Michael's diary

Hello everyone,
I would like to write this diary and I will post updates about what I tried, what I want to try and how does it help my condition. Feel free to post your thoughts. Sorry for my english, i'm not a native speaker.

Who I am
I'm 25 years old dry eye patient from the Czech Republic. For my whole life I've been working with PC a lot. There were times when I played videogames for 18 hours a day. There was a period of about 6 months when I slept for 2-3 hours a day and my only food was frozen pizza and chinese soup. Nothing else. I was in a really bad shape, I lose my weight and my teeth were damaged (not enough calcium). I'm telling you this, because I think my dry eye condition has something to do with this - i have an impression that my immune system was somehow damaged during these years of very unhealty healthstyle and since then I have problems with my sleep and my eyes.

Currently I work in IT, eat healthy and play no videogames (I would love to but my eyes just can't do it, 8 hours at work are stressful enough). I have no LASIK or other eye surgery. I don't even use glasses or contact lenses. My sight is still pretty ok. But it's been a few years of burning and red eyes and I feel it's getting worse. My mother always told me that my eyes are bad because of the time I spend with computer. Yes, there is a connection because my blinking frequency is lower. But it's definitely not the only reason. My friends who also work in IT don't have these problems. Their eyes are not so red and they don't have problems to keep their eyes opened and don't use artificial tears every 1-2 hours. They don't have to use drops just to open their eyes when they wake up in the morning. They don't have terrible problems with spaces with air-conditioning. With the sun and wind, etc. etc.

As I already said, my eyes have always been a problem. But I always somehow got over it. It bothered me but I could live with that. It wasn't THAT bad. But last year, my condition got worse. There was a lot of stress in my life - like finishing my master's degree and hard time in my part-time job. I needed a lot of focus and my eyes suffered. I decided I need a break so I traveled to Iceland for a 1 month job. Well, Iceland is a green paradise, isnt it? I was convinced that my eyes would be refreshed and healed after 1 month on completely fresh air and without any computer. Well, my eyes were SLIGHTLY better, but I was disappointed with the overall "result". It meant my eyes aren't just tired and there is something more serious behind it.

Because I always tried to avoid pills and doctors, I just let it go. But in January / February I got sick and my eyes were really bad. One day, I woke up and I was on my way to work but my eyes hurt so much and I couldn't even open them, so I have to turn around and go back home. I went to eye doctor but she just told me "your eyes are ok" and gave me some eye drops which didn't help me at all. I was very disappointed with her answers so I went looking for the answers myself. And thank God I found this community.

Dry eye syndrom? What?
I'm surprised and disappointed that there is SO LITTLE information about DES in my country. My eye doctor just told me "your eyes hurt because you use computer too much". She didn't tell me anything about DES, about Schirmer's test, about tear break-up time test, etc. There is no info available in our language online, only basic info. No webpages. The only useful thing you can get in pharmacy are artificial tears. It's very hard to find a dealer of some Moisture chamber glasses, quality Omega 3 or TranquilEyes - you just have to order it from US or something because no-one sells it here. And sometimes, they don't even ship it to Europe (for example Thera Tears nutrition) or cost of delivery is ridiculous. I just want to say, that you guys - for example in US - are lucky because you can buy any stuff you like. I need to think twice when I want to try new things because it costs me a lot of money.

God bless this community
I'm serious, without this forum I wouldn't even know what to do with my DES and I probably wouldn't do anything about it. I would just continue my suffering. Because of your stories I know that I'm not alone in this misery, I'm not weird because of my condition (my friends often thinks that my eyes are red because I smoke weed. No, I don't as***les, I have DES!) and there is hope my eyes will be healed. Thank you for this. Because of that, I'm motivated to try new things to help my eyes.

This might be a long journey. I've just started, but one day my eyes will be healed.

Things I did and it didn't work
1) I visited my local eye doctor - she told me my eyes are ok and they hurt me so much because I work with PC and I should change my regime. Yes, thank you. I will quit my IT job and I will sell ice-cream... She gave me some eye drops which didn't work at all. In fact, I think it wasn't good for my dry eyes at all.
2) Onion goggles - I bought it as a low-cost moisture chamber - I can feel some relief, but unfortunately my skin is very sensitive and I had some skin-reaction. The foam is making my skin around the eyes red and they are not comfortable. I will not use them again, but at least I have some idea how the moisture chamber works.

Things I try at the moment
1) Artificial tears - I can feel some relief but it helps only for a short time and then my eyes hurt again. I use them every 2 hours but I have an urge to use them more often. But no, I don't want to use them too much. It's not a solution. My eyes could get used to it and go worse. I tried at least 5 types and this one helps me the most - Hylo Gel from Ursapharm
2) New job, new office, no air-conditioning - I used to work in an office with A/C - I can tell I could feel it. It was really hurting my eyes. I changed my job a month ago. Thank God, there is no A/C and it's helping a little.
3) Omega 3 capsules - I want to try it, I believe in power of fish oil

But I was only able to buy some cheap pills. I'm currently thinking about buying some quality one. Right now, I'm one "day 2" so it's too early to evaluate. We will see after 5 weeks of taking 3 pills a day.
4) Coconut oil - my sister bought some Bio virgin etc. coconut oil. I use it on my eyelids before I go to sleep. Sometimes I feel I can open my eyes in the morning more easily because of this. Sometimes it doesn't work. I don't know why, maybe I'm doing something wrong, maybe it just doesn't work at all. I need to test it more and I will post an update.
5) Drink more water - I realized I didn't drink enough water during the last few months so I'm trying to be consistent now and I drink at least 2 litres a day. But I try to drink as much as I can.
6) Eye exercises - maybe it's not connected with DES but I started to do some eye exercises. I'm staring at computer screen 8 hours a day so it could help. I try to stand up at least every 60 minutes and take 5 min break.

Things I want to try in the future
1) Visit another eye doctor. I'm disappointed I've found only 2-3 doctors online in my country, that mentions ANYTHING about DES (there is a mention about Schirmer's test, that's all). I tried to call the first one - her nurse told me they take "no new patients" and I would have to wait 3-4 months to get an appointment (wtf?). The second one is a private-clinic and I can have an appointment in 14 days but it's expensive. But I will do it anyway. What options do I have? I will ask and search for another eye specialists along the way.
2) Moister chamber glasses - I want to buy Ziena Nereus glasses to wear it indoors, but it costs a lot of money for me (+delivery costs) and there is no way I could try it before buying it. No dealer in my country. So it's high costs, high risk. I want to buy some glasses for outdoors, too (there might be WileyX dealer in Prague, I need to send them an email)
3) Air humidifier - Thanks to my new office without A/C, i'm thinking if it's worth it. But I will probably try it. I need to do some research which type is good. I want to buy hygrometer, too.
4) Quality Omega 3 - I guess I will order some quality stuff over the internet. Maybe PRN.
5) TranquilEyes - i'm not convinced about it, but I might give it a try.
6) Eye plugs - If nothing mentioned above will work, i will try this. Need to read more info about it.

Conclusion
Wow, that's a long post. But I'm really depressed because of my condition. Because of DES I have problems at work (can't work as I would like to) and in my social life. I need to help my eyes. I will read more about this topic and keep this thread updated about my progress.
Please if you have any advice or thoughts, feel free to post it.

Thank you.

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