Punctum Plug

Maybe about two months ago or so, I started getting some really tiny bumps on my bottom eyelid. At first I thought it was a sty, but it went away quickly. Then, I kept getting more. They weren't always in the same spot. I could kind of run my finger on my eyelid and it would pop the bump. I know, gross. So, since I was due for an eye check up anyway, I made an appt. to go to the eye doctor. He told me it was most likely from wearing old contacts, and or using old mascara. So, I changed both of those things in hopes that the bumps would go away. Of course, they didn't. About a month later, I went back to the doctor, and he said that my eyes were really dry, and that I may possibly have an infection. He prescribed some medicine and told me to come back in a week for a follow up appointment. The bumps didn't go away, even with the medicine, and they were starting to get slightly annoying.

The doctor told me that sometimes people just suffer from dry eyes and that there isn't a whole lot they can do. But, I did have one more thing to try. He told me about these plugs that you can put in your tear duct. Apparently when you blink, the tears "drain" into the tear duct. My tear ducts are bigger than most peoples (of course, because I have freakish things happen to me quite often) so the tears drain quicker, leaving my eyes with less tears than most. And, I'm a contact wearer, I stay up late, blah, blah. Which means I have lots of factors contributing to my dry eye problem, even though I never really thought I had dry eyes. They never bothered me before. He suggested we put in some temporary plugs that last 7-10 days to see if they would help. This sounded a little scary to me, because who wants something put into their eye? But, I agreed. First, he put some numbing drops in my eyes, which was so weird. My eyes felt totally crazy. Then, he opened my eye and put in the plugs. It didn't hurt, just felt strange. It's been 2 days, and I think I can feel a difference. I haven't gotten any of those bumps. So, that's a good thing. If I decide that I like them, then we can put permanent plugs in. Crazy. I've never heard of putting something in your tear duct. I've only heard of some babies needing to have their tear duct opened up. But, I'm lucky I get to have something shoved in there. Yeah me :}