Swollen Lids - please any advice?

[Margaret]

Here I am again, obviously I'm going through a very rough patch with my eyes.

I have such swollen lids, especially the upper lids, that it forces my eyelids shut. Which literally means I'm in the dark most of the day. It's been going on for about four days now where I can lift my eyes open enough to see or get on with some sort of day, but if I try to lift my head up and look (like at the screen right now), my eyelids start wanting to close up. Also, along with all of this is a lot of pain.

I just don't hear a lot about swollen lids on this site or anywhere else for that matter. I think i'm obviously not tearing enough so that makes my lids mad which turns on the inflamation on my eyeballs which increases the pain. I have mild MG at this point but I'm sure that will diminish now that my lids are so swollen!

Thanks for any sort of advice.

I use ice packs all the time and it just doesn't do much. That's about all i do. I'm on Lotemax and Azasite and artificial drops which I have a feeling I'm allergic to somehow, but I could be wrong too.

Margaret

[Lucy]

Margaret, I hope you're using artificial tears also, even though you didn't say so. That is necessary. I have the same type of problems you mentioned but my eyes feel better after drops, although they don't look any better. Lucy

[nycdryeyegirl]

Hi Margaret!

I would suggest that you contact your eye doctor a.s.a.p. and tell him your symptoms. If your eyelids are swollen to the point where you're force to keep them closed as well as experiencing alot of pain, it certainly sounds like a visit to your doctor would be absolutely necessary.

Pam

[indrep]

Margaret,
There is a product available for doctors do meibomian gland probing. It was originally marketed as the "cure" for dry eyes, that was rather quickly dismissed. However a number of doctors told me they had success with patients who were having a problem similar to what you are discussing. Meibomian glands recently clogged/blocked and lipid secretions were not being secreted creating tenderness and swelling of the lids, The doctors used the probes on these patients and reported relief of symptoms.

[jenny2008]

Margaret,

I cannot tolerate lotemax nor azasite... the BAK in Lotemak disrupts my tear film and makes my eyes super dry and gritty-even drops just disipate as the tear film gets unstable.. If I have to use steriods i order the non-preserved type from Leiters that are good for about 25 days.

The Azasite just burned so so bad.. i tried for about 3 days and my lids got more inflammed and i ended up going back to my doc within a week (keep in mind my doc is 2 hours and 20 minutes away)... otherwise i would have been back in his office that day!!! the Azasite also has BAK in it..

If your intuition is telling you these drops are doing more harm then good address it with your doctor before you continue.... good luck and hope you get to feeling better.

[msienkiewicz]

Jenny,

I am right there with you. When I first had my accident and was in such pain, the doctor kept giving me drops..all sorts of drops. They all had BAK: steroid drop, allergy drop, azasite. I was much worse off, and the burning was unbearable. Thank God I found this board and started taking things into my own hands. I began using the lacriserts and using restasis - both preservative free, and my eyes improved dramatically over time.

Stay away from BAK.
Best wishes,
Melissa

[Rebecca Petris]

I have such swollen lids, especially the upper lids, that it forces my eyelids shut. It's been going on for about four days now.... Also, along with all of this is a lot of pain.

I'm on Lotemax and Azasite and artificial drops which I have a feeling I'm allergic to somehow, but I could be wrong too.

That's really unusual. Definitely check out the allergy angle as the others have indicated - first thing I'd think of with swelling and pain.

How long have you been on the Lotemax and Azasite?

What changed four days ago? Did you start (or resume) any OTC product or other Rx product? Are you using any moisture goggle or mask at night that might be a factor? Doing any compresses?

[Ariel]

Margaret--- This may offer you some insight so I'll share it with you. I went to the emergency room today because my eyelids had become more inflamed than they have ever been. I had gone to the emergency room two days ago and they found nothing. Today --only 48 hours later-- I was diagnosed with blepharitis seborrheica and keratitis punctata.

I was told my eyelids had become inflamed by all the different eye drops I have been using so they recommended I stop them all to get on FML and "aquoral" single doze vials. Was this good medical advice? My examination in the emergency room lasted 10 minutes and the time I was under the slit lamp wasn't more than a minute and a half.

