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    I'm new to this forum and my name is Isis. I have now had meibomitis for 8 months and it's really very annoying. My eyes have bright red veins in them caused by meibomitis. I always get nasty eye boogers in the corners of my eyes and my eyes burn and sting constantly.

    My opthomologist put me on minocycline which I took for about 3 weeks and then had a horrible allergic reaction to it. I broke out in hives! Of course I stopped taking it and he (my doc) recommended doxy. First of all, I was hesitant to even start the minocycline because I mostly deal with things holistically and the idea of pumping chemicals into my body for 3 months made me cringe. However, I decided I would take it because I read that meibomitis can cause serious problems if you do not get rid of it. Sadly, I had that reaction so I am back to square one.

    I do hot compresses twice daily and also lid scubs twice daily. I have started taking Flaxseed oil but I haven't noticed a change since I starting this routine. It's been about 2 months now.

    I was reading some other posts and this mucus fishing behavior caught my attention. I remove the built up mucus out of the corner of my eyes with a q tip a few times a day. Is that considered mucus fishing? I do it because people have actually asked me, Do you have pus in your eye? Yeah, not very cool so I just remove it. I always make sure to never ever touch my eyes unless I have just washed my hands and I am either washing my eyelids, doing the compresses, or putting preservative free tears into my eyes. I became so obsessed with not touching my eyes, I think that's what caused my eyes to get worse. I stopped washing my eyelids properly because everyone told me (this is before I found out I had meibomitis) that if I had eye problems, touching them would only make them worse. Needless to say, I believe my not EVER touching them caused the meibomitis. The glands got clogged and I actually starting getting what is known as milia around my eyes. Milia are blemishes that occur around the eyes when a person does not exfoliate properly. I noticed since I was diagnosed with meibomitis and I have been doing the eyelid scrubs and hot compresses, all the milia has gone away.

    Now, I am going to stay away from doxy and try to cure this naturally. My opthamologist assured me this can be done. I just have to continue the compresses and lid scrubs and it should go away in a few months naturally. He explained that meibomitis is something like having acne in your eye. A person can opt to deal with acne by cleaning their face everyday until the skin heals and the acne goes away as opposed to taking a pill to clear it up. That's what I have decided to do and I will gladly let you all know how it goes with me.

    Thanks for listening to me explain my situation. It feels good to be able to discuss this with people who understand what I am going through. Most of my friends just nod and smile and have no idea what I am talking about. I look forward to hearing what others have to say too. It's nice to find a supportive group!
    ~Peace~

  • #2
    Hi Isis and welcome! I'm sorry, I just now noticed your post.

    Regarding mino, doxy, warm compresses and scrubs: I've never taken any of the tetracyclines (similar reasons as you) though I know they have been helpful for many people with MGD. But one thing I'm convinced of when going the drug-free route is that the devil is in the details. What kind of warm compress? What kind of lid scrubs? Different things work for different people. I can tell you that baby shampoo scrubs and hot washcloths are worse than useless for me personally... the shampoo makes me worse and the hot washclothes don't last long enough for the heat to really penetrate my glands. I used to use plain saline and a Q-tip (I now use the Ocusoft foam lidscrubs) and my rice baggy is what works best for me as a heat pack. But all these things take a lot of time and patience.

    I don't think that what you described is really mucus fishing. Some people are literally pulling strands off their sclera all day.
    Rebecca Petris
    The Dry Eye Foundation
    dryeyefoundation.org
    800-484-0244

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