Do your symptoms vary wildly from day to day?

[Bette40]

On Saturday I was completely symptom free.
Yesterday a bit gritty.
Today stinging.
Is that usual?

[calli66]

Yah--it's usual. I have good days and bad days and I never know really what's causing it.

This spring there were several clues---high pollen count in May, local fires in the woods, etc.

Sometimes I comment about my own eyes, for example I'll say to the clerk when I'm in the check-out line "My eyes are killing me today---can hardly keep them open," and then I'll get a reply something like, " Yeah, everybody's been complaining about that today." Also, my husband will say his eyes are goopy or gritty---bothering him on some days. And it's usually the days when my eyes are wrecked.

So I think that not only "dry eyed people" have these issues, "regular" folks have them, too, just not as often or as severe.

C

[painless]

I think most of the time when my symptoms vary wildly it's due to an allergy -- not an environmental one but a "chemical" one. I've noticed that my eyes react with burning, stinging, and redness to most shampoos/conditioners and moisturizers and almost all sunscreens. I wish I could figure out what ingredients bother my eyes, but I haven't yet.

So this month, I happened to use different shampoo/conditioner on a few different days and FINALLY realized that they must be the cause of my horrible eye symptoms.

[Bette40]

me too

My eyes are fine until I have a shower, even if late in the day, but I have switched ti using a paraben free organic shampoo. I do not wear any moisturizer/foundation/eye make up but still get the depressing burn on random days.
Have you tried Pataday? I ask that like I am ultra familiar with it, I am not, just read about it on the D.E.Z.

[Roderick]

It's mostly because of variations in the climate, period. When your lids are that irritated, temperature, humidity, quality of air and all that stuff are what affects them the most.