bump in my eye

[eb1112]

Yesterday I woke up and my eye was sore, today however I woke and my eye was in a lot of pain and  the upper eyelid was swollen with a small bump under my lid.  When I lifted up my lid (like the inside of my eye) there was a white bump, it sort of looked like a cacher sore or an ulcer, but a bump.  I looked up pictures of styes and of chalazions and neither of them look like what I have, and I have not been able to find a picture of the inside of an eye.  My school nurse said it is an odd place for a stye to form, but to put a warm towel over it for a while and maybe it would drain, it seems to be doing so becuase I lifted up my lid again and there was puss in my eye, and it feels like drainage, but I don't really know what a draining eye feels like since the eye is aready wet and it's not quite tears.  What could this be? Sorry for my bad descriptions but that's all I got.  Thanks

[Joan M Pernoud, MD]

There is a wide variety of appearances of styes and chalazions depending on size and whether they are more prominent on the inside of the lid or outside.

It probably is a chalazion (a larger version of a stye) and you are doing the right thing to use warm compresses. Make them as warm as comfortably possible and use them a total of at least 45 minutes a day. If it is getting worse, not better, see your eye MD ophthalmologist to get an antibiotic by mouth to help the infection. This is a medical problem so your medical insurance should apply.

A chalazion is an infection of one of the oil glands which are deep in the eyelid and open close to the base of the eyelashes.