eye herpes? or something else?

[worried101010]

Lately, I have been experiencing red eye. It first started in my left eye, and just recently has spread to my right eye. At first, I started experiencing problems after I slept in my eye makeup. I woke up and my eye felt kind of irritated and was red. It stung and was a little blurry. The bluriness went away after blinking. Because of my discomfort, I decided to take a nap. When I awoke, my eye was a little watery and still red and irritated. I immediately took off my makeup. In the preceeding few hours, my eye burned mostly in the outer corner (towards my temple). However, before I went to bed, the redness had decreased a little and the burning had completely stopped. It has not hurt at all since that day, but its been red for about four days now. Yesterday, I tried to wear my make up again and then my other eye became red too. I have also been experiencing a sore throat when I wake up each morning, drainage, stuffy nose, and an itchy nose. I have not been diagnosed with herpes, but I am worried I have it.... I had a small bump inside my lip that eventually turned into a sore. I have this bad habit of licking the q-tip and wiping it under my lash to get off the excess mascara. I'm afraid I transferred herpes to my eye.

Also, its in the middle of winter. I cant have allergies right? I have tried moisturizing eye drops, opthalmic erythromycin ointment, and I used Zaditor tonight. All of them have not worked. Does my makeup have anything to do with it? Could this be eye herpes? Please give me your opinion. Thanks!

[Houman Vosoghi, MD]

Also, stop licking your Qtips.  Use warm water instead.

HV

[Houman Vosoghi, MD]

Unlikely to be herpes in the eye.  Get a full eye exam by an ophthalmologist to find out what is going on.  Allergies usually involve itching.  You could have anything from "pink eye" to blepharitis or just a bad case of dry eye.  You need to be examined.  Make-up could cause irritation in some people as well.  A good exam will let the eye MD know what the problem is.

HV