Foreign Body sensation for 2 weeks & counting - plse help

[ReneeV29]

Hello,
A little over 2 weeks ago, i was gardening and thought i got a little dirt in my eye when i pulled a weed.  About 5 minutes later, i rinsed my eye with visine, then with eye wash, and the sensation still remained.  I did not see anything in the eye.  It has remained irritated since.  It is not red, nor can I see anything in it.  I went to my eye dr. 2 weeks ago and he gave me Pataday drops 1x a day and eye wetting drops.  Said to come back in 2 weeks, which i did yesterday.  Still the same.  He looked in the eye, did those yellow drops, looked at it with that eye machine where you put your chin on, said saw no scratchs or debris.  Said it could be irritation or allergy.  Here's a little background on my eyes as well...I have dry eyes, high eye pressure (between 19-26 depending on the month) and very thick corneas (around 624)..so I go to the eye dr around every 4 months or so.  No glacoma changes at all (been going for about 3-4 yrs now).  Heres my dilemma...this sensation is severly effecting my quality of life...i am also very worried that he is missing something (i've had bad experiences with a dr before, not him).  He just prescribed a mild steroid drop...but i'm worried about my eye pressure and the ramifications of taking that.  He assured me it would be ok.  What concerns me is that if he thinks this is "allergy" related, my point is that how, at the very second the dirt jumped in my eye, i all of a suddent develop an allergy that i've never had before?  The sensation is intermittent, sometimes it feels like i have something in the tear duct, other times above the eye by the eye lid, other times in the upper right hand side. Not all the time, but maybe 50%+ of the day.  Other times the eye feels achy, and other times when i put the dry eye drops in, it burns, but not all the time, and sometimes, I feel the foreign body sensation when i turn my  head from side to side.  I am concerned because #1, these are my eyes and i need them #2 I am worried he is missing something my dismissing this as an allergy or irritation.  Irritation i could understand, but the steroids worry me.  Is there anything that sounds incorrect about this diagnosis, or is there something else I can address with him (or another eye dr if need be) to help them pinpoint what is going on.  So now, he wants me to do the steroid drops (vLotemax) 3x a day for 2 weeks (i havent started them yet).  Any advice you can offer up would be of tremendous comfort.  Thank you in advance...Renee

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

Aggravating and often painful but rarely causes vision loss. Get that second Eye MD opinion.
JCH MD

[ReneeV29]

He did flip the lid both times, and he is an MD opthamologist.  To me, it didnt seem accurate that I would suddenly develop an "allergy" at the exact same second i got dirt in the eye.
Thank you for the suggestion.  I will definately go seek someone else out.  Is a corneal abrasion/erosion serious?

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

Allergies like hayfevers, dust, pollen, animal dander are almost always BOTH eyes and the symptom is ITCHING not a foreign body sensation.

Such multiple therapy seems to indicate that your diagnosis is uncertain.

I would suggest a second opinion from another ophthalmologist (I'm hoping with your glaucoma suspect situation that you only trust your eyes to an MD ophthalmologist and not a non-MD optometrist).

You can find another eye MD near you, perhaps a cornea/external disease specialist. Find one at www.aao.org  or if you see an Eye MD tell him you want a second opinion from a cornea MD.

Your problem suggests a small corneal abrasion/erosion OR a small retained foreign body. It is very important in a case like this to be sure that your present "eye doctor" flipped you upper eyelid over and looked on the back side of the lide for retained debris.

JCH MD

[ReneeV29]

Oh, I am 39 years old, if that means anything.