Pink Eye with watery-bloody discharge

[lexie123]

My husband has had pink eye for over a week now.  He was given both antibiotic drops and antibiotic tablets, but they never went away. So, we're suspecting that it's viral conjunctivitis. His left eye, which is the most infectected-looking just keeps having watery discharge. Just tonight, I noticed a reddish spot on his pillow, and realized that it was blood. It looked like it was blood mixed with the watery discharge. He's not complaining of pain or blurry vision. Could this be something serious?

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
Bleeding from the eye could be due to blood in tears (haemolacria) which in turn could be due to tumors in lachrymal sac, infection of the sac or due to bacterial conjunctivitis. Rupture of a capillary of the eye lid, any other vein in the eye rupturing maybe due to high blood pressure or due to infection can also be a cause. Please discuss these possibilities with an eye specialist. In your husband’s case the infection has probably causes a vein to rupture. Take care!

[Londres70]

I would guess that you are not dealing with a bacterial infection, but viral.  Yes, I do understand the doctor's office telling you all not to worry if he is not having the above problems you mentioned, but the infection is not subsiding; that would worry me.  

I would recommend asking the physician for another medication, i.e. a corticosteroid eye drops and an antiviral medication.  

If the problem persists, he should probably see an Ophthalmologist.  

[lexie123]

He was first given Zithromax Z-pak bor 5 days & that didn't work.  He started to have fevers & chills after the second day of taking it.  His doctor then gave him antibiotic eyedrops (I forgot the name) while he was on the zithromax, but that still didn't improve his condition.  His fever finally went away last night and all was left was the pink eye.  He tried to put Visine maximum redness relief and it did help clear of it some.  Then about an hour after (he was already asleep), that's when I saw a tinge of blood on his pillow, w/c came from his infected eye.  We called his doc but we were told not to worry as long as he has no change in vision, headaches or seeing a ring of light around the objects that he see as those can be serious signs of neurological problems.  He woke up this morning and the bleeding was gone.  I'm not sure if the visine caused further eye irritation which led to the small bleeding or a small leakage of the sensitive blood vessel walls.  

[Londres70]

Sounds infectious, but if it is truly viral, it won't respond to antibiotics.  

Has he seen an ophthalmologist?  Lingering infections in the eyes is not a good thing.  

In my opinion, the medications should be reassessed/changed.  

What medications has he been taking so far?