Styes

When I went home several weeks ago for my brother's birthday, my dad had a stye. He already had it a while then and when we visited for Thanksgiving, he still had it! He wasn't soaking it as much as he should've been but that is still a really long time. Then, I was noticing that my eye, especially my eye socket was starting to hurt but I'm kind of a hypochondriac so nobody thought I was getting one too. Plus, they aren't exactly contagious. You can only get them from someone else if you use the same washcloth or that kind of thing. Obviously, my dad and I do not share wash clothes.

Well, after everyone doubted me, my stye finally surfaced this morning. I think it's funny because of all the people trying to tell convince me that I didn't have one. It hurts though so I guess it's not that funny (at least for me).

For those of you unaware, a stye is an infected hair follicle, commonly an eyelash. Apparently they can go away on their own but they never seem to so the best way to get rid of them is to apply warm wash clothes or compresses to your (closed) eye for 10-15 minutes, several times a day. In some cases, you may even need to see an ophthalmologist for further help (which I think my dad should do but we'll see). They're common and like I said, not really contagious. They form from the bacteria that is already on your skin so don't think you're digusting or like Pig Pen from Charlie Brown if you get one. 

I've had one before but that was like 10+ years ago. It was also a pretty bad one because I could barely open my eye without it hurting like crazy. I'm not to that point yet with this one but even with that one, as long as you're good about doing the compresses, they do go away.

So don't panic if you get one and good luck making it go away quickly. I hope mine will too.