For your eyes only

Last Friday my left eye suddenly turned a little red. I realized it some time in the evening when I was still in the office. I thought it was just because of my eyes are tired or because they were dried due to contact lens usage. On Saturday I didn't really check on the eyes. Same goes on Sunday when we were busy at home for Khaleef's majlis cukur jambul. Later that evening I went out and like always, wearing my contact lenses, and I found out that my left eye started to turn red again. Maybe it was obvious because I see my eyes at the mirror without my glasses on.

It doesn't really look serious eh?

 

Well, at first I thought it was just an the normal infection. Ok not 'just'. But yeah, i thought it was like the conjunctivitis or 'sakit mata' where your eyes turn all red. So I didn't really give it too much attention. EyeMo would be enough, I thought. I even told my cousins to stay away, cause the conjunctivitis is contagious. But then only I realize that conjunctivitis will normally comes with discharges from the eyes. But my eyes are clean, no tears, no discharge. And my eyes were not itchy.

Then, only on Monday morning it hit me that I should go to the clinic. So I took off and went to the common clinic where I used to go since I was a kid. Guess I feel comfortable with the doctor so I didn't think of seeing any other doctor.

The doctor told me that it was not a conjunctivitis, it's caused by pterygium instead. And when I heard of that I was like "What the hell is that?" Yes it was a new term for me. I asked the doctor again what the name of that thing and he answered, "Pterygium, with the P T E" Ok fine, doctor... Asked doctor if it had anything do to with contact lens usage, he said no. Doctor gave me MC, i went back home few minutes later and I forgot about the name already. –____-"  So I kind of just let it go. Huhu.

 

Last night, I looked into the mirror and saw my left eye was still reddish. I snapped some pictures and posted in on Twitter and Facebook. I even sms-ed a few friends.

Today, in the office, my manager said it could be worse. She recommended that I go to eyes specialist to do further check up. She is kind of a person who gives much attention on healthcare. Another colleague told me story on how her friend bleed in the eyes caused of hit on the head. Add up with few more eyes stories and it made me scares that I Googled all possible eye infection diseases etc. and then I found things on pterygium.

 

What is Pterygium?

 

A pterygium is a non-cancerous growth of the clear, thin tissue (conjunctiva) that lays over the white part of the eye (sclera).

 

To keep it short, few websites give me the not-so-convincing answer about the cause of pterygium.

 

“The cause is unknown, but it is more common in people with excess outdoor exposure to sunlight and wind, such as those who work outdoors.”

“The exact cause is unknown, but it is associated with excessive exposure to wind, sunlight, or sand.”

“The exact cause is not well understood.”

 

Yeah.. WHAT? Unknown??

So anyway, Google shows that pterygium looks like this.

 

I think my left eye doesn't look like this. I don't see any tissue growth. Don't you think so? Ok ok I know I should stop acting like an eye specialist and stop making my own theory bla bla bla…

 

I promised myself that if my left eye still look red by the end of the week, I’ll go to see the eye specialist. Furthermore when mum commented on Facebook asking me to go to one of the eye clinic. Huhu…