So, for the past week or two, Liam has been having eye issues…he’s constantly rolling them and indicating his eyes “hurt” and are blurry sometimes and I’ve noticed over the past few days that he’s getting eye buggers sticking to his eye lashes (mostly bottom ones) and they’ve very hard to clean off…and when cleaning them he cries and complains of them hurting.
He has never had issues with his eyes before so I wanted to see if anyone has had a similar experience with their kids where vaccinations are concerned? If not, then it’s just a coincidence probably.
Now that he is fully vaccinated, we’ve set him up for an eye appointment this Friday (he IS prescribed glasses but never liked to wear them…perhaps he’s just getting to the point where he needs to be wearing them regurarly.) They were super cute, too!!!
So maybe this Friday, he’ll get a new prescription and we’ll just have to enforce he wear them until he gets used to them. He’s constantly complaining of eyes being blurry and hurting. Then he rubs them so much that the outsides around his eyes are getting red and sore from being rubbed so much.
Feel sorry for him and hope whatever this is passes soon!
I did find this article that seems to indicate no known issues with Covid vaccination and eye issues in children
Is he near-sighted or far-sighted? Our youngest is ridiculously far-sighted and apparently prescriptions can improve very dramatically for far-sighted youngsters, so glasses you got 6 months ago can be out of date, meaning they are too strong and make your vision blurry.
But to me, the eye-boogers and pain sound like pink eye.
Yeah, but the sclera look perfectly fine - no pink/redness at all inside. It’s just eye buggers collecting on his lashes and the soreness from rubbing them so much because he’s complaining “they hurt” and “are blurry sometimes.” He has totally normal conjunctiva from what I can tell.
I’ll definitely keep that one in mind though because Pink eye is highly contageous…fun.
Found out today he doesn’t have Pink Eye; rather, something called “Orbital Cellulitis” which is also contageous, but even worse than Pink Eye in that it can result in much more serious issues. He’s getting on antibiotics tonight so hopefully it gets cleared up soon. I think we caught it really early because his eye doesn’t look anything like the images I see on the internet…some of those images look horrible!
Jeez, just when you think you can venture out into the world, Orbital Cellulitis. Never heard of it, but the pictures do look terrible. Here is hoping for a quick and full recovery. Great job at paying attention and catching it early.
He is on an oral antibiotic for 10 days and eye drops every 8 hours for 5 days. Within a single day there was a noticable difference and he says he’s feeling totally better now. We explained to him that we still need to go through all the antibiotic to make sure “all the monsters are dead”. He said the eye drops aren’t fun and I agreed with him on that. All in all, he’s doing much better now and we are glad we caught it early because, from all that I’ve read, this could have been very ugly had we not caught it early enough…blindness, bacteria leaking into the brain, and on rare occasion even death!
I have absolutely NO idea. He hasn’t gone out anywhere at all other than to get his vaccine shots and the eye doctor. The only thing I can think is somehow one of our cats maybe passed something on to him?? One of our cats is an inside/outside cat and sleeps on his bed sometimes? Besides that, I am just at a loss for understanding how he would have gotten this. Anytime we go out we stay masked and we all wash our hands too much.
The most common cause of orbital cellulitis is bacterial rhinosinusitis. Other potential causes include:
Infection of the teeth, middle ear, or face (Maybe something not noticed and growing into the orbital callulitis?) He had been complaining a week or so earlier about having blurry eyes and we only thought he needed an eye checkup (which is did and needed new glasses), but maybe that blurriness he was referring too was some orbital/eye related infection that grew into this.
Dacryocystitis (infection or inflammation of the nasolacrimal sac - Maybe something not noticed and growing into the orbital callulitis?)
Orbital trauma with fracture or foreign body (N/A)
Ophthalmic surgery such as strabismus surgery, blepharoplasty, radial keratotomy and retinal surgery (N/A)
Peribulbar anesthesia (Local anesthetic deposited in the orbicularis oculi muscle - N/A)
An infected mucocele that erodes into the orbit (infection of the salivary duct - Maybe something not noticed and growing into the orbital callulitis?)
