Apple Cider Vinegar, Charcoal Poultice for Chalazion

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Doctor Mom (California) on 01/18/2016:
5 out of 5 stars

My daughter plays basketball (17 yrs old)... and during a game she got poked in the eye, probably by a nasty sweaty dirty finger. The next day she woke up and her whole upper eyelid was swollen. We immediately put warm compresses all day. Her eye was swollen for about 2 days. Once the swelling went down, it left a huge lump on her eye... I would say almost the size of a dime on her upper eyelid, but the lump was huge. I sent her to the doctor 2 days later just to make sure there was nothing else going on.

Waste of time and money...all doctor said was it was a stye and put warm compress. So we kept with the warm compress for two days..but not only did we NOT see a difference, she has sensitive skin and the skin on her eyelid was so dry and red that if we continued to do warm compresses, the skin on her lid probably would've came off. I tried to set an appt with an optomologist, but the appt was scheduled for a month out... UGH!!!

Remember my daughter is 17. She's a senior in high school... and she has her first school dance in 3 weeks. We couldn't wait for the doctor appt in 4 weeks and I had a feeling the doctor was going to say "Warm Compress".. So I googled home remedies for Stye.. came across some guy that said Salt water flush all day, as salty as you can take it. Okay.. it's worth a shot. And my daughter was willing to do anything at this point. She was so embarrassed having it there. (Estimating it's about Day 6 since the poke in the eye)

Did the salt water flush for a couple days (yes, it stings), but it didn't make enough of a difference for me to feel like this was the right solution... Googled again.. I don't know how I came across Chalazion, but I was convinced that's what she had because the back of her eyelid did not have a 'sore' like a stye (you know how a cold sore has the white sore.. well this did not have it.. you can see where there may have been a sore, but there wasn't one now (kinda looked like a scar under the eyelid).. So I was thinking it was a stye that healed wrong and the skin under he eyelid healed with the lump still there...

Anyway I wasn't going to give up, next home remedy I found and decided to try.. Apple Cider Vinegar. I added a tablespoon of ACV to every 1 cup of warm water. I took a Qtip, dip it in the solution and applied it to the back of her lid where the sore probably was. (Stings more than the salt water flush) We had regular Hines apple cider vinegar.. used that for one day, but the next day I decided to get 'Braggs ACV with the mother'... used that for two days, just in the evening (since she had school). I still was not happy with the results.. the lump was going down a bit but at a snails pace. I was thinking maybe because we were only applying it in the evening.. so for the next two days.. morning and evening.. but still not happy with results...

On to the next remedy.. Activated Charcoal.. I found some pills called Charco Caps at Walgreens (came in bottle $22 for 100 pills) opened the pills up to get the charcoal. I made a poultice out of it.. (1 spoonful of active charcoal, equivalent to about 8-10 capsules, mixed with a spoonful of flaxseed meal (bought at grocery store) and added water.. you can also google how to make charcoal poultice) I put the mixture on a band aid and she left it on overnight.

Next day, I can see a difference, not huge, but more than the other two remedies after the first use... did it again the next day.. slight difference again.. I decided I would apply apple cider vinegar before I put the poultice (this time I did not add water to the ACV).. Next morning... I finally started to become convinced something was working... (I think about 7-8 days had passed since the initial salt water flush). So next morning, we applied ACV in the morning before school and applied ACV in the evening before the charcoal poultice overnight.. At this point.. not only did it go down about half the size, but the white sore in the back appeared.. Ok now, I'm really convinced it was working... since the white sore was there, we decided to add the salt water flush back to the evening routine (it's about a week and a half now since the initial salt water flush).. so we did salt water flush, ACV, poultice for a couple days.. it now looks like a small stye... we're going to keep with the same routine until its gone.. I think after about 1 more week it'll be fully gone!

I hope this helps someone else out there! It didn't work overnight, but it's definitely working. Keep in mind we had to work around our busy schedules (on top of trying each remedy separately). If you start right off the bat with the combo remedy of flush, ACV, and poultice and treat more than once a day... I think it would work even faster!

Good Luck!

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