Hello, 28M, 2 days ago woke up with a weird gritty feeling in the eye, eyes felt tired and was weirdly squinting while out in the daylight even though it was cloudy. Later that night my right eye starts feeling real weird and gets extremely red and watery. I thought it was pinkeye at first so I let it rock the first night. Fast forward to the next day which was last night, it was still the same just red and watery not really any pain just constantly watery and real sensitive to light and then that night the vision in my right eye started going blurry and that’s when it started to concern me. So today I go to a optometrist and he put the yellow dye and used a bunch of lights to look into my eye and told me saw that branch-like structure that resembles Hsv-1 in the eye so he prescribed me valacyclovir which the prescription won’t be ready until tomorrow. I’ll take it tomorrow and see him in a few days for another check up. Other than that there’s no visible sores or pain really it’s just an annoying foreign body sensation in the eye. My right eye is now even more blurry on day 3 than it was yesterday, day 2. with this being my first ever flare up should I be worried about any damage or anything especially with taking the antivirals a bit late(I see on google it says treatment within the first 72 hours is crucial) especially since it’s a little bit more blurry than day 2? I can still see with both eyes with vision a little fuzzy in one eye but if I had just the right eye open it’s kinda hard to see. I also wear glasses. Can’t really drive in the day my eye is super sensitive in the daytime and it’s hard to drive anywhere but I can force it if I had to. I was able to read my phone with just my right eye yesterday but today it’s pretty blurry to the point it’s hard to read with just my right eye. Had no idea I even had herpes until this happened. No idea how I could’ve got it but I was also really stressed this past weekend so that might’ve been why it happened. Also wanted to say I was only not concerned about the tears going down my face because I thought it was pink eye before I was told.
My question is, there were times where my eyes were getting so watery while sleeping that tears were dripping down my face towards my lips and I wiped them with toilet paper too late, am I at risk for developing cold sores/ the virus on my lips/face because of that? Otherwise I’m usually a very ocd about washing my hands and touching my eyes in the first.
Do I need to see an ophthalmologist? and any tips on moving forward with this and anything else I should do would be appreciated thank you!