Dry eyes and contact allergies?

[SC']

New here! I was just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience to mine? My eyes felt perfectly fine until this month when my left contact starting bothering me. I tried changing to a fresh pair and even not wearing them for a week or so, but after putting them back on I found my eyes felt dry and irritated.

My first 3 trips to the eye doctor were not especially useful. The first saw nothing, although I should say he was an optometrist. The third one gave me the schrimer's (sp?) test and I scored around 5 on my left eye (the irritated one) and a 4 or so on the right one, which doesn't bother me at all. He told me I have really dry eyes and to use artifical tear drops. To be honest, I didn't really feel like these people were very concerned or patient with me. They just seemed to dismiss it as no big deal. This really bothered me b/c my eye was causing great discomfort and that's certainly a big deal to me!

I recently found a new opthamologist who I like much better. He's patient, answers my questions, and keeps from losing my head over this. He examined me and told me I had become allergic to my contact lenses. He could see keratitis (sp?) developing a bit, but not to worry. He also saw a low grade infection in my eyes. On top of that I have dry eyes, which had never bothered me before. He told me taking a trip to the outdoors had set it off and if I hadn't worn contacts I'd be fine. I'm not to wear contacts for a month, and I may decide never to wear them again at this point. He prescribed Elestat for the allergies. My eyes aren't itchy or watery though, so I hope it has some other effect. I'm using TheraTears to lubricate my eyes. Does it take your eyes time to get used to them? Sometimes I feel like they don't do too much for me. I've tried hot compresses and he told me to clean my eyelids with a q-tip dipped in water with baby shampoo. If this doesn't clear the infection, he'll give me anti-biotic drops.

Has anyone experienced something similar or you know of someone who has? Sometimes my eye just drives me to distraction and bothers me so much. I'm wondering if it gets better and if there's a chance my eyes will return to normal? Even if I do have dry eyes, which I must have had before, they never bothered me. Probably wearing contacts all these years has led me to this point, but I don't care if I ever wear them again. I just want my eyes to be healthy!

I'm feeling a bit down about this whole experience and I hope someone out there can give me some hope or advice. I just want to believe my eyes have a chance to go back to what they were. I've read through a lot of the threads regarding people with severe dry eyes Post-Lasik. The third eye doctor had recommended Lasik to me, but after reading here I don't want to do it. He figured then I wouldn't have to worry about wearing glasses in case I couldn't wear contacts. In any case, I admire you all for your courage and for not giving up.

[Rebecca Petris]

Hi SC, and welcome to Dry Eye TALK!

Boy, did your post ever resonate with me! Same eye, similar problem - years ago when I used to wear soft contacts. Unfortunately, I was not as lucky as you were, I didn't get the same good advice you describe, the problem came and went several times unexplained, and I actually ended up getting LASIK to rid myself of the contact lens irritation, without knowing that I had dry eyes and that that would put me at risk.

They just seemed to dismiss it as no big deal. This really bothered me b/c my eye was causing great discomfort and that's certainly a big deal to me!

I'm glad you moved on and found someone who is a little more engaged with dry eye. I think that, without wanting to be critical, for a lot of eye doctors there's not too much motivation to deal with it because it's both common and a hard problem to "fix".

Your new doc sounds very good - most of all I'm glad you're in the care of someone who understands and cares. I hope you see some improvement pretty quickly under this regimen. If TheraTears don't seem to help, you may want to try other brands (discuss this with your doctor). Patient preference and tolerance for artificial tears varies a lot. I remember first hearing about TheraTears years ago on SurgicalEyes at a time when it seemed to be generally agreed by almost all the LASIK patients as the best one available... except oddball me.

The future is all speculation. I would hope and expect though that when any infection or allergic conditions are under control, and you're not wearing contacts, you'll see vast improvement. By the way, not all contact lenses are equal. Some brands are much better for people with dry eyes.

The third eye doctor had recommended Lasik to me, but after reading here I don't want to do it.

Shudder. And prepare for many echoing sighs of relief from the LASIK patients on this board.

[SC']

Thanks for your reply! I'm glad I found this board and read through these stories. I had been considering LASIK, but I think this has put me off that idea. So before you elected to have LASIK done, how bad were your eyes? Was it just when you wore contacts or even once you removed them? Do you think your eyes would have been ok again if you had not had LASIK done?

[Rebecca Petris]

So before you elected to have LASIK done, how bad were your eyes? Was it just when you wore contacts or even once you removed them? Do you think your eyes would have been ok again if you had not had LASIK done?

The only persistently bothersome problems I had were while wearing contacts. In retrospect, I did not exhaust the contact lens options - didn't know there were better products out there. But I had this recurring problem with the left eye, it basically acted like an allergic reaction or something and my eye would be irritated for a long time after taking the contact out. Sometimes I couldn't wear the lens for as long as a month or more, but it was very unpredictable and might not happen for 2 years. My doc didn't think it was allergy related because it only affected the one eye, and I never had a chance to get examined right in the middle of a flare-up.

I think that without LASIK, I would not have developed anywhere near the discomfort I have today, but I would probably gradually have become more and more intolerant of contact lenses.

[Theresa]

Yeesh! If only you'd known then what you know now . . .

I'm sure so many of you are thinking that now. It's really great all the work you're doing to spread the word about this. I'm not having a particulary great night with this dry eye condition. I find it's causing me to skip social functions I would normally attend. I missed out on a bday dinner tonight, because I knew I would sit at the table looking miserable. I thank God I don't have post LASIK dry eye, but I don't know if what I have is going to really clear up at all. Perhaps I'm jumping the gun and getting prematurely down, but it's a scary prospect the idea of having this permanently.

I am trying to figure out if this could be due to allergies other than my contact lenses? There's 3 cats here and I'd never been allergic to them before or at least not to my knowledge. Are there tests to figure out what your eyes might be allergic to? Or do you just have to wait for them to react negatively to something? As you can see, I'm trying to convince myself this is something reversible or fixable.

The nurse at the doc's office told me the schirmer's test was for dry eye syndrome and not just dry eyes? Is that true? Previously I was thinking I might have some temporary dry eye thing that could go away. Ugh! I need to stop driving myself nuts over this. How's everyone this evening?

[Lucy]

How's everyone tonight?

We all have dry eyes too! Welcome. Lucy

[Cindy]

by Theresa:

The nurse at the doc's office told me the schirmer's test was for dry eye syndrome and not just dry eyes? Is that true? Previously I was thinking I might have some temporary dry eye thing that could go away.

Hi Theresa and welcome,

A Shirmer's tests your tear output and can help determine a dry eye diagnosis and how to begin treatment. A Shirmer's result doesn't indicate whether the problem will be temporary or permanent.
http://www.agingeye.net/dryeyes/dryeeyeseyeexam.php

I've read your posts and it seems like there are a lot of 'ingredients' in your situation that came together all at once and that you and your doctors are sorting out. That will probably take a little time. In the meantime there are lots and lots of comfort measures mentioned throughout this bb and the main site that you can try for some relief. Everybody's different and likes different things to make themselves more comfortable.

For instance, right now I like windless eyewear (goggles), warm compresses, my NutraTear artificial tears, and a couple of nutrition supplements.

[SC']

Hi Cindy,

How's the nutritional supplement thing working out? I was reading about flaxseed oil being a good source of omega 3's, which is supposed to help dry eye? I guess it depends on the reason you have dry eye? Will it only help you if you have poor tear quality?

Any success stories out there?