Over the Counter Medicine for My Eye Infection

Timing is everything. Just as I was preparing to head back to the States for the holidays, I felt a pain in my eye. I had about a week of work left before vacation, and I really didn't want to take any time off to go to the doctor before then. I figured that it was nothing, and it would just go away on its own.

I paid extra close attention to my eye. I would put in my contacts right before leaving out the door and I would take them off as soon as I got home. I made sure not to rub my eye, even though it was itchy, and keep my hands away from my face. 

It seemed to work. My eye, once red and swollen as soon as I woke up, began to calm down. There was no sharp pain; there was only a tiny itch of irritation. I thought I was home free. Then, I made a stupid mistake: I fell asleep with my contacts in.

I woke up at around 3 AM and realized my mistake. Quickly, I took them off and hoped for the best. My hopes were not enough. Thankfully, the next day was Saturday, and I already planned to visit the doctor's office to pick up an unrelated prescription. I planned to pop in for a walk in appointment and be on my way.

In theory, it was a good plan. However, this was the holiday season. While the doctor's office was open, the doctor himself was out. I lamented my bad luck and went on my way, doing a quick search on my phone for anything over the counter that could help.

This is the product that I ended up buying. I actually had to go to two different pharmacy stores in order to find it. It would be easy if my eye irritation was simply due to allergies. But I knew it wasn't. I knew it was something bacterial and the options for those were far more limited.

The instructions were posted everywhere on the box, so they were hard to miss. Every 3-4 hours (the box says 5-6 times a day, but that's my rough math estimate for my waking hours), I would put two drops in my eye. 

Again, here are the instructions repeated. The box came with 20 sealed eye droppers. It was all very sterile, which put my mind at ease. 

Simply crack off the top and drop them in. I was expecting one dropper to have only enough liquid for one administration of the medicine. However, I found that one dropper lasted me all day long, or more sometimes. Then again, I was only using this on one eye, so that could explain it.

Thankfully, it wasn't painful when the drops hit my eye. Honestly, I've had cooling eye drops that burned more than these did. However, because of this, at times I didn't feel like they were actually helping. But, I kept on following the instructions and my eye was back to normal in about a week's time.

Next time, I'd rather go to the doctor for true peace of mind. But, in these circumstances, it was quite effective. And it cost me less than 2,000 yen!