MGD Success Stories Please!

[marykate]

Hi everyone,
This MGD is really kicking my butt...I'm doing warm compresses, doxy, restasis, steroids, fish/flax oil...and it's just not clearing up...the pain is debilitating.

Today is particularly tough....can you please post some MGD success stories please? I'm beginning to think that I'll never kick this thing.

Thank you!

[eva b]

Oh I'm so sorry to read your post...I feel the same as you do right now!

wish I had some words of wisdom to offer. I'm doing most of the same things as you, except doxy (can't) or drops (eyes won't tolerate).

Have just finished the 3rd lot of compresses for the day, followed by prolonged attempting to wipe off the extremely persistent crusts which just won't come off and leave my eyelids very sore indeed!

I have a suspicion that in my case there is an allergy link, have tried eliminating just about everything I can in my life...start thinking my eyes are allergic to the water I use in compresses,. (and yes, I use bottled pure water)_

Sometimes I could just scream the house down in frustration. Want to come and join me?

[brd888]

Link to blepharitis

Hello,
Yes I know exactly how you feel. Did you know blepharitis (posterior) and MGD are essentially the same?
I posted this link on another thread:
http://www.aoa.org/documents/QRG-10A.pdf
Have you identified which MGD/blepharitis you have?

I also find little relief in the standard treatments - maybe the warm compress does do something - but nothing which lasts for a period of time. Makes you question the treatments and medical profession - why is it lacking? why is it so difficult? do they care? are they incompetent? is my condition so unusual? etc etc

[rhad]

well, I also don't have alot of words of wisdom to share, but I have a theory that it is the liver that causes this condition, as the liver manufactures cholesterol(the healthy cholesterol) which Meibum is mostly made up of, Meibum from the meibomian glands consists mainly of Cholesterol and wax esters and some proteins and fatty acids, but it is mostly cholesterol. i believe it is causes by poor bile flow to the intestines, from the liver and gallbladder due to bile duct obstruction from Intra-hepatic gallstones, which almost everyone has, bile is required to absorb any kind of fats or proteins and this causes malabsorption/indigestion of all fats/fatty acids/fat soluble vitamins such as Vit. A, E, K, etc. also when the bile ducts in the liver are obstructed by these stones, the liver produces unnaturally larger quantities of cholesterol in the meibomian glands. remember their is no study on this theory of mine, but i wish their was. I wish doctors cared more, and actually put forth more effort to find out the true cause of this, and prove this theory to be true or not. That sure would be nice!

rhad

[odydnas]

Ooh I second this thread.

Has ANYONE here gotten rid of their MGD, or at least managed? doesn't really seem like there's anything that works longterm...I am also getting discouraged like MaryKAte

[autumnn]

I have doubled my TBUT (from a 3 a year ago to a 6 or 7 as of an exam today)- does that count? This has been (I think) mainly due to (recent) weeks of compresses/lid hygine (I didnt understand before how important this was- I was banking on sclerals). As far as the MGD I never really had noticeable blocked glands- just little oil production.
Unfortunately- so far- the major relief I have is only in one eye....but, the relief in the one eye is significant and has been consistent. I am waiting for the other to realize the increased TBUT!
I had a little glob on my eyeball that happened to rest right where the lid margin hit- it is almost gone- I wonder if it was blocking some oil and that is part of the problem.

I do believe that many find long term relief from this but probably stop posting and visiting this forum. We need to remember that

[acarol]

I have doubled my TBUT (from a 3 a year ago to a 6 or 7 as of an exam today)- does that count? This has been (I think) mainly due to (recent) weeks of compresses/lid hygine (I didnt understand before how important this was- I was banking on sclerals). As far as the MGD I never really had noticeable blocked glands- just little oil production.
Unfortunately- so far- the major relief I have is only in one eye....but, the relief in the one eye is significant and has been consistent. I am waiting for the other to realize the increased TBUT!
I had a little glob on my eyeball that happened to rest right where the lid margin hit- it is almost gone- I wonder if it was blocking some oil and that is part of the problem.

I do believe that many find long term relief from this but probably stop posting and visiting this forum. We need to remember that

Ya this is true - its a pity people don't come back and tell us if they have improved and what helped, didn't help etc... I suspose they just get on with their lives when things improve. With a lot of the on-line health boards you have mainly people looking for health advice - very little come back with reports of progress.

