Oh those dysfunctional glands

Have you ever had a stye? You know, a small pimple like thing on your lash line of your eye. I'm sure many people have. I went my entire childhood and young adult life never suffering one. I have more than made up for it after I turned 30. For reasons unknown to me, or my eye doctor's, I continue to get these cysts in my eyelids. I wish they were only stye's as they are self limiting. Stye's generally hurt, swell, and form head before bursting and vanishing in about a week or two. No, stye's are not what I am plagued with. The first time I got one of these bumps my son was an infant. It started as what I thought was a stye. It seemed after a long while to go away but then it left a painless ugly lump that I could see pushing out from under my eyelid on the outside. This is what is called a chalazion cyst and they can be formed after stye. It's kinda like scar tissue. Its not an infection but it does contain a thick substance. You see, my lumps aren't infections like stye's generally are. My lumps begin and form from the meibomian glands inside your eyelids. Everybody has them. Those glands are what secrete the fluid to keep your eyes from drying out. For some unknown reason, my eyelids have rebelled and chosen not to function properly and cause this most annoying and painful recurring problem. 

'A chalazion also known as a meibomian gland lipogranuloma, is a cyst in the eyelid that is caused by inflammation of a blocked meibomian gland'

I have had 3 surgeries to remove 3 cysts in the past 8 years. I have had a couple other cysts that I managed to rid myself of, but it takes months, I mean 6 months to a year to get rid of them. After a year, if the thing is still there, if I'd made it that long, that's when I bite the bullet and get the thing cut out. It's a HIGHLY unpleasant experience. I have had 2 removed in upper eyelids, one in each eye. And 2 years ago I had one removed from my lower right lid; that one was even more painful to have cut out. I seem to get them every 2 years...I have no idea why. Stress may play a role. The surgery involves having iodine washed over my eye, which dries and is very uncomfortable. A needle of local anesthetic in stuck INTO my eyelid - that is EXTREMELY painful. My eye poors out tears during this process from the pain and burning. Then my eye, cheek and nose on that side are numb. Doctor flips my eyelid inside out and cuts open the cyst..blood poors down my face..and he scrapes out the junk inside before sticking some kind of medication, a steroid, inside the sac to prevent its return. No stitches are done and the eye is left to heal itself, which yes, after the numbing wears off you can feel the cut when you blink. It doesn't take too long to close up and antibiotic drops are given to use for at week or two. 


After the minor surgery I get to have my eye packed with a gauze patch and tapped up on my face and leave the office looking like a freak. Let me mention here that only and Opthamologist is going to perform this surgery, not an Optician or Optometrist (those are the ones you find at Sears, Target, Walmart, Lens Crafters, etc) An Ophthalmologist is a medical doctor and they do things like cataract surgery and lasik. My vision insurance does not cover this type of doctor for my general eye care needs which is all my vision insurance is good for. Thankfully in the past my health insurance has covered the surgery with a copay. Now I have insurance with no copay and high deductible, so it will mean I pay 100% of the contractual amount out of my pocket. Gotta love insurance. 

When the numbing wears off there is significant swelling and pain in the eye and it looks like raw meat...red and bruised. This is not a surgery to take lightly and I reserve this as a last resort. I would LOVE for my cysts to resolve themselves, even if it takes a year, but sadly they don't always cooperate. So my post today is going to tell you what might work, and what never has for me. 

What a dr will tell you and what the internet tells you is that warm compresses are going to rid these cysts. Well maybe, but for me...never. They are impossible to do 4 times a day. Who has that luxury to sit with a warm rag on their eye for 20 min 4 times a day? Still, I have done this, as often as humanly possible and I NEVER have had my cysts drain this way. If its new and beginning you might have a chance to stop it using this method or if it has a head about to pop, yes, do the compress, it may open and drain. That has happened to me, however they usually just keep filling up and eventually don't drain anymore. So yes, do them, but for chalazions, especially those that are not new active infections, it probably will have no affect. Eye drops- well you can't buy antibiotic eye drops over the counter but I can tell you from experience that these drops may help with pain, swelling and redness (because the ones I've been given have a steroid in them) they won't eliminate the cyst. Or at least they don't work for me. I hate antibiotic use anyway and don't want to over-use them. 

Similasan Stye Eye drops which are now called Irritated Eye Drops are good drops to use. Though I am not sure they have eliminated any of my cysts they do help with pain, redness and swelling. You can also use their allergy or dry eye drops as all 3 are similar and all help. Blink preservative free single use tears drops are absolutely needed, or a similar brand. They help with flushing out the pus that drains and they just make the eye more comfortable they also could help eliminate the cyst, though I have no evidence. I try to look for one of these drops that contains BORIC ACID...not all of them do. I prefer this brand. 

