Thursday, October 27, 2011

1607 Stye Sore

Not long ago I had the misfortune to develop a stye in my eye.
As if one could get a stye anywhere else.
Like most people, I've always taken styes for granted, bathing them with warm compresses like my mother recommended and suffering through the alteration to my looks a red swollen eye-thing engenders.
Would that a Halloween pirate patch have been appropriate.
Be that as it may, thanks to the wonders of Wikipedia and Google I now have the luxury to penetrate the mysteries of the stye.
One of those mysteries was why we don't just call it an eye zit. Apparently because it’s a zit caused by an infection of the sebaceous glands on the eyelid. These glands service the eyelashes. And usually secrete an oily substance. When they get blocked by foreign matter, overworked from lack of sleep, etc., styes can form.
Regular zits form around hair follicles too. So really, not a whole lot of difference. Maybe it's a regional dialect thing. You say po-tah-to I say po-tay-to, you say stye I say eye zit.
Interestingly, there are all sorts of glands in the old eyelid. Meibomian glands secrete a substance that helps seal the eye borders in such a way that your tears don't spill down onto your cheeks during regular eyebathing.
And the stye itself affects the sebaceous Glands of Zeis. But can also affect, or infect, the Glands of Moll. Sounds Star Warsy. The Glands of Moll—Darth had them removed so he wouldn't ever cry.
Reminds me, for some reason, of the Islets of Langerhans. Zeis, Moll, Langerhans. You ever get the idea the big ambition of Germanic physicians was to get a gland named after them?
We all gotta have our eye on a dream...
America, ya gotta love it.

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