New with dry eyes

[GeorgeT]

Hi everyone,
I am George and I am 35. I moved this summer from Alabama to Washington State for a 6 month internship and after one month in WA state I got severe dry eye (blurry vision). I have read things about climate and dry eye and I know Alabama is very humid and WA state was very dry this summer. Is there somebody who has been through something similar? I got plugs in lower eyelids that block ~70% of tear flow but was just very little help. I've tried all eye drops and looks like some of them work for me but for a short term: a week or so. Now I am on Refresh Plus and I feel irritated after more than a week. At night I use Refresh Celluvisc two times. My life has changed.... I visited my wife and daughter in Alabama about a month ago and I felt a little better (used drops only 3-4 times per day).
I live in Lacey, Olympia area and I am desperately looking for a doctor who can do all the tests for me and help me choose the right drops. The doctor who put the plugs in told me he haven't done any tests and he is a cornea specialist. I have also started to use hot compresses and they help. I use to heat up salt and put it in a cloth bag. It's very cheap and reuseable.
Thank you very much for your help.

[SusieD]

Hi George

Do you have any idea how all this started or did it just seem to come from nowhere? Do you wear contacts etc?

Im sorry youre not feeling good - we all know how you feel, eye discomfort is one of the worst kinds of discomfort in my opinion.

Keep doing the warm compresses if they are helping. I think it would be helpful for you to see a doctor and get some baseline tests done - at least to give you more of an idea of the type of dry eye you are dealing with. It may be an aqueous problem or it may be that your tears are just evaporating too fast - or a bit of both!

Im sorry I cant recommmend any doctors - Im in the UK.

Just a note re: the plugs - the general concensus seems to be that just occluding the lower plugs does not even reduce tear drainage by 50% never mind 70%. Some people do not get much help from plugs until they have all four (upper and lower) plugged. For some this has quite a dramatic impact.

Good luck on finding someone to consult.

Hope you find some comfort soon.
Take care.

[kitty]

So sorry to hear about your DES. I too live in WA State. I just got all four punctum plugged in July and that really helped, until last week when things started to decline. I think the plugs are dissolving. At any rate, I don't know of any docs in Olympia. You could call around or do some searching online to see if any Optometrists advertise as treating dry-eye. You could check with the local Sjogren's association to see if they know of anyone. My eye doc is a member of vision source. I pulled up their website and located a clinic in Olympia. They list Dry Eye as one of the things they treat. You might call and see how much of their practice is dry-eye. Good luck to you. Olympia Vision Clinic

If the link does not work, go to visionsource.com and then click the locations tab.

[GeorgeT]

Thank you !

Thank you very much SusieD and Kitty!!!
For SusieD
I do not wear contacs, and I don't know how I got DES. Yesterday I saw a doctor who told me that my tear is aqueous deficient by visual inspection. He is optometrist who performed an eye exam. In fact I used to have watery eyes when exposed to AC or wind but was never a bid deal and I never used drops.
Now I am trying to find drops appropriate for aqueous deficiency.

For Kitty
Thanks you for the info. I'll call around to find a doc. WA state is very dry in summer. I am just wondering if this contribute to DES....
Take Care!!