To ask for your help with my eye!

[Swolleneye]

On Thursday my eye felt sore and irritated, like something was in it. Woke up yesterday and it’s quite swollen, really red and watery. Pharmacy gave me some eye drops, I religiously put them in every two hours but this morning I have woken up and my eye is even more swollen!! It looks AWFUL. I’ve never had an eye infection before, does it get worse before it gets better?! It’s my daughters christening on Sunday and I’m so worried it’s not going to be better by then.

I would either speak to an optician today and/or go to a and e. The eye drops could be making it worse. Is your eye sensitive to light at all?

Find your nearest eye casualty and go there. Don't mess with eyes.

Also, what did the pharmacist suggest it was? What did they say the drops were for?

Yep, as silvercat said, there is a separate eye a and e. Which tells you how seriously eye problems are taken.

Definitely go and get it seen today. Don't wait.

Wow, wasn’t expecting eye a&e responses! Never even heard of that. Pharmacist said it looked like an eye infection but it’s so much more swollen today. Not sensitive to light though.

It could be a viral infection which unfortunately won’t respond to the drops. I agree though, get someone to look properly today.

There’s no eye a&e in my area, just checked. I can try to get into my GP today?

Go to GP don’t go to A&E, the NHS is vastly overstretched.
Look for a walk in clinic otherwise.

Or is optician better than GP?

Is it painful on exposure to light?

As someone who found myself in a similar position (previously completely healthy eyes with perfect vision) , I would urge you to get to eye casualty. It may be a simple infection but for me it turned out to be an autoimmune condition that required emergency intervention. Pharmacists are not eye specialists. Please get it seen ASAP

Go to a and e, not your GP. Your GP will not have the necessary equipment to look in the back of your eye

I went for eye test on Wednesday and mentioned that my right eye has been sore for past couple of weeks. Optician checked it out and discovered a very fine eyelash growing inwards and touching surface of my eye. She managed to pluck it out for me. Eye feels fine now.

Could something like that, so might be worth going along to optician first thing and asking them to have a look for you.

@restlessinthenorth No, not painful to light. Just really red, watery, itchy and so swollen I look like I’ve done 10 rounds with Tyson

You need to go to A&E, a number of serious eyes conditions could be at play. It's very unlikely but you need to dismiss them. In all likelihood, you've scratched the cornea and it just needs healing naturally. It could also be allergy. My DS is allergic to grass and he had one eye red and swollen for weeks. Was given an emergency appointment when antibiotics did nothing but some antihistamine drops did the trick after 1 week. I assume allergies would affect both eyes but read that it can strangely sometimes affect only one.

When my DS had similar we went to optician who sent us to A&E who could then send him direct to the eye department.

Last summer I had problems with my eyes (very bloodshot, watery but also felt dry & itchy) went to GP first (who specialised in eyes), went through two sets of different drops/gels, neither worked so I had to refer myself to an optician who was able to diagnose straight away (episcleritis in my case) & gave me steroid drops which cleared it up in a couple of days.
Unfortunately GPs aren't knowledgable enough about eyes - get an emergency appt with an optician or go to A&E.

I'd go to an optician before a&e, ete infections are pretty common and they will be able to assess if you need emergency treatment. I hope its nothing serious but I'd certainly do that first before rushing off to a&e where you could be waiting a long time.

There are conditions called iritis and episcleritis that affect your eyeball which aren’t infections. Some can be very serious, I’ve had episcleritis, and it needs to be seen as an emergency (and diagnosed under a ‘green light’ I recall). These can be serious, get yourself to A&E or a GP appt today. My local hospital had an eye unit and GP referred me straight there as an emergency.

You need to go to A&E if there is no eye casualty in your area. Ignore the poster above suggesting GP as NHS overstretched - a GP will not be able to help and thus it’s a wasted trip.
My husband had similar symptoms and had a corneal ulcer- medical emergency as if not treated he could have gone blind or lost his eye. Go to A&E OP.

Mixture of opinion on here, but these are your eyes!!!! So precious. As someone who faced losing my sight out of the blue (with not dissimilar onset conditions)and was told early assessment and treatment was absolutely critical, I wouldn't be waiting around to see an optician.

Your call OP. The likelihood is that it's nothing, but I would air on the side of caution. Not all emergencies are obvious..

Go to the opticians immediately - there is an emergency eye scheme for things like this - and if they deem it serious they will send you to the eye department directly. Don’t go to A and E and certainly don’t go to the GP

Or is optician better than GP?

Yes, plus an optician will refer you to hospital if required. Hope you get some relief soon.

Cross posted with Guavaf1sh. If you don't see a regular optician phone the one closest to you and they should be able to see you quite quickly or arrange for another optician to see you.

Agree with PPs, you might end up at hospital with this. I’ve had recurring eye infections lately which opticians diagnosed as bacterial conjunctivitis, giving me antibiotic eye drops. Eye got so swollen that I couldn’t see out of it at all and I felt horrendous, turns out it was viral conjunctivitis caused by HSV1 (the cold sore virus), which can cause corneal damage. Get yourself to a GP who can refer you to hospital if needed, or if your hospital has self referral to eye related specialist, get yourself to that instead.