My girlfriend has been begging me to move out of my apartment because she feels there's a lot of bacteria in it. If the swelling of my lids is due to an allergy shouldn't I be taking something for the allergies along with FML?

Emergency room doctors don't think very much. It's easy for them to look at an inflamed eyelid and send you home with an anti-inflammatory but I have a hard time believing the inflammation on my eyelids has been caused by too many eyedrops. It just doesn't make sense to me so, against the doctor's advice, I'm going to start taking FML and antibiotic ointment "bephanthen" which I will supplement with "pataday" and see how my eyes respond to it.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think an eye doctor can look at an inflamed eyelid and "know" what the cause of the inflammation is. "Too much medication" is likely to be the first thing that came to his mind and he's not going to bother to think about any other possibility, specially in an emergency room.

[spmcc]

RE: too many things

What I've discovered is that you could be doing everything you've been told to do (or think you should do) for your eyes, but if there is just ONE thing in there that irritates them, then all your good work is erased and your eyes are much worse.

I found it's very important to identify those things that irritate... and then avoid them like the plague!!!

For instance, I tried azasite with high hopes. It made my lids swollen, heavy, gritty, and inflamed (as you have described).

Also I was told over and over by my ophthalmologist that I could cure my MGD but using hot/warm compresses. But my lids cannot tolerate hot/warm compresses and I had to stop.

I would suggest an "elimination trial" to see if one of your drops/treatments is the cause of the swelling. And please go see your doctor!!!

[DG65]

I thought you had stopped the mixing pot of drops and were starting from scratch to weed out the irritants?

[Ariel]

I have been focusing on DES without knowing enough about the cause, which is my case is posterior blepharitis.

I could understand the idea of some meds working or not working but I never thought some of them could actually worsen my condition. Allergies coming into the picture made things even more difficult.

I can now understand the need for meds to be evaluated, one at a time, on an individual basis to "weed out the irritants" so all I'm taking now is Aquoral single doze vials, FML for the next 1-3 weeks, Bepanthen ointment --which is erithomycin-- and Pataday. I'm not going to be able to see a DE specialist for one or two weeks so as of yesterday I self-prescribed Pataday but I think if allergies happen to be the real cause of the redness and irritation on my eyelids by taking FML alone I will only be addressing the inflammation instead of the cause. It still needs to be determined if the eyelid irritation is caused by putting too many meds on them or by the allergies --for which I haven't taken any!

MY THEORY: I'm inclined to think my eyelids became swollen because of allergies, the inflammation created discomfort which made me instill eyedrops which weren't the kind of eyedrops I needed so while these eyedrops didn't cause the inflammation they aggravated it. If this is what happened the inflammation should begin to diminish as soon as I start addressing the cause. If it is allergies I will have to see an improvement with Pataday. The inflammation will have to come down without me having to take FML for it to happen.

I feel FML is used for eliminating the inflammation when it is too difficult to find out what caused it but if such possibility exists, shouldn't that be the first thing we do???. I don't know anything about blepharitis so I don't know if a flare up just comes. If it does, without showing us what caused it, it does make sense for us to get it under control any way we can which may be using FML.

This is all very confusing to me but perhaps some of you can help me make sense of it.

Do eyelids become inflamed because of a flare up that can't be traced to any particular cause?
Can eyelids become inflamed simply as a reaction to some meds they don't like?
or do eyelids become inflamed because of allergies for which no med is being taken?

While I try to find the answers I'm going to stay away from Autlogous serum, Cyclosporine, Oftacilox ---which is an antibiotic eye-drop--- Azyter, Eloisin, castor oil, and every other eyedrop I've used on and off up to now.

I've ordered every book I could find on blepharitis and I'm going to read everything that's been posted on it here so hopefully I'll start getting a better idea of what I'm dealing with and how to proceed in the coming days.

I thank you all for your contributions. I'm running around like a trapped mouse so they're a lifesaver!!!

