Pigs live in sty's!! (My Experience of Styes)

Member Name: jo1l

Product:	My Experience of Styes
Date:	01/03/01 (1799 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: none

Disadvantages: they hurt and do not look nice

"Pardon?" said the formidable Sister Brown "Are you totally sure?" "Oh yes" said I, a keen ophthalmic student nurse "It's defientely a stye sister" as I pointed to the small swelling on the patients lower lid. Sister then became a crimson colour as she then exploded and uttered the imortal line "No Nurse it is not a stye, Pigs live in sty's!! It is infact an external hordeoleum what on earth do they teach you these days in school?" This was prehaps my first encounter with a stye or to give it it's posh medical name an external hordeoleum and not my last at the hands of Sister Browns wrath!

So what is a stye?

The discription given in the catergory blurb really does sum it up well. A stye is an infection of the base of the hair follicle, which leads to a sore red pus filled swelling.

So how do you get them?

Normally you tend to get styes if you are run down and are therefore more suseptical to picking up an infection. If you have other lid diseases such as blephritis ( a mild inflamation of the lid margins which causes redness and crusty deposits)this again may cause you to be more prone to getting styes.

So whats the treatment?

Normally an antibiotic ointment would be prescribed such as chloramphenicol to be used several times a day. Unfortunately antibiotic ointments are not available over the counter. There are various antiseptic eye ointments such as the infamous golden eye ointment that might soothe it but they will not cure it.

If it is rather a large stye and giving you alot of problems then you could try plucking out the offending lash thereby giving the pus a drainage exit. Ouch I know but the relief can some times be instant!

With the treatment of styes the one think to try to do is get rid of the pus before it builds up in the hair follicle if the above two treatment methods have not worked then you could try getting some hea
t to the stye in an attempt to draw it out or to put it crudely to make it burst.

If it is a child who has the stye you could try a hot flannel held over the stye for about 10 minutes. If it is an adult or an older child then steaming it really is the best way to get it to burst. If you have got a thermos flask fill it half way with boiling water place the flask on a firm surface ie a table and not your knee, then hold your closed eye over the steam for about 10 minutes or so twice a day -this really does work in helping to draw out a stye. Obviously if this method does work you may well find that your eye is sticky for a few days as the pus has found away out.

Are stye's harmful to sight?

The answer to that is a short and sweet No.

Hopefully this might be of some use to you and you'll never encounter the formidable Sister Brown as she has long since retired much to the relief of hundreds of ophthalmic student nurses!

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