Anyone else have herpes keratitis and MGD?

[FloridaKris]

New here, I've had herpes keratitis since I was 8yrs old. My first infection was quite severe but once it was under control I never had a problem again until I was 21, was treated and didn't have another flair until September of this year(I'm 31 now). Anyhow the infection has been under control but now I'm having serious problems wtih dry eye, my doc diagnosed MGD...also known as posterior blepharitis I believe. I've been put on azasite for a month and warm compresses. Here is the thing, my eye with the herpes keratitis is swelling in any type of daylight or with computer usage, driving, or watching too much tv. I have no clue how to get this thing under control......I'm beyond frustrated and I'm only a week into treatment. Is there any hope for me or am I just doomed. I have no clue how I would hold down a job with this mess(thankfully I don't have too right now).

Any words of encouragement or anyone else with both MGD and herpes keratitis. Thanks, Florida

[kandykane1544]

Hey Kris,

I used to get cold sores pretty frequently growing up, which I know is a form of herpes not really sure which kind. I do not know if there is a connection between these two problems, unfortunately when you get MGD/posterior blepharitis, doctors usually list of half a dozen things that could be causing it (in other words they have no clue). However, chronic viral, bacterial, or fungi/protozoal infections are a possible cause that I am exploring myself via diet and diagnostic stool testing. If you are sure herpes keratitis is the cause of your symptoms, I remember reading that antiviral drugs can help fight the various strains of the herpes virus and put it into remission. Good luck to you, and feel free to message me whenever.

[FloridaKris]

Hi KandyKane Thank you for the reply. I do know for certain that it IS herpes Keratitis, it's been confirmed as a very classic case by at least 4 eye doctors. My last flair up I was actually out of town and had to go to the ER and then to an eye docs office and it was again confirmed. I have the classic dendrites when I flair. I've had corneal scarring unfortunately but that was from my initial infection at 8. As of right now my doc has put me on a dose of anti-virals as a precautionary measure even though I'm not staining. I went to my optometrist yesterday after having NO improvement and he looked and it actually showed that I've got some errosion on my cornea I see a cornea specialist this coming Friday. My eye doc said that my cornea is in really bad shape in that eye and that he wouldn't discount possibly scleral lenses but we will have to wait and see what the specialist recommends. Right now a cornea transplant is not highly recommend for people with my eye disease due to high rejection rates. Feeling very scared right now. As for diet, I'm happy to change my diet. I currently eat a non-gmo, organic diet and try to juice 3x per week. Right now it's pretty easy to avoid gmo foods since I live in Germany for the moment, not sure how that is going to work once I move back to America. What type of testing are you using? I would be curious to hear more from you. Also, I know this is a dry eye zone, do you happen to know of a support group for people with eye diseases?