See that funky slash of red veiny gross across my left eye? No...it's not a hangover...it's a pterygium. There are medically noted reasons for getting them, but for the most part it has to do with exposing your eyes to sunlight, dust, UV rays and in my case, as the eye doctor guy told me...staring at screens too long. This may be something future generations of gamers have to deal with, or hopefully it will make parents more aware that their children need to learn about proper eye care at a younger age. Sunglasses are good...don't screw up your kids eyes.
Ok, lie to me and tell me this isn't gross. I know that no one is trying to be hurtful, but I am so tired of people asking if I'm hungover or if I got scratched in the eye by a lanyard at a gaming event. I've actually been on internships where I was asked by a peer if I had a "rough night out" the night before and I explained myself, but wondered how many times people didn't ask and just assumed that I was hungover.
Here are my (crooked) eyes when I look in the opposite direction of the growth on my eye. Mostly normal...
And here's the other direction. the growth overlaps the cornea (colored part) of my eye. I was told to be glad I had light colored eyes. Otherwise it would be more apparent. If I get too tired or do too much outside with the kids, or on the computer/gaming it gets crazy inflamed, itchy and overlaps my eye to where it's blurry.
I was told that removal was a possibility but that there was a chance it would flare up again, even worse.
So what would you do? The thought of eye surgery creeps me out, but this hurts, and is possibly keeping me from being taken seriously.