Blepharitis...

[Dr. W]

I've had dry eye for two years now, and since developing dry eye, I have developed blepharitis. I use warm compresses once or twice a day and have been on antibiotics (erythro ointment) for over a month (that I apply before bed), but so far have not seen any improvement. I find that my lower lids are especially problematic and I have a dark red line under my lash line on both eyes. I understand that warm compresses take a long time to work. My question is whether people typically use antibiotic ointment longterm and how long it takes to work. Any help with this would be great! Thanks...

[GinaJ]

I have been dealing with bleph for five plus months. I had that before I developed dry eye. I too have the line you are talking about. I think everyone is different on length time of prescribed drops. The issue with steriod drops is they can cause other issues long term. In the past I was steriod,anti biotic drop and oral with no change and actually I continued to get worse and why went to the eye doc 15 times and 5 different in 4 months. I have just started restasis now so will see. The best lid scrub I have found to keep the lashes as clean as can be is steri lid foam. Once in the morning and once at night. In between if I see flakes I wash my eyes with cool water. I use preservative free drops all day too. Also started omega supplements. Can't harm may help in my eyes. Good luck and I know how long and frustrating this is.

[Dr. W]

Thanks--I'll see if I can find the steri lid foam. Do you find that your eyes burn? Sometimes there's absolutely nothing that works other than sleep (I've tried warm compresses, hot showers etc., which work, but only termporarily). I'm hoping that if I get the blepharitis under control, it will reduce the burning sensation. Please let me know how restasis works for you. Thanks again...

[mflores22]

To answer your original question, I think that a week or two of antibiotic ointment is normal, I was prescribed a week. The idea is to reduce the over-abundance of bacteria on the lids, then maintain a normal amount with a product like Sterilid.

It seems that everyone is different when it comes to dealing with bleph. I asked my optometrist recently about how long it takes to get over the acute phase of bleph, and he replied 'there's really no way to know, everyone's different'. He is one of the few doctors I fully trust, so I trust his answer.

The other thing you have to keep in mind is that bleph wrecks havoc on the tear film. Once you have the bleph under control, it may still be many more months before your tear film returns to 'baseline', or normal.

For me, I'm in my second month of doxy, I did the steroid drops and euromethrin (sp) for a week each, and I still can't tolerate contacts and wake up with irritation in my right eye (my problem eye). BUT, my eyes are doing better. I can tolerate air conditioning for long periods of time in the car (4 + hours this last weekend) and the redness in the whites of my eyes has gone down appreciably.

I'm at the point where I think that this is going to be a full year recovery for me. I know how frustrating it is when you can't get a medical expert to give you a time frame for recovery. But from everything I've gleaned, it will be a long recovery, and you need to be religious with your treatment. Good luck!

[GinaJ]

Hi again. Well the steri lid foam is by thera tears. I got mine at cvs. I see you are out of the us so you may want to look online. I do get the burning. My doc said my inflammation from the bleph is gone but the dry eye is hurting me so much. The restasis takes 6 weeks to even start. The eye docs I saw said bleph will have its flare ups. My eyes look way better then before after I used azasite. It did nothing for the pain and discomfort but cosmeticly it worked. Maybe it just takes a long time. I heard eyes are slow to heal.