Eye AIDS

I woke up yesterday morning with a swollen, itchy, oozey eye (sorry for the grossness).  Thinking it was an eyelash stuck in my eye causing the irritation, or the recent drywall sanding fest that my husband had in our bedroom over recent weeks, I carried on with my usual morning routine.  By lunch time, my eye was burning, stinging, watery and simply uncomfortable.  I called the Wal-Mart Vision Center by my office and made an appointment to see the eye doctor.

Dr. Kats confirmed what I had been thinking all along.  Bacterial infection.  Good times.  So I now have a script for some eye drops and possibly, relief in a few days.

With all this being said, Dr. Kats also reminded me about the importance of the following things:

1.  Replace mascara every 8 weeks.  Allure Magazine suggests replacing mascara every three months, but DK recommends more frequently.  With allergens in the air, whatever is being blown around from the furnace and contact bacteria from counters, desks, keyboards, cell phones, etc, mascara needs to be changed out to avoid eye grossies.

2.  In the shower, gently wash eyes with a product like the one pictured above.  Over the counter, there are a few that very gently wash the eye area of pollutants, allergens and residual bacterias.  Johnson's Baby Shampoo is another gentle cleanser that can be used for eye washing purposes, too.

3.  If you wear makeup, keep the area which you apply it clean and organized.  Sharpen beauty pencils, keep caps on them, change out makeup sponges and wash brushes accordingly.  With hands touching the face and eyes, its a fiesta for bacteria to be transferred.  Wiping surface with a disinfecting cloth is an easy task.

4.  WASH YOUR HANDS.  Before eating, after using the restroom and after shaking hands with people its ideal to wash your hands with soap and water.

Feces (poop) from people or animals is an important source of germs like Salmonella, E. coli O157, and norovirus that cause diarrhea, and it can spread some respiratory infections like adenovirus and hand-foot-mouth disease. These kinds of germs can get onto hands after people use the toilet or change a diaper, but also in less obvious ways, like after handling raw meats that have invisible amounts of animal poop on them. A single gram of human feces—which is about the weight of a paper clip—can contain one trillion germs 1. Germs can also get onto hands if people touch any object that has germs on it because someone coughed or sneezed on it or was touched by some other contaminated object. When these germs get onto hands and are not washed off, they can be passed from person to person and make people sick.

References

1. Franks AH, Harmsen HJM, Raangs GC, Jansen GJ, Schut F, Welling GW. Variations of bacterial populations in human feces measured by fluorescent in situ hybridization with group-specific 16S rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1998;64(9):3336-3345.

A quick beauty wrap-up on the coattails of mascara:  L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara.  If you've never tried it, you need to RUN (not walk) to your local drugstore and buy this.  I have literally tried a million mascaras and none of them even compare to this rich, luxurious and lasting goodie.  

Unlike my children, I have blonde and sparse lashes; long, thick and dark lashes are a figment of my imagination.  With this product, applied with two coats, it literally transforms my non-existent lashes into velvety soft lashes worth batting.