follow these instructions and hope for the best. Good luck!

Source: http://www.emedicinehealth.com/