Day six after all four lids and there is a clear jelly bubble on the white of my right eye. What is it and is it normal?

Well, I finally did it. All four lids last Wednesday, with the small tightening on the right lower lid that I talked about in the other thread. The first few days went very much as everyone here said: puffy, bruised, the ointment fog, sleeping propped up like a Victorian invalid.

Yesterday evening I noticed something new. On the right eye, at the outer corner and along the bottom, the white of the eye has a clear, wobbly swelling on it, like a little water blister or a blob of jelly sitting on the eyeball. This morning it is bigger, and when I look straight ahead the lower lid sort of sits on top of it rather than against the eye. It does not hurt. My vision is the same as it was yesterday, still a bit blurry from the ointment. The left eye is fine.

Is this a thing? It looks horrendous and I cannot stop looking at it. Do I ring them on a Tuesday morning about a blob or am I being dramatic?

Ring them. Not because it sounds dangerous but because ringing about a blob is exactly what they are there for, and they will want to know which side had the tightening. I had a small one on my left at about day five and the nurse knew what it was the moment I described it.

That sounds like chemosis, which my surgeon warned me about before my uppers even though I never got it. Swelling of the clear skin over the white of the eye. She said it is more common after lower lid work and when they tighten the corner, which is literally what you had. I am not a doctor though, so ring.

Keep using the ointment at night properly. Every bit of advice I ever got about anything gritty or swollen in that first fortnight came back to that.

kept_blinking said:

when I look straight ahead the lower lid sort of sits on top of it rather than against the eye

What you are describing sounds very much like chemosis, which is swelling of the conjunctiva, the thin clear membrane over the white of the eye. I have not examined you, so your surgeon is the person to confirm it, but it is a recognised after-effect of eyelid surgery and yuki_crease is right that it is commoner after lower-lid surgery, particularly when the outer corner has been tightened. Surgery disturbs the small drainage channels around the eye, fluid collects in the loose tissue under the membrane, and it lifts into the soft, painless bubble you can see. It often appears a few days in rather than straight away, and it is frequently one-sided.

Most of it settles over days to a few weeks. The first-line care is protecting the surface: drops by day, ointment at night, cool compresses, head raised. The detail in your post that matters, and the reason rested_at_last is right to tell you to ring, is the lower lid sitting on top of the swelling. If the swollen membrane starts to push out between the lids and the eye cannot close over it, it dries out and swells further, and surgeons treat that more actively, with steroid drops, taping or patching at night, or occasionally a tiny release of the fluid in clinic. Those are decisions for whoever looks at the eye, which is why I would not wait for your next scheduled visit. The site has a full guide to chemosis after blepharoplasty that sets out the stages.

And for anyone reading this thread at day six with a different problem: chemosis is soft and painless and sits on the front of the eye. Pain with pressure behind the eye, a tense, bulging eye, or vision getting worse is not chemosis. That is a same-day emergency call, every time.

I did ring, on the Tuesday, and was seen that afternoon. Chemosis, as you all said. They were pleased I had come in because the lid was starting to sit on it. I have steroid drops four times a day and the lids taped closed at night for a week with special tape they showed me how to use (do not freelance this, apparently people tape over their lashes and scratch the eye). Already flatter on Saturday than Friday. I am photographing it every morning like the board taught me.

Day eighteen. The bubble is down to a faint puffiness at the outer corner that you would only see if I pointed at it, the lid sits back on the eye where it belongs, and the tape is finished. Surgeon was happy at the check on Friday. The left side, which never had any of this, is actually still more bruised than the right, which is a joke I am too tired to appreciate.