What's with the itching in my eye?

[kaylinha]

Some background info: I'm a daily contact user, and wear them basically 16hrs a day (they only need to be in contact solution for 6 hours min.) besides on weekends when I usually only have them in for 8hrs. I never had any eye irritations,  until now. The inner corner of my right eye, like the pink part that touches your eye, where the morning gunk usually is, is very itchy, and kind of hurts every time I blink. I don't know what to do, and when wearing contacts I use a solution to clean my contacts, like the drops. I'm not allergic to anything that I know of, though I have never taken a test. I never had a reaction to anything. It seems to be only the right eye, and it's hard not to touch it. It seems to be a bit 'over-sized' but not like swelling. My eyes are overall a tad blood shot (probably from wearing contacts to long?). And for the record I am pretty young, I have told my mom, and waited a while to see if it would go away on its own but it hasn't. What's wrong with my eye? What can I do to make it go away? How can I prevent it from happening again? Thanks :)

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

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[kaylinha]

Thank you for the response, I'll be sure to watch out for that, I changed my contacts, so I think I might have just used the 2weekly pair for a while longer than I should have without realizing it, and my eye is more 'relaxed'. :)

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

99% of the time this is a contact lens problem. Often a condition called GPC or giant papillary conjunctivitis. You will need to work through this with your contact lens fitter. To DX   GPC your upper eyelids need to be flipped and the back surface inspected.

Our Kansas City practice has analyzed why people seek lasik surgery and fully 20% its because they have lost the ability to wear contacts. A reason for why the eye suddenly stops tolerating contacts cannot often be found espcially in women where borderline dry eyes is often underlying cause.

JCH MD