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  • New Member - Hi all!

    Hi,
    My name is Pat. I'm 51. I just found this group today and I feel like I found a long lost family!! While reading the symptoms, I came to the realization that I'm had the condition all my life and just never knew it. I will relate my story, although I'm sure all of you have similar stories.

    About 10 years ago, my husband and I were horsing around when his fingernail accidentally sliced my eye. A trip to the emergency room where they put antibiotics in and tightly bandaged the eye seemed to do the trick.... until 2 weeks later when I woke up with the same excrutiating pain. I went to the eye doctor who told me that that happens in a very small percentage of people, but to just do the same things I did after my trip to the emergency room. Over the course of the next couple weeks and countless episodes, I ended up leaving a camping trip with a severly infected eye. My best friend, bless her, drove me to the opthalmologist's (a different doctor this time!) office after hours, where he met me and did a debridement of the eye. He sent me home with pain medication, antibiotic ointment, and care instructions. It eventually got better with less and less episodes. I had always associated my problem with the injury until one day I woke with the same excrutiating pain in the other eye... and no injury! I ended up getting the same debridement on the second eye. In retrospect, had I simply started treating that eye as well, I probably wouldn't have had to go through the second procedure. Oh well. I continued using my ointment nightly for years. I was finally able to wean myself from it. Occasionally I'd feel a little itchy and know that I'd better use my ointment that night to avoid a major occurrence.

    Flash forward to this week. I visited my local optometrist for a routine eye exam for glasses. He told me that I have corneal dystrophy and told me to use drops 4 times a day and Genteal Gel at night, just as routine preventive treatment. He said it is a genetic condition that I need to deal with. Well, I don't know if the drops he used to dilate my eyes irritated my eyes or what, but since then my eyes have been red, watery and extremely painful - all day and night! I decided it was time for some research to find out about my condition and if there were any things that I could do to improve my eye health. The first web site I found scared the dickens out of me. It said that the wasn't a cure - other than corneal transplants! Yikes! Then I found The Dry Eye. I may have corneal dystrophy, only my opthalmologist can tell me for sure, but I'm almost certain from everything I've read here that I do have dry eye. All these years I felt like a lone victim of some cruel plan. Finally I've found others who know what I'm talking about as well as suggestions of things that might help. That in itself is a huge relief.

    Sorry, I didn't mean to write a whole journal. Thanks for listening.

    PatW

  • #2
    Then I found The Dry Eye. I may have corneal dystrophy, only my opthalmologist can tell me for sure, but I'm almost certain from everything I've read here that I do have dry eye. All these years I felt like a lone victim of some cruel plan. Finally I've found others who know what I'm talking about as well as suggestions of things that might help. That in itself is a huge relief.
    Hi Pat! First of all welcome to this site. We all know what dry eye is about! Many of us have had lasik or some sort of refractive surgery, but certainly not all.

    Let me say that corneal dystrophy is definitely not leading to a corneal transplant. I had lasik going on 6 years ago and found out I had corneal dystrophy (or EBMD) sometime after that. It's late and I just wanted to say hi and do not panic! (Don't go out and have lasik either. lol)

    You mention you use Genteal Gel. Many of the folks on here have been having problems finding it. They may have stopped making it. This subject is written up on this message board. Read through the threads and you'll pick up some good information.

    Lucy
    Don't trust any refractive surgeon with YOUR eyes.

    The Dry Eye Queen

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