Eye Empathy

I've always had a condition called "eye empathy."
Self-diagnosed.

I explain this to people by saying that when I see someone with pink eye or watery eyes or something, my eyes start to itch, or water, or do whatever gross thing the other person's eye is doing. I also have an extreme fear of those tests at the eye doctor when they take a picture of your retina, or squirt the puff of air in your eye. I totally panic. Not sure what this fear has to do with eye empathy, but let's just say there is a psychological connection.

Eye empathy.

I went to the eye doctor today after work. I've always found the doctors and dentists in Chicago to provide super-great medical care. This eye doctor was no exception. Except, the visit made me wonder, do doctors make people more paranoid? Maybe the doctors here are so good, that they give you a bunch of extra stuff to worry about that they can now detect with their added knowledge and cutting edge technology. Is it truly helpful to us patients?

I have a lot of friends who consider themselves hypochondriacs. I usually poo-poo this condition. If I paid attention to every little pain I had, I'd be a hypochondriac too. But I just ignore it, and 9 times out of 10, the pain and the accompanying paranoia go away.

So my eye doctor told me that the tiny little oil glands in my lower eyelid were getting clogged and creating little (invisible to me) bumps. However, I can treat this by putting a hot washcloth over my eyes every night to unclog the glands. Gross! But also, weird? If I don't do the hot washcloth preventative, I may get a sty, said the doctor. If I get a sty, I would have to do the hot washcloth treatment on my eyes 4 times a day.

"This might explain why your eyes are dry," said the doctor.

So, of course I come home tonight and do the hot washcloth thingy thinking, "Hmmm, my eyes are really dry. They feel tired. Maybe I'm sleeping too much which is why I have insomnia and I'm not really tired when I go to bed but just my eyes are tired 'cause the little gland thingys are blocked with oil and stuff."

Is identifying this problem really helpful? I probably won't keep up the wash cloth thingy, definitely not every night, and now I have to think about getting a sty? Or maybe I'll never get a sty and my eyelid glands will unclog themselves. Is knowing better than not knowing? I think this may be a case of ignorance is bliss...