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**littlemermaid** · 23-May-2011, 03:09

Fantastic photographs, so helpful for us, uncomfortable eye surface. Very red lid margins in some, do you think there's an allergic component? We think our 'ocular rosacea' is an inflammation response but still working out what. So glad you have got a new dermatologist to talk to - doctor-shopping, like us. Sounds like no one has checked your meibom in all this time - have you seen anything yourself? Do you know how to check? Good to hear you happier on your journey.

Any chance of a photo of the inside of your lower lid so we can see your lid margin where the line of meibomian glands is, also if there's any chalazion damage? I don't think you ever had bacterial infection, did you?

**redandsensitive** · 23-May-2011, 04:21

Are my lid margins red? Is it not normal to have pinkish lid margins? My eye doctor said the same thing.. Is that a sign of rosacea or seb derm? I really think I have seb derm. So much oil on nose and forhead!

I've tried zaditen (anti -hitamin eye drops), but didn't work. Allergy test showed very very mild mite allergy. But my doctor said that could not be the reason.

I can try to take photos of inside the eye lids. But I can say that I have like paralell blood vessels every 2-3 mm inside eyelids. Going strait up and with a little space, so a new vessel, and so on. there must be almost one blood vessel for every meibom gland..

I don't think I've had a bacterial infection, but doctors have given me antibiotics, but to no avail.
Don't have crust on eyes during the day, but some in the morning (sometimes a lot), but if I have some coconut oil on my eyelids before I go to sleep, I get no crust during the night.
I have some seb derm I think in the T zone, behind ears and some crust on scalp. But been milder after using all the shampoos. Is it the blood vessels inside the eyelids that are the problem? Some glands look glogged in some pictures (white dot
on margins). But I'm confused since I don't have crust on eye lashes during the day, maybe it is ocular rosacea then?

I have a 20x mirror, and I think I see clear oil coming out. Haven't seen the white dots as I do in the pictures. No eye doc has checked my glands.

chalazion damage? I don't have any cyst or what "chalazion" pictures in google shows.

I really hope your child and myself get healthy eyes in the near future!

**avee** · 23-May-2011, 04:40

Someone posted here thist study recently: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3047907/
And it's in Helsinki - just round the corner

They seem to be really good with allergies which are the trickiest ones as far as I am concerned.

I struggeled with exactly the same red inflamed eyes like yours for over 10 yrs. Doctors only gave me steroid drops and these removed redness temporarily. And then I suddenly discovered that my eyes are extremely sensitive to dust. Suppose you bake a cake and pour flower - some dust gets into your eyes. People normally don't notice it. And I don't t feel anything instantly eather but during several hours bad inflammation develops. And it takes couple of weeks to heal by itself (without steroids) and during that time another dust-incident happens (it can be anywhere inside and out).

This s just to illustrate that allergies are tricky but they are really mean! My inflammation developed exactly like yours - part of the eye is perfeclty white and smooth and then there are other areas (on the corner) which are angry red and veiny. And no doctor would have ever discovered what is the trigger in my case. I'm lucky I did.

My eyes are dry, too. But I don't know which one came first - dryness or this abnormal sensitivity. If I am able to avoid some unexpected cloud of dust, I am doing perfectly fine and I ususally don't even need eyedrops. As I said to you in other thread - hot compress is really soothing for me. But when I am in the middle of inflammation, no compresses or dry eye drops don't help any more.

Anyway, after so many years of despair and hoplessness that I've been through, I was excited to read how much people know about allergies, cure and triggers just 80 km away from me! And that there really is something that can be done. Amazing

**alisonW** · 23-May-2011, 06:46

Hi there redandsenstive....

Great photos - your eyes look just like mine do. (Even our eye color.) I too have very oily facial skin, and am prone to seb derm, and I also have very, very mild rosacea. (I've only ever had 3 flares.) My derm and eye doc are both hesitant to diagnose me with ocular rosacea (since there are no definitive tests to determine it), but I assume I have it because of the chronic redness.

I too do not have crusts on my lashes in the morning if I use and ointment or oil before bedtime. If I just use drops, I will get some build-up on the lashes which I think is an accumulation of the drops drying on my lids. (It's not crustiness at the lash base, but on the ends only.)

My eye doc did check my m.glands and said they are almost all clogged. He was able to press on them and saw very little, very thick, "unhealthy" secretions. He said I have posterior blepharitis along with moderately dry eyes. He has me using warm compresses and doing lid massage along with 100mg of doxy per day. I've been doing this for almost two months and have not seen much change at all....anyway, just wanted to let you know what I have been diagnosed with and that our eyes look alike.

Hopefully someone out there can figure out a cure for us. (Also, I was on accutane at age 27, am 44 now, and think that had something to do with all of my current eye problems.)

**NeedMyEyes** · 24-May-2011, 18:17

I'll give it a try...

Well, here is my opinion for what its worth:

First, I have skin that is a little fairer than yours, but I will compare your eyes to mine.

You eyelid margin is cleaner than mine. I don't see any telangectasia on your margins like i see on mine.

Personally, I don't see much "blepharitis" in these pictures, but I know that the eye doctor might be able to see some posterior blepharitis in the slit lamp even though I can't see it on pictures. But no anterior blepharitis - no crusting or flaking.

There are others on this board with big, thick red, beefy looking eyelids - and you don't have those.

Another thing - your eyelashes are all pointing in the normal direction, so it seems you don't have the kind of blepharitis that causes scarring and trichiasis, so that's good.

Also, you look like you have a tear prism that is just a little scanty - I think it is supposed to measure at least 0.2 mm and I think yours is almost there. I suspect your schirmers are on the lower end of normal or just a little below normal. Mine is a little scantier than yours, and my schirmer's are just below normal (the one that I believe anyway)

Your scleral / conjunctival vessels - I'm glad I saw these pictures, because mine look almost exactly like that. When I ask people about them, they say they really can't tell, but I think it is because they didn't see my eyes before all of this... Anyway, if I can get this dry eye under control and all I have is little red vessels, then I'll be very happy with that outcome at this point.

Oh, as far as a pterygium - I am used to seeing those with a little fat in them and they have a little bit of a yellow appearance. Also they are raised off the surface of the sclera. I don't see that here, but can't be sure. One other thing. If you get the surgery for pterygium removal I believe it can cause more dry eye. You might look into that first before you get it done...

Just my observations! Don't know if it will help...

**Rebecca Petris** · 24-May-2011, 21:32

Originally posted by redandsensitive View Post

Hi!

Rebecca: I hope I'm allowed to share pictures of my eyes with the forum?

Totally! It think it's great.

The only thing we need to be careful about on these subjects is this: We don't want to see anyone "diagnosing" anyone on this forum, whether from pictures or other information presented. Bad idea.

Pointing out similarities with oneself, raising good points that we can investigate further, etc - all great and so very welcome and helpful.

**redandsensitive** · 06-Jun-2011, 07:28

I'll write a response soone. Sorry, but I can have "bad" days for like 3 weeks all toghether. Man, that psychology thing..

**littlemermaid** · 06-Jun-2011, 15:07

redandsensitive: Hey, you're doing great. Take it easy ~ hope you're enjoying this fabulous weather. We are having gentle sunshine and a few showers here so the plants are very happy and everyone is in a good mood, eating outside, enjoying the park, birds nesting, frogs hatching. The air is unusually fresh in town because we've got breezes too, not too hot. So many lovely stress-free things to enjoy. Wish you good comfort.

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Lots of quality pictures of mye eyes/eyelids.

Lots of quality pictures of mye eyes/eyelids.

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