Ok, this is going to sound weird. I took a three day business trip this week. (That's not the weird part.) On the second morning, last Tuesday, I woke up with a black eye. A shiner. The actual eye was fine, but underneath it was purple and swollen.

I hadn't been out in a bar fight the night before, I swear. I hadn't punched myself in the eye during my sleep (that I recall). I hadn't rolled over and caught the corner of the nightstand on my cheek. In fact, I'd had a very pleasant night's sleep. But when I woke up...

I had a black eye.

Still have it, three days later. Still purplish; still swollen, although not really painful. I'm wondering if any of you have ever had this happen, or know someone who did, and could shed some light on it. Yes, I'm googling as well, and tomorrow I'll probably call the doc if it's still there. In the meantime, any thoughts?

Oh, and you should see the other guy. (Said preemptively.)

Rimmer in Red Dwarf had the answer. "Aliens!"

Are you sure it wasn't four days?

Have you been dating a woman named Lisa?,

Back when I was a wee lad, while visiting at my grandparent's cottage, I rolled out of bed one night and hit my head on the chair next to the bed. My grandmother was horrified when the shiner developed. My grandfather got quite a kick out of it.

sorry for your injury ..... sorry am having a tough time not chuckling this morning. bet that business meeting with the shiner was interesting...?

and OH but that's funny. your topic caused the BF page banner to change to things related to Dark Eye Circles and Puffy Eye topics. hahahaha! love those algorithms.

Sounds like a black eye.

Weenie alert: Do not scroll down if you are the squeamish type.
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A blood vessel can spring a leak any time. Not all that uncommon. I see them all the time in the office(on the eye itself). It's called a subconjunctival hemorrhage(the ones on the eye).
Photo below. If you are extremely squeamish, do not look. The pic isn't anything major. They resolve on their own. The "black eye" is basically the same thing. It's black(purple) because the skin is over the blood, changing the color of the blood you see.
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Nice picture, Bigbad.

While I'm on my Android kick for the day. Taken with a Droid X.

Twice in my early 20's I had something similar...both times after heavy exertion (b-ball game, high altitude backpacking). The area around my eye swelled, almost to the point of closing my eye. It didn't color at all...just got very swollen. Never saw a doctor...it went away after a day.

Digital,

It seems likely that what you had was a spontaneous subcutaneous hemorrhage as suggested by BigBadWolf. I wonder, are you taking any blood thinners like Coumadin? If you are on something like that, it would make a hemorrhage more likely.

Pat

They told us in school(take that with a grain of salt) that most subconjunctival hemorrhages are caused from "exertion from passing a stool". In 23 years of practice I have NEVER had one person say they did this before it happened. That doesn't mean they didn't admit it(although many would) but it means it is just misinformation passed down over the years. Same thing with an "infection in the eye". I have NEVER seen a true bacterial infection of the eye. Lots of viral infections and allergies though. So, when someone comes in and says "I have an infection in my eye", I just grin and bear it. They are exceedingly rare.

Nope, no blood thinners for me, although I'm supposed to be taking them. I can't seem to get the habit going. But I do think it was a spontaneous hemorrhage, as was suggested. It's almost gone now.

Well, I've had viral infections AND a bacterial infection in (unfortunately) my good eye. Fortunately, with good medication, it was healed. The doc thinks I got it from swimming in the YMCA pool. Pretty scary incident, and I'm glad it ended well.

Just to relate this back to cycling: one morning, on my way to work, I was riding along the dark urban trail, when - whack! - I feel like I'm punched in the side of the head and next thing I know I'm lying with the bike in a pile on the pavement. My Oakleys are laying next to me, and I'm otherwise fine, but it turns out I had smacked the branch of a tree that had fallen onto the trail during the night and that was still half-supported by the cyclone fence next to the trail. The branch was right at eye-level, and although my bike had a 1-watt LED headlight, it was pointed too low to see the tree in time. Good thing it was near the start of the trail, so I hadn't accelerated to cruising speed! I was able to ride to the hospital, where the area around my right eye had by then turned purple. But the Oakleys had protected my eye. Kinda scratched up, but it did its job! Went to work after, and had to explain the story over and over. Eventually I just got tired of the details and resorted to, "yeah, but you shoulda seen what I did to the other guy..."

L.

Seawall?

No, the MUP next to the Kinder-Morgen fuel tanks near the Burnaby Mtn Golf Course. The street lights are across the street, blocked by the trees, so it gets pitch black in the early morning in December.

L.

I think I said before "sometimes stuff just happens".

Now see, this is why I admire the Deege so much!

Whenever one of my friends gets a black eye I advise them to come up with a colorful lie about how they got it. That's invariably so much better and usually more believeable than the boreing truth. So now Deege gives us a story that's so utterly, unbelieveably boreing that I'm making up my own colorful fantasy about how it must have really happened.

Congratulations Deege! You da man. Flaunt that black eye with pride.

I can totally see how passing a stool could cause all sorts of trouble.

Okay, here's the truth. I had spent the night before fighting crime in my caped crusader outfit - the one I always take on business trips, because you never know what might happen. So there I was, busting up a gang of cycling crack addicts, who were riding road bikes in street clothes, for God's sake -- when I misjudged the haymaker of a crazed 20-something tattooed hipster, who landed a lucky (for him) blow to my eye. Recoiling momentarily, I shook it off, grabbed him by his jeans (which were exposing half his butt), and tossed him into a nearby trash bin, seriously startling a pair of dumpster diver goth chicks with black hair, black mascara, and black finger nails, who, I must say, did pause to admire my form.

Later that evening, I nursed my eye with several rounds of appletinis, which must have induced a short-term memory lapse, because the next morning, I had no recall of the event, even as I pondered how I came into possession of a brake cable I must have seized during the brouhaha.

Gee, Deege, that's exactly what I was thinking.

Wait! Who is that!

It's BICYCLE MAN!!!

Not spontaneous, it was caused by winking too hard at the young pretty ladies.