Acute bacterial rhinosinusitis (ABRS) is an infection of both your nasal cavity and sinuses. It is caused by bacteria.
ABRS sets in when your nasal cavity and sinuses first become inflamed from another cause, often a viral infection.
You might have symptoms such as face pain and fever.
You might have yellow or greenish discharge from your nose.
Your healthcare provider might or might not use an antibiotic to help treat you. Other treatments may help make you feel better.
ABRS rarely causes serious complications.
Notice the “Immunodeficiency” listed as a cause? I wonder if somehow Diabetes played a part?
(…although I wouldn’t think immunodeficiency by itsself would matter…immunodeficiency + another mitigating factor introduced (bacteria))…so maybe it’s just saying immunodeficient people are more suseptible to this since their immune systems may not stop this foreign body from being introduced.
This article has me scared shitless. Liam’s left eye isn’t getting worse but it doesn’t seem to be getting any better either and now it seems it’s starting in his right eye also. I’ve not been more anxious and scared since his T1D diagnosis.
The eye drops are supposed to be completed on Saturday evening but i don’t see the progress i had hoped to see… On day 2 things seemed to look better but since then his eyes are regressing it seems. His eyes water and still have wet gunk that gets into his lashes and causes them to be hard to open.
I was researching a bit orbital cellulitis in T1Ds and came across this article and it has me very scared and not a lot scares me.
Silly question, but can you take him in for IV antibiotics? I get some random bad infections that only fully clear up with IV antibiotics.
Anyway, I’m sorry that he (and you) are dealing with this.
There is no reason we couldn’t if it meant fastery recovery with less chance of the potentially catastrophic outcomes. He is fully vaccinated and I’m vaccinated and boosted.
So one thing that I noticed in reading the general review is that it recommends IV or oral antibiotics. If you are just doing eyedrops, maybe check in with your doctor to see if it requires something more systemic?
Also, seems like in some cases they do an MRI; might be worth bringing up to the doctor if you’re worried it’s spreading?
He is currently on eye drops for 5 days and oral antibiotics for 10 days. We are calling his pediatrician on Monday and asking if IV antibiotics may be preferred and also let him know both eyes seem now to be affected. He told us to let him know if things don’t seem to be improving after a few days.
I’m so confused as to the cause though because none of the causes listed apply to Liam… At least to my knowledge. He got HiB vaccinated as part of his childhood vaccinations and none of the other stuff applies.
“In immunocompromised patients with orbital cellulitis, mucormycosis and invasive aspergillosis should be considered as the cause of orbital cellulitis. Mucormycosis affects patients with diabetic ketoacidosis as well as the patients with renal acidosis. Aspergillus infection of the orbit occurs in patients with severe neutropenia or other immune deficiencies, such as HIV infection. Other rare reported cause of orbital cellulitis is mycobacteria, especially Mycobacterium tuberculosis.”
I read the most common cause is rhinosinusitis. I don’t know if that makes sense for Liam.
It also says “Dacryocystitis” can cause it which is basically a blocked tearduct, which seems like the kind of thing that could happen to anyone.
“The tear sac can become inflamed and swell, resulting in dacryocystitis. This condition often triggers watery eyes, redness, and eye discharge”
Whatever the cause, I hope they figure out and it’s resolved quickly, I can imagine it’s very scary.
From all that I’ve read the antibiotics should begin working on day 1 or 2 and it should be a drastic visual change in appearance. Since not only is his left eye not better but his right eye seems impacted as well, we are spending Christmas evening in the ER. I just can’t risk time passing and this escalating. Perhaps stronger antibiotics, perhaps we are fine as is, perhaps an MRI/CT are in order but I just can’t wait till Monday to talk to his normal Doctor. Wish us luck! Send warm thoughts to Liam.
He said the eye drops aren’t fun and I agreed with him on that. All in all, he’s doing much better now and we are glad we caught it early because, from all that I’ve read, this could have been very ugly had we not caught it early enough…blindness, bacteria leaking into the brain, and on rare occasion even death!