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Hi all,
It has been 4 years since my last dose of Accutane and I have accepted that my eyes are not going to recover, so I am doing my best to cope. I have plugs and have tried Restasis, but unfortunately Restasis irritated my eyes to no end and I am actually now taking FML steroid drops to try to calm my poor, withered, abused eyes back down. The best drop I have found so far is Optive, which I am pretty much throwing into my eyes on an hourly basis. My doc told me to use preservative-free drops but I absolutely can't because they just about literally don't do anything for me; my dry eye is too sever. I just ordered Dwelle from the Dry Eye Shop, however, so I am going to give that a try as well. I am getting treated at Mass Eye and Ear in Boston and my doctor thinks that Boston Sceral Lenses might be a good next step; I agree. I know that no amount of warm compresses or Fish & Flax oil is going to bring my normal tear film back. I know I cannot completely blame my derm for this; I should have been more careful about going on mutliple courses of Accutane, but I can't help but feel infuriated by the fact that my doctor absolutely assured me this would not happen; he definitively told me that Accutane would not result in long-term dry eye and, as a naive teenager desperate to get rid of insufferable acne, I blindly believed him. Anyway, I just wanted to reach out to any other post-Accutane severe dry eye sufferers out there to let you know you are not alone and hopefully to compare notes as we struggle though this together.
I was telling my family that it feels like my eyes are in a constant fight against the world; they lash out violently against wind, light, smoke, and well, air in general I suppose. Pretty much they consider anything that comes into contact with them their enemy, well, except humidity -- that is their only friend. This is definitely an up-hill battle but we CANNOT submit to this terrible disease which is 1000 more debilitating than acne!
So, fellow post-Accutane sufferers, are you out there?
It has been 4 years since my last dose of Accutane and I have accepted that my eyes are not going to recover, so I am doing my best to cope. I have plugs and have tried Restasis, but unfortunately Restasis irritated my eyes to no end and I am actually now taking FML steroid drops to try to calm my poor, withered, abused eyes back down. The best drop I have found so far is Optive, which I am pretty much throwing into my eyes on an hourly basis. My doc told me to use preservative-free drops but I absolutely can't because they just about literally don't do anything for me; my dry eye is too sever. I just ordered Dwelle from the Dry Eye Shop, however, so I am going to give that a try as well. I am getting treated at Mass Eye and Ear in Boston and my doctor thinks that Boston Sceral Lenses might be a good next step; I agree. I know that no amount of warm compresses or Fish & Flax oil is going to bring my normal tear film back. I know I cannot completely blame my derm for this; I should have been more careful about going on mutliple courses of Accutane, but I can't help but feel infuriated by the fact that my doctor absolutely assured me this would not happen; he definitively told me that Accutane would not result in long-term dry eye and, as a naive teenager desperate to get rid of insufferable acne, I blindly believed him. Anyway, I just wanted to reach out to any other post-Accutane severe dry eye sufferers out there to let you know you are not alone and hopefully to compare notes as we struggle though this together.
I was telling my family that it feels like my eyes are in a constant fight against the world; they lash out violently against wind, light, smoke, and well, air in general I suppose. Pretty much they consider anything that comes into contact with them their enemy, well, except humidity -- that is their only friend. This is definitely an up-hill battle but we CANNOT submit to this terrible disease which is 1000 more debilitating than acne!
So, fellow post-Accutane sufferers, are you out there?
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