Scratched my eye a few months ago and it still hurts

[Asif416]

A few months ago I was walking to my friends house and had something fly into my eye. As soon as I went to his place I took my contact lenses off and tried rubbing the foreign body out with water, but only managed to scratch my cornea in the process. Then I put my contact lenses back on not knowing what I had just done and my left eye had an infection, my eye was sensitive to light, it felt itchy, every time i blinked it hurt VERY bad.

I woke up the next day and my eye was sealed with mucus, I went to the specialists after seeing a doctor the same day and the specialist said I had a scratch on my cornea and that I should refrain from wearing contact lenses for the next 5 months or so. He prescribed me eye drops which I had to put on my eye every hour (even the hours im suppose to sleep) for 48 hours.

My eye was healed for the next month or so until I couldn't help the temptation of wearing my contacts again (a new pair I had just opened) for an event my work was hosting. Towards the end of the night, even though I was quite drunk, my left eye began to feel different. When I got home and took my lenses off, it felt as if I re-opened my corneal abrasion - but this time it wasn't as bad, but it was still very annoying.

Ever since then, I have pain in my left eye and a pinpoint painful sensation at the same spot my abrasion was. I moved to a different city and I went to see a specialist for the problem. I have now moved to another city and I went to see a specialist again. When he was checking me, he diagnosed me with Giant Papillary Conjunctivitis and put me on patanol eye drops - he said I was allergic to the contacts I was wearing and said that the pain I felt on my left eye was because I had a foreign body in that eye and my left eye is more sensitive than before. I explained to him that my right eye was fine and he told me that my right eye actually hurts just the same but it's overshadowed by the pain in my left eye.

Now to me, his diagnosis did not seem to make sense. First of all, when I went to the first specialist, he did not say anything about GPC and I had not felt any discomfort from wearing my contact lenses up until the foreign body incident for obvious reasons. I stopped wearing them for a month and after I wore them again I "suddenly" develop a case of GPC, This was my first visit to this specialist and it was 6 weeks ago.

So last week I went to see the same specialist again as my eye did not seem to be healed and was still quite photophobic and painful. He did another check up and told me my GPC had gotten a lot better, but to me the pain was still the same.

Ever since i started using the patanol drops, my right eye began to mildly hurt. I don't know if this is a side effect, but the pain isn't significant and it doesn't bother me much (my left eye still hurts regardless of the patanol)

I honestly don't want to question this doctors expertise as he is more qualified in this field than me, but something doesn't seem right. My left eye still hurts and right now I feel as if im in a stalemate position which is very frustrating. It would be nice to know your thoughts of what might really be happening with my left eye or if it really is a spontaneous case of GPC.

Thank you for your time it is really appreciated  =)

[Asif416]

Yes, that was what I was thinking as well, but what do you think is the problem with my left eye based on the information I have provided?

Thank you for your response =)

[Ray T Oyakawa, MD]

GPC is usually a bilateral disease.  Please get a second opinion.

Dr. O.