Hey. I've had this problem for some time, on-and-off for about 3 years, so I thought I'd put it by some of the people here to see if anyone here has any ideas. Incidentally, I'm 18 and don't have any other disorders.

The basic problem is a pain in the left eye, sometimes as if the eye's dry, but other times as if there's a constant stabbing behind the eye. It generally lasts for a long time. If it comes on one day, it'll last the whole day, and probably much longer than that.

There's a few other symptoms that are probably relevant:

- the left eyelid always droops slightly lower than the right. It's not normally too noticeable, but when there's quite a lot of pain there it gets worse.
- I also always have a feeling or numbness, almost of tightness, in and around the left eyelid. It's almost as if the muscle there's weak.
- There's much more prominent dark circles, or dark coloured blood or whatever, beneath the left eye. It's generally more puffy.
- The eye can seem a little glazed, and sometimes a little bloodshot when it aches, but not so much that it's too noticeable.
- Vision can be slightly blurred, as if there's some fluid which the lid hasn't quite scraped off of the eye, when it's pretty bad.


I have no idea what this is, the first things that come to mind are dry eye and migraine, but then it doesn't seem to quite "fit" the symptoms of either of them.

I had an eye examination for an unrelated issue not so long ago that came back fine on most things - so it's nothing so noticeable to an eye examiner as glaucoma, cataracts, retinal detachement or whatever.

I'm going to ask the Doctor what it is again, fairly soon, but they don't usually come up with much, so any ideas would be most appreciated since this has been annoying me for a long time and I want to try and get rid of it.

Anyone have any ideas as to what it could be? Or any advice about it?

...
I have no idea what this is, the first things that come to mind are dry eye and migraine, but then it doesn't seem to quite "fit" the symptoms of either of them...That was exactly what I thought.
So.
Did you see an optometrist or an ophthalmologist? This definitely sounds like you want the latter of the two to take a look.

I know what you mean about having to go to a doctor with diagnosis in hand. But sometimes, if you really have no clue, you just need the right doctor.

Your description was nicely detailed.
I suggest bringing a copy with you.
And I guess I would tell the doctor I was hoping he could tell whether there is something there that should not be.

Thanks for the input.

I've seen both an opthahlmologist and a regular optician recently for unrelated issues, but in any case they had a good enough look in my eye to determine that there's nothing obviously wrong - no vitreous detachment, glaucoma, nothing like that. I'm pretty sure there's nothing directly wrong with the eye, although it could be dry eye or something muscular, I guess.

Any more help would be greatly appreciated.