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Weird bacteria

I am a 21 year old male. Around May 7 2010 my right eye became irritated when it didnt go away we went to see an Ophthalmologist he noticed cobblestoning on my Palpebral conjunctiva as well as redness, my sclera was not that red anymore, some pus and slight swelling. Most of the time you cant even tell theres something wrong with it. He suggested it was allergic conjunctivitis and gave me an antihistamine and a steriod (drops). After a week it wasnt getting better so i went to see him again. He suggested i get an allergy test. Before doing so i decided i wanted a second opinion. I went to see another guy. He said it was bacterial/viral conj. so he put me on Tobramycin ointment, Steroid drops and Moxifloxacin drops. After a week the swelling was down, no more redness in the sclera and my palpebral conj. was less red with the blisters smaller. We got it cultured and it came back Staph. Aureus, nothing significant since it was scant and we all have that flora. So we diminished the doses of the 3 meds and after about another 10 days it looked healed. my palpebral conj. was white there was one blister left barely visible. So doctor said enough youre healed. Two days later my eye was red watery and had some yellow discharge. By the way whole time, eye never bothered me, no itching, hardly any burning, sometimes a gritty feleing, no restriction of movement and my eyeball itself perfectly healthy, blood work all normal. Maybe 1 week out of this whole ordeal did i wake up with my eye slightly crusted over.
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284078 tn?1282616698
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
I'm not sure why you are going to an infectious disease specialist. A culture of the conjuctival could easily be repeated.  If the culture comes back negative then that would pretty much rule out bacterial infection.  From what you said you always responded to steroids so it is a possibility that allergies or some type of allergic type condition like giant papillary conjuctivitis or atopic conjuctivitis or vernal conjuctivitis is the culprit. In other words steroids might have been stopped too soon possibly and allergy drops may needs to be continued long term and I understand you never had allergy testing so get that done.  You mentioned bacterial conjuctivitis but that would be very easy to rule out. I really don't relate this to your dog unless you are perhaps allergic to him.
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Avatar universal
Anyways back to the story. It came back 1 days after we stopped. So doctor being puzzled sent me to another guy. He noticed the blisters the swelling and came to same conclusion. He put me on oral Cipro for 10 days. My eye looked perfect had one miniscule blister and everything looked great. He then told me to put steroid drops on it. So i did. I was to see him in a week. 5 days in all is good looks like we beat it. 2 days before we see him my eye got red and then a few hours later disappeared. When we went to see him he said steroids can irritate no problem, reduce dose from QID to 3x for a week then twice for a week etc. 2 days after that visit my eye got bloodshot red some burning swollen again and pus and the blisters are back. My eye is still like this today. my last appt. when i saw him was July 2. No one seems to have any clue as to what this is. May i add as well that its only been my right eye this entire time and no one in my family has any redness. They suggested conjunctival lymphoma but since it does get better and my blood work was normal they threw cancer out the window. Its not Chlamydia i got tested for it and it was negative. Im stuck between bacterial conjunctivitis or allergic. All 3 doctors mumbled to themselves when looking at my eye "giant papillary conj." because never suggested that may be it. Probably since i DONT wear contacts. But im highly allergic to Mulch and around the time my eye got red i remember mulch being poured at my workplace. Possible i got a piece in my eye and its still not out? Or did i get some weird staph? I never mentioned the mulch because unfortunately i only remembered this today but i did mention the following. My dog had a bad staph infection in her eyes and skin which flaked off. We had to put her to sleep but possible that i got one of those flakes in my eye? If anyone can offer me any advice i would appreciate it. Im going to see an infectious disease doctor this week but any added help will be appreciated.
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