I wish I could tell you what has worked but the truth is, I am not sure any one thing has ever worked to eliminate these things in my eyelids when they form. I have had a couple that I did not opt to have surgically removed because of expense and pain. In those cases I used a combo of warm compresses, both types of eye drops and homeopathic oral 'medication'. The homeopathic meds I took were try this and try that. I took thuja, silcea, and staphysagria. I followed package instructions. I took 30C preparation. I can't say if those had any affect. My gut says no though I do believe homeopathy is good for many things, it might serve me better to have a homeopath prescribe something just for me rather than experimenting with this and that which I am not sure did anything. I currently have one of these again and yes it was 2 years since my last one. This time its in my left eye where the first one I ever had was, but I think in a different gland in that lid. Its an active "infection". Having been through these many times I know it's not really infected and it's not emergent, just HIGHLY annoying. I wish I had a reason why I get them. Even multiple doctors I have talked too have nothing to tell me on how I get them. Those few I didn't have cut out did eventually go away for whatever reason. 

The last optometrist I saw for annual exam suggested changing to all preservative free products for my contact lenses as I expressed to him my concern the contacts maybe would be a cause. So I am using a peroxide based cleaner and not the all-in-one that is so common. I agreed and hoped maybe it would help. Apparently not. None of the doctors feel my contacts are to blame. It's just one of those things. Great. The suggestion has been made to take a daily low dose oral antibiotic to prevent them. Well, no thanks. I really would rather not put that junk in my body. I need to seek a naturopath and see if they can get to the source of why I get them and really prevent them rather than a bandaid of antibiotic. No matter what I have tried nothing has stopped them. I wash my eyelids with mild soap and water, I do not every wear eye makeup, I run hot water over my eyes in the shower, i don't wear my contacts every day and I NEVER EVER sleep in them. I use dry eye drops as needed. Nothing has prevented these, nothing. If anyone has answers please comment below. I added flax seed oil supplement daily and a high quality, potent, organic multi vitamin/mineral and my diet consists of a lot of broccoli and green vegetables and still they come. I go for a long period of time not getting one and I think, good, no more...and then another pops up. It's beyond frustrating. Eight years of searching for answers and getting nowhere with doctors and experimenting on myself with safe options and here I am, still getting them and not being able to get rid of them. Hoping this current one will resolve and I won't be so annoyed that I cave and get another surgery I don't want. Dr told me that I can leave the cysts there. Great. They are hideous noticeable bumps on my eyelids, I'd rather not have to look at them. 


Homeopathy for Chalazion  /  explanation of homeopathic remedies /  Possible Homeopathic Treatment

Eyelid massages can help the cyst drain and you should do that after the warm compress. Everyone says not to squeeze the cyst to remove the pus and I am not going to tell you to do it, but I can tell you that the ones I have not had surgery on, I did gently squeeze my eyelid to remove the fluid, which it does come out and it is disgusting. You can damage your gland and possibly your lid I suppose but I felt the benefit outweighed the risk. I am currently trying this again. If you do attempt you MUST be gentle and be aware you are likely to inflame the area and make it sore. Use a warm compress before and after and use one of the eye drops I mentioned. I am currently contemplating a turmeric reduction I made that I read online is great for these things. To use in the eye or topically. I have concerns about use in the eye because turmeric stains things yellow, including skin. I may just swab a bit of the substance on the cyst under the lid and see if there is any change before using as a full eye drop. Check back at a later date when I can report my experience. 

What is a chalazion?    /   Homeopathic treatment worth trying   

FYI- all the reasons for how people get them, their cause...NONE of those apply to me and I haven't been diagnosed with dysfuntional meibomian glands, though clearly they don't work properly. As of today none of my new cysts have formed where old ones were. 

discussions on what others tried

Below are 2 things I may try. I have done the tea bag before and it does help with pain.

Natural home remedy using coriander seeds:

1. Take 300 ml of water

2. Add 2 tbsp of coriander seeds

3. Boil for 15-20 min

4. Strain the mixture

5. Allow it to cool

6. Use this as eyewash twice a day

Natural home remedy using tea bag:

1. Tannin, a chemical in the tea, helps get relief from the painful bump near the eye

2. Take a tea bag

3. Dip it in water

4. Remove and press it on the stye for 5-6 min

5. Repeat this 5 times a day