Found a wart on my mobile eyelid. Help, please.

September 2, 2020 5:54 PM

I found a couple of growths on one of my eye hoods - the part that doesn't move when you blink, and suspected warts. My dermatologist verified that they are warts yesterday and identified two more on my other eye hood. She used liquid nitrogen/cryotherapy on them. Today, I found a wart on my mobile lid - the part that moves when I blink.

The wart I found today is on the mobile lid where it touches my eye hood when my eyes are open. There may be a second wart, as well, on skin that contacts another eye hood wart. Hooded eyes make this contact inevitable.

Everything I have found online about warts says to keep them from touching anything and to cover them if possible. Because of where my warts are, that is impossible. There's no way to get another appointment with the dermatologist until 8 weeks from now. I have been very careful not to touch my eyes and am throwing out every bit of eye makeup that I have used. I don't even rub water out of my eyes when I wash my face. Instead, I blink and deal with the discomfort until it stops.

I do not know what else to do. I'm horribly upset about all of this, and admit that I'm crying over having these warts. At the same time, crying means I have to touch my eyes, which I do with a bunched up facial tissue, followed by washing my hands. Can tears or water running down from my eyes when I wash my face spread the warts? My hair gets in my eyes, too, and I have to take it out. How much risk am I running of getting warts on my fingers?

Because the skin on the mobile lid is very thin, is cryotherapy an option? Do I need an ophthalmology appointment instead? Do ophthalmologists even deal with warts?

I cannot find anything online about warts directly on the lid except that they are very rare. My Google skills are not all that they could be. I know you are not a doctor. Any advice or past experiences with this sort of thing will be sincerely appreciated.

posted by terrierhead to Health & Fitness (6 answers total)

I can't speak to warts, but I had a fatty deposit on my upper eyelid in the corner near the nose. It was removed with salacylic acid by the dermatologist. It took two visits. Pretty straightforward. Good luck in your search for information.
posted by Zedcaster at 7:14 PM on September 2, 2020

Response by poster: Zedcaster - when you say that you had the deposit on your upper eyelid, do you mean the part of the lid that moves when you blink, or the hood of your eye?
posted by terrierhead at 8:59 PM on September 2, 2020

Is it a chalazion? My wife had one recently. Apparently it is not uncommon. It is annoying but, eventually, goes away of its own accord.
posted by TheRaven at 1:12 AM on September 3, 2020

For what it's worth, I had a skin tag on my eyelid (the thin part that blinks) that the dermatologist easily treated with liquid nitrogen.
posted by luge at 3:49 AM on September 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

Ultimately you need this wart removed asap. I would call your derm and see if they have emergency appointments, or if you can get notified if another appointment cancels. You can also ask their recommendations about how to keep the wart from spreading.

I'd also call an opthamolagist and ask about options other than cryotherapy and see if they have any sooner openings than the derm.

You can also call your regular doctor. Many GPs have cryotherapy tools and may be able to see you much sooner.
posted by ananci at 7:41 AM on September 3, 2020

Terrierhead, it was on the moving part that would go under the hood when you open your eye. You can only see the "scar" when the eye is closed. I put scar in quotes because it looks like a streak of lighter colour not like a traditional scar from an injury.
posted by Zedcaster at 11:28 PM on September 3, 2020