Do I have pink eye?

OK first up I’d never put anything in your eye that burns like hell.

I’d go to your family doctor. If you go to an optometrist with visibly red swollen eyes they probably tell you to go and see your doctor too.

In the UK (no idea about the US I’m afraid) it is possible to get antibiotic eye drops for red eye over the counter from the pharmasist so it might be worth speaking to your local pharmasist and see what they think.

I would go to your primary care doctor. They would prescribe the drops, if it is pink eye.

And I agree with Lightlyseared – if something is making eyes burn, stop doing it.

Eyes are resilient but can be delicate, if you EVER have problem with them go to your doctor. I lost my vision once and almost didn’t get it back. It’s probably not pink eye, more likely it’s some mild irritation. I don’t know your gender, but even so, have you been using any new facial products? Any new eyeliners or make up? Has anything in your daily routine changed?

It may be pinkeye (or conjunctivitis), but only a doctor (not an optometrist) can tell you definitively. Either way, antibiotic drops will probably not help as most cases of pinkeye are caused by viruses, not bacteria. That said, if this has been going on for a while, you might need some sort of drops.

A friend who teaches second graders is this minute recovering from conjunctivitis..He saw an ENT and got antibiotic drops. It started to clear up overnight. Don’t mess with your eyes. Pink eye is very contagious so wash your hands a lot.

A tip I picked up after having a number of styes was to wash my eyelashes daily with a drop of baby shampoo (no sting.) I have encorporated that into my morning ritual.

@Gail. Or maybe your friend was destined to get better either way (i.e. independent of the antibiotic drops). Since ~90% of pink eye is viral, there is a very high probability that the drops were not harmful-not beneficial.

Or a placebo. It turns out he also had infected sinuses, for which antibiotic drops would have not done much. (Is that true?)

I love washing my eyelashes with baby shampoo.

(When is baby girl Shilo due to arrive?)

Infected sinuses would not have been treated by antibiotic drops. In fact, antibiotics are of little benefit for “sinus infections”, mainly because we are so poor at diagnosing them accurately (both doctors and patients mistakenly assume that yellow-green snot = bacterial infection). The success rate of treatment for sinus infections with decongestants alone is ~80%, improving to ~90% with antibiotics.

As far as your eyelashes go, wash away. I see no harm in that. Plus, they’ll smell good.

Here is another possibility, so it’s probably a good idea to check with your doctor before doing anything.