About a week ago, my left eye suddenly started burning. I don't know what it was, but my guess is a piece of cat hair or dander, to which I have a minor allergic reaction. The pain subsided, but when I woke up the next morning, the eye was red, the eyelid was heavily swolen, and my eye was itchy. I used antihistamine eye drops, which relieved the symptoms, but they would return after a few hours. After a few days the swelling stopped, but the itchiness kept returning, albeit less frequently. I can deal with the intermittent (though decently intense) itchiness, but I don't know if I should see a doctor about this or if it's in the process of resolving itself.
Before anyone asks, I don't think this is related to seasonal allergies or viral conjunctivitis because it's only the one eye and it had a very sudden onset. I also don't wear contact lenses or wear makeup and I can't think of anything else that could be irritating my eye. I've looked at my eye and I don't see anything obviously wrong in there, but it being my own eye, I could easily miss something.
Thanks
You are correct that when itching is the dominant symptom and not accompanied by discharge or pain or loss of vision, the cause is usually allergic. The use of artificial tears to dilute the allergen, over-the-counter anti allergy eye drops, Benadryl by mouth if medically permissible, and cold compresses can relieve allergic symptoms. Try to be a detective and think of what substance and by what means an substance causing the allergy could be delivered to your left eye. i.e. what could have been on your left hand and delivered to your left eye? Do you sleep on your left side? Sometimes you can be "chasing your tail" with the treatment of your initial symptoms causing the secondary allergic reaction.
If this is caused by an allergic reaction and you are careful not to continue to deliver the allergic substance to that eye, you should get steadily better. All important is the trend. If you are not getting convincingly and steadily better then the allergic type symptoms could be misleading. In the absence of steady and sustained improvement, you do need to see an ophthalmologist.
I thought it wasn't anything to worry much about, but given how fragile eyes can be, I didn't want to take unncessary risks.
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