Eyes swelling shut

lissaaj · 06-20-2004, 03:36 PM

Several years ago I experienced, an episode of my eyes swelling shut when I walked by a lawn that was being sprayed for weeds. Since that time it has developed into a more common allergic reaction that I cannot correlate with a substance. I have always had terrible seasonal allergies but the eye swelling is an annoying new reaction. It will usually take 2-3 days for the swelling to go down and they will usually "puff" up more when I get up in the morning. If anyone has experienced this themselves, I would be interested in knowing how you've dealt with it. Doctors and allergists seem stumped by it. I took allergy shots for seven years and they did not seem to help at all. I went to a second allergist, who ran the skin ***** test on me again and the only things I reacted to were dogs and cat. Another allegist I went to suggested I take the skin test again, but as I've spent countless hours sitting in allergists' office, I declined. I then went to an accupuncture clinic and did the NAET, an allergy elimination using muscle response. This seemed to help a small bit for short periods but did not seem to have any lasting effects. I am now going to try something through the allergy accupuncture clinic called neuromodualation. If I find it helpful I will write more about it. In the meantime I am tired of my eyes swelling shut and looking like a freak. It causes some serious depression and I end up missing a little work as well. Mostly I'd like to know good ways to deal with this and help the swelling go down more quickly. Please let me know if you have any ideas.

reader1 · 06-20-2004, 04:13 PM

What meds have you tried to prevent the swelling and did they have any effect? An antihistamine-inhaled steroid combination can be helpful, however allergic eye swelling (neither rare nor common) is very hard to treat without oral steroids.

Beaner02 · 06-20-2004, 04:20 PM

For the last 2 years I've had to go to the eye DR. for my eyes swelling, itching, and redness. I just went to see him again 2 weeks ago b/c my one eye was completely swelled shut and I had no upper eyelid. It was gross and scary. He gave me Prednisolone Acetate Ophthalmic (eye drops). They are a steriod and should only be used for a couple days not for long term use. ANyway I used them for 4 days to get everything back to normal. Now I'm back to normal and the eye DR. gave me a 2nd prescription for Patanol (eye drops). Those can be used everyday forever i's just like an allergy eye drop. A lot better than visine tears or any other OTC eye drop. My eyes havent swollen anymore and I use the Patonal 2 times a day. It seems to be doing the job.Hope this helps.

lissaaj · 06-20-2004, 08:07 PM

I've had several different doctors tell me to take benedryl after my reaction to help the swelling. As far as a preventative drug, i've tried them all, zyrtec, allegra & flonase. Claritine doesn't do anything for me. I just got back on a new treatment inhaler that I assumed was steroid based. It's called QVar 80 and I use it twice a day in addition to a generic flonase. If you have some recommendations on a different inhaler i'd be interested in knowing. I've kind of given up hope that drugs will help me much at all.