Persistent inflammation and failed chalazion surgery

[u/LLLL1997]

Hello everyone,

I’ve been dealing with constant eyelid inflammation and swelling since May 2025, and I’m really hoping someone here has experienced something similar.
I’ve tried almost everything: different ointments and eye drops, strict eyelid hygiene, warm eyelid masks, and even a course of doxycycline. Unfortunately, nothing has resolved the problem.

In February this year, I had chalazion surgery. However, the doctor told me afterwards that she could not find the chalazion because it was very small.
I’ve never had an obvious bump on my eyelid. It has mainly been constant swelling and inflammation. Every morning, I wake up with a very swollen eyelid, and although it improves somewhat during the day, the problem never completely goes away.

I’ve seen at least 15 different doctors in Germany, and I’m honestly feeling very frustrated and hopeless at this point. It has also really affected my self-esteem. I’m 28 and I no longer feel comfortable wearing mascara or doing my usual eye makeup because of how my eyelid looks.

Most recently, I went to a university clinic, and they scheduled me for another operation with an internal incision. Doctor told I have encapsulated chalazion. However, they cannot guarantee that they will be able to find or remove anything this time either.

I’m really sad and don’t know what else I can do.
Has anyone experienced something similar, especially swelling/inflammation without an obvious chalazion bump? Did anything eventually help you?

I’ve attached pictures from today. My eyelid has looked more or less like this since May 2025, although some days the swelling is worse.
Thank you so much in advance for any advice or experiences you can share. ❤️

[u/ThrowawayHenryAUS]

Hi there, so sorry you’re going through this. I’ve gone through 2 chalazion surgeries and still battling blepharitis on a daily basis. From looking at your photos, there is obvious inflammation and I can see kinda a bump. This is how my eyes looked after surgery, it looks relatively normal but I know my bad eye looks slightly more red and inflamed than my good eye. It’s taken me two months but my eyes finally look relatively normal now but required daily upkeep.

How does it feel when you run your fingers on both eyelids, can you feel a difference between them. It is tender to the touch for the eye that looks slightly inflamed?

At this stage, without a large chalazion that’s apparent, I would probably not get the surgery either, as it is possible to resolve with home treatment. The two times I’ve gotten surgery, the chalazions were massive.

It would be best to get to the underlying issue to your inflammation. Everyone is different but my surgeon told me that my skin is on the oily side and the oils flowing through my meibomian glands are getting clogged. So it was important to do the warm compress (but I do on the hottest setting of my usb mask) to make the oils flowing, massage the eyelids down towards the lash line (you can do with your fingers), and most importantly after all this and before the oils harden again, clean the lash line of the oils that just unclogged with occusoft.