Eye irritation and redness that won't go away

I am a 19 year old female who has been wearing contacts for over 7 years, and has never had serious eye complications. About 3 weeks ago I was diagnosed with conjunctivitis in both eyes.
For almost two months I had experienced symptoms of eye redness, and it felt as if I had a loose contact or eyelash floating around in my right eye. The severity of the irritation varied over the two moths. I did not think that I had an eye infection so I continued to wear my contacts, and the redness and irritation worsened. When I finally went have my eyes examined by an ophthalmologist, she said that the irritation was because the nerve endings in my eyes were exposed. While I have been taking Zymar drops for almost 3 weeks straight and wearing only glasses, my right eye still feels as if I have an eyelash in it. Is this just a really bad infection, or is something else going on with my eyes?

[Ray T Oyakawa, MD]

The eyelash feeling sensation is called a "foreign body sensation" and indicates a surface problem in you eye.   You need to see your ophthalmologist.

Dr. O.