My ability to focus on my work, on really anything has slipped during my healthcare crisis of the last couple of months. I’ve attributed this to stress and/or depression and/or social isolation of working at home for the last few months. (My job is 90% applied research and education, so with the help of a supportive boss am lucky to have this option. I find managing my condition much easier at home.) But more reading and thinking and a conversation with my pharmacist has me wondering if Fluorometholone is part of the problem.
One of the many lessons for me during this recent dry eye adventure has been seeing the annoying results of using large doses of systemic steroids to get at eye inflammation, irritation, etc. Like using a chainsaw to cut butter. During one round of prednisone in August – among other side effects – I averaged just 4 hours of sleep a night for over 2 weeks. My eyes were only somewhat improved.
Fluorometholone has been the “solution.” Don’t treat the body to reach the eye; just treat the eye. Now, as part of a Bridge Regimen to get me to early 2014 with a parallel therapeutic solution, I’m on one drop of FML 3X daily for each eye. All of us doing eye drops worry that what we’re applying to our eyes may be getting absorbed into our sinus lining, into our systems. Me too. As this inability to focus has become an issue since early September when I began stepped up FML, perhaps I need to understand if my attraction to distraction is due to absorbing steroids through my eyes. Reading online, I’ve not found this effect to be on the short or long list of FML side effects. I can’t find any articles that speak directly to the issue.
So I asked my pharmacist what he thought. This is smart guy who reads everything in his field; he’s been very helpful to me on other issues. His take, qualified by his saying that this is just 2 cents from your pharmacist, is that a) FML is powerful, b) I’m taking at higher than usual dose over an extended time period, c) I’ve not been pinching the inside corners of my eyes to control drainage (something I’ve started doing), so d) yes, the potential is there for a steroid introduced through the eye to have systemic effects.
So Fluorometholone Question II is: Has anyone dealt with this? Read something useful? Discussed with a doctor?
One of the many lessons for me during this recent dry eye adventure has been seeing the annoying results of using large doses of systemic steroids to get at eye inflammation, irritation, etc. Like using a chainsaw to cut butter. During one round of prednisone in August – among other side effects – I averaged just 4 hours of sleep a night for over 2 weeks. My eyes were only somewhat improved.
Fluorometholone has been the “solution.” Don’t treat the body to reach the eye; just treat the eye. Now, as part of a Bridge Regimen to get me to early 2014 with a parallel therapeutic solution, I’m on one drop of FML 3X daily for each eye. All of us doing eye drops worry that what we’re applying to our eyes may be getting absorbed into our sinus lining, into our systems. Me too. As this inability to focus has become an issue since early September when I began stepped up FML, perhaps I need to understand if my attraction to distraction is due to absorbing steroids through my eyes. Reading online, I’ve not found this effect to be on the short or long list of FML side effects. I can’t find any articles that speak directly to the issue.
So I asked my pharmacist what he thought. This is smart guy who reads everything in his field; he’s been very helpful to me on other issues. His take, qualified by his saying that this is just 2 cents from your pharmacist, is that a) FML is powerful, b) I’m taking at higher than usual dose over an extended time period, c) I’ve not been pinching the inside corners of my eyes to control drainage (something I’ve started doing), so d) yes, the potential is there for a steroid introduced through the eye to have systemic effects.
So Fluorometholone Question II is: Has anyone dealt with this? Read something useful? Discussed with a doctor?
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