This could start as... the horror, the pain, the cruel reality...
It actually started with this acute pain on my left eye on Saturday morning and some light sensitivity that got worse during the next day... The weird thing is that there was nothing of unusual with the eye: it looked exactly the same as the right one! But... my vision became blurred and then it wasn't fun anymore (as if it was until now...)
I could describe how painful a cornea infection by the Herpes Virus Simplex can be, but let's imagine you're sleeping and suddenly someone hits you with a fine but rough needle right in the middle of your eye and then starts to push it back and forward... now imagine, you're screaming in front of a mirror trying to figure out what the hell got into your eye and you see nothing, you just feel the pain... you can't stand the light anymore (photofobia), you start to think you became a vampire! On the next day I started to see some redness on the conjunctive tissue around the iris... Do not confound these symptoms with the one's of a conjunctivitis, if you notice loss of vision you have to see your ophthalmologist immediately !!
The treatment can last between 10 days or 1 month. It consists of eye drops to diminish the inflammatory response and eye ointment (acyclovir) to be applied between 3 to 5 times a day.
So, on your behalf, whenever you have labial never touch your eyes. If you think scratching your hands on a towel or tissue is enough to get rid of the virus, you're wrong. HVS can survive up to 3 days in dry surfaces, but it will enter its lytic cycle in moist surfaces like our mucosa.
Be careful, I also thought it wouldn't happen to me...
