User talk:Michael Toner

'Using a mirror'

I have been dealing with an infection in my right eyelid for over twenty years. This condition may have developed as a result of contamination of a contact lens process that I no longer use.

The first symptoms were a dry itching irritation that was cured by several applications of cortisone salve. But the doctor refused to prescribe that treatment after two treatments provided only temporary relief. Next I tried using some over the counter eye washes but they did not improve the condition, but only made the eye cornea surface sore and red. I had several eye examinations where the optometrist did not notice the infection. When I did mention it to one of them, he suggested I see a specialist. Since I had no insurance and would have had to do some considerable arranging and it was not an option

In the eighties I began to feel a more localized kind of a lumping along the deeper inner surface of the lid. I began to extract that puss like substance with the eye end of a needle. It did not hurt and provided temporary relief; but the condition did not improve much. I thought that the mass of the lump was just dust, and fibers when I examined it closely...the eyelid on the inside was completely dried like an eczema outbreak. But I have never had that problem on my skin.

All the time the pain was steady; I described it like an 'ice pick' driving through the bottom of my eye. The pain would be relieved by two or three aspirin and sleep. But as the day wore on and it dryed out the pain always returned about mid-afternoon. I could feel a small lump in the middle of the eyelid about the six of a number six shot of lead.

Tired of the hassle I took a chance using a sterilized business end of a needle and placed a few drops of a generic wart removal compound on what I believed was the central core point of the 'structure,' over the course of a few days. This was in the late 1980's...from that point on the infection morphed and began recede in a circular pattern away from where the drops were placed...I continued to look at the material I extracted from the eyelid and began to notice that what I once thought were 'fibers' could be more described as 'hooks'. I became convinced the infection was caused by a fungus

Since approximately 2000 I have been applying a small pinpoint of clotrimazole anti-fungal to that core which is much reduced in size and is no longer a lump. In addition I have been using a boric acid eye wash. I am looking ahead to the day the infection is totally eradicated. Recently I have tried to purchase flutrimazole which is supposedly more effective in treating this condition. But that compound in not available in the US; I learned of it on the Internet from a Japanese research project.

Incredible as it sounds the headaches are almost completely gone; and the vision in my right eyes has improved miraculously as a result of laser surgery on the lens

Methodology

Once I had determined that this was indeed a fungus infection of some kind I began to experiment with different largely holistic home remedies formost among these was:

1. a continued soaking with the Boric acid solution that was 1 teaspoon per cup of water using an eye cup

2. when it became congested I would apply hot water by the same method

3. continuous irrigation and removal of the resulting deposit of mucous and fungus mycelia using the business end of a relatively dull carpet needle

4. this process was repeated as often as necessary

5. because I could not purchase fluotrimazole without a prescription, I resorted to using clotrimazole, application of which steadily reduced the tumor by micro iterations that were observable but extremely small

6. if a day went by without the 'irrigation process' a deposit would develop in the core area in the center of the eyelid -that would become noticeable an irritable and would have to be removed through carpet needle surgery for relief

7. I sterilized the needle regularly by heating to red hot in gas jet on my kitchen range

8. outside of the small irritation at the core which I estimate was at least 50 cm deep at the exact center of the eyelid --there was no greater infection; which I presume was kept in check by natural antibody anctivity as well as the antiseptic function of the boric acid and the clotrimazole

Results

This didn't happen overnight; I believe this malady was inherited as both my uncle and aunt on my mother's side had one crossed eye with what would have been called a 'cast' in it. They both had several optic operations that were unable to stem the outcome. I believe this was a result of a rampant infection of the mycellium core that literally dragged the pupil to an angle reflected in the cast. Genetically it would have happened to me except the infection was not as strong; modern antiseptics and various innoculation over the years including penicillin kept it at bay. I firmly believe that this micro surgery is being effective as I write; if the core had been extracted in its original size that I would estimate as the size (and consistency) of a pellet of buckshot at its greatest size: the resultant hole in the lid would have never recovered (as in a hernia) its natural dimension and the problem of the cast would have developed.

Conclusion

There needs be more research on this topical procedure. The literal perspective of 10,000 angels dancing on the point of a needle is not so far fetched from this micro vision of irritation in the eyelid. In other words if each of the fungus mycellia constituents of the chalazion were not extracted individually or in bundles the consequences could have been much more castastrophic both for the structure of the eyelid and the accuity of vision

(I would love to hear some skeptical remarks. I wrote of this chalazion in my graduate thesis (a novel) One of the professors on my final orals committee suspected that a removal of the mote from the eye sub-theme was based on a literal scenario much as I have explained above -- and actually questioned me about it as I devoted considerable text to the idea in the novel)