[calli66]

Just wanted to say that in one hour I can produce a total meltdown of my normally stable dry eyes by using Blephamide ointment (a steroid, anti-biotic med with preservatives added). By meltdown, I mean totally red, painful, swollen, can't keep eyes open, lasting up to 12 hours.

Sometimes I need this ointment---for "emergencies"---when there's obvious infection.

But I've learned that I should only use just the tiniest amount on my lids, not "in" my eyes; anything more and the "cure" is worse than the condition.

Ariel, I don't know exactly what is in the ointment you're using, but these various anti-bacterial compounds are very irritating to inflamed eyes. Sometimes the more you do (for your eyes) the worse they get.

C

[Ariel]

Thank you Calli--- I think I'm beginning to get the picture with every new posting I read. This is all sooooooooooooooo very new to me. I'm fighting an enemy I know nothing about so I'm completely lost.

[magoo]

Hi Margaret, You mentioned in one of your posts that you had an upcoming appointment with Dr Latkany. How did that go? What did he have to say about your lids?

I hope you can get to bottom of this soon as it sounds so very uncomfortable and really extreme as far as the swelling.

I have mild swelling compared to yours, but it gets much worse whenever I have used a drop that I cannot tolerate.

[Margaret]

Hi to everyone, I'm still so new to this I forgot to subscribe to this thread and didn't think anyone responded !

I had Lasik almost 4 months ago. I was put on Azasite probably within the first week and I've been on and off of it for the duration. At first it really did reduce the foreign object feeling I had in my eye and didn't seem to do much harm. So, I was on Azasite and artificial drops (I tried Bion, Refresh Plus, and Thera Tears). I then started getting so much burning that I went back to my doc and he put me on Lotemax 4x a day (since week 7 or so). I thought this helped. I was getting to the place where I could do computer work (4 hours a day), watch a movie at night, small successes, but ok! So, I asked to get tapered down from the Lotemax and start Restasis instead. We did this for a week and I really liked the feel of the Restasis when it went in my eye so I thought it was a good thing. After about a week on Restasis I started developing major spiking pains in my lower eyeball, like tendons being pulled back into my eyes, etc. I was a wreck. I looked on this site and found that some said it happened to them with Restasis and I stopped immediately and within 24 hours or so my eyes were better. Not as good as before, but better. I used to have a seemingly thicker tear film, it seemed to cover my eye more, but not any more. So, now I'm back to Lotemax 3x a day and Azasite (have been on both for 3 months). I'm scared to get off Lotemax because my dry eye dr here who I like and trust said he has seen the success he's had with his other Lasik severe dry eye patients and it's very unusual to be allergic to Lotemax because it is one of the toughest drugs that fight allergies. I also feel like whenever I taper down to 2x a day (which I tried a couple of times) things start falling apart. However, I only have 4 months of history to work with and my eyes are probably just changing on their own anyway. I went to see Dr. Latkany and he said he thinks I can beat this by getting off the meds and drops. He saw me on one of the best days that I've had probably ever though! I saw him about 12 days ago and started tapering my Lotemax down to 2x a day and no Azasite and have been having such swelling. I'm also using Oasis Tears Plus and Refresh Tears. Have been on those for 2 months too. There are times too when i see the doctors and they say my tear production is ok (no dry spots, etc.), and I have only mild MGD like everyone else on the street, but I know my tear production isn't good because I have to use the climate control Wiley's outside and most of the time inside. My theory is that I am not making enough tears and that's irritating my eyelids (all docs I've seen said the underside of my lids are very bumpy, and irritated) and then when I use any drops this only exacerbates it (but so does the dryness, so I'm damned if I do damned if I don't). I tried moisture chambers last night but I think that worsened it because it slightly pushes on the tops of my lids and I probably scratch my eyes up when my eyes are moving in the middle of the night.
My three kids start school next week so maybe i can go cold turkey on all of it and sit in my house for a month with ice bags and wait it out and see what happens!!!

Thanks everyone. I truly, truly appreciate your ideas and thoughts.

Margaret