[Rebecca Petris]

Ooh I second this thread.

Has ANYONE here gotten rid of their MGD, or at least managed? doesn't really seem like there's anything that works longterm...I am also getting discouraged like MaryKAte

Mine is well managed. (But it wasn't terribly severe like some people on the BB.) I take Omega 3s, I massage my lids in the shower with Ocusoft foam and I do a rice baggy compress each night.

[stella]

I have improved and would consider that i have this condition "under control" I seldom need any drops during the day now and i can forget about my eyes most of the time
It would take too long to go into details -- if you look at some of my posts you will see how i cope
All the best -- and DONT GIVE UP
I stay on this web site in the hope that i can help someone else - I dont really need it myself at the moment (though i am not that confident that i may not need it in the future)
ALso i feel i have a lot of friends on this site and like to know how they are doing

[snoek]

Mgd

Personally, I know from my experiences with eye "doctors" in the past, they have over medicated myself due to ignorance and fear of adverse outcomes. I can relate to the mind-blowing pain people experience.

It seems like your doctor is using a shotgun approach to treating you, but with little benefit.

My best recommendation is to seek out a highly skilled "corneal specialist." Believe me when I say that they are not easy to find. And the other idea I would make to you is to have your cholesterol levels checked. As mentioned before, your cholesterol levels are important for good eye health.

[Meebo]

I have doubled my TBUT (from a 3 a year ago to a 6 or 7 as of an exam today)- does that count? This has been (I think) mainly due to (recent) weeks of compresses/lid hygine (I didnt understand before how important this was- I was banking on sclerals). As far as the MGD I never really had noticeable blocked glands- just little oil production.
Unfortunately- so far- the major relief I have is only in one eye....but, the relief in the one eye is significant and has been consistent. I am waiting for the other to realize the increased TBUT!
I had a little glob on my eyeball that happened to rest right where the lid margin hit- it is almost gone- I wonder if it was blocking some oil and that is part of the problem.

I do believe that many find long term relief from this but probably stop posting and visiting this forum. We need to remember that

I have non inflammatory MGD with little oil production. What was your starting TBUT and what were your symptoms and what were you diagnosed with. For example, I have ocular rosacea which is the casue of my MGD. My MGD is non inflammatory so I do not do scrubs. I do some heat compresses though.

[HOSADOS]

Hi everyone,
This MGD is really kicking my butt...I'm doing warm compresses, doxy, restasis, steroids, fish/flax oil...and it's just not clearing up...the pain is debilitating.

Today is particularly tough....can you please post some MGD success stories please? I'm beginning to think that I'll never kick this thing.

Thank you!

My MGD is much better
see my post in the Blepharitis and MGD forum for more details.
hot compress for itself isn't so useful for MGD unless you squeeze your glands and express the lipid oil after melting it with you the hot compress, that gives fruits. In the eraly days, I was poking the glands openning for long period of times until I managed to keep them open, and from there I saw a substantial improvement. There are many posts on that issues in the board.

I use Lidcare, and havne't tried what Rebecca suggested, but as a general rule I saw a big improvement since I switch to that from baby shampoo which has serious side affect and could adverse the situation in some cases...

Also http://www.clarymist.co.uk U.S--> Tears Again Advanced Liposome Spray is quite useful in this case as it add a lipid polar componenet that stabilize the unpolar lipid oil, which is the the problem in most cases of MGD.

Personally, I found steroids/doxy/drugs to do more harm than any good, as they interfere with the tear film stability which is what MGD cause in the first place. For more details check Dr. Holly's Instanbul lecture in the Dry Eye Zone. By releasing the trapped lipid oil, and by improving its quality, bacteria activity is reduced and that has a more effective results than any drug out there that also offer side affects.

you might want to look at Dr. Latkany book or search this forums for squeezing/expressing glands/oil tips. As drug doesn't penetrate deep into the glands where the bacterias inflammation origin.

[Meebo]

My MGD is much better
see my post in the Blepharitis and MGD forum for more details.
hot compress for itself isn't so useful for MGD unless you squeeze your glands and express the lipid oil after melting it with you the hot compress, that gives fruits. In the eraly days, I was poking the glands openning for long period of times until I managed to keep them open, and from there I saw a substantial improvement. There are many posts on that issues in the board.

I use Lidcare, and havne't tried what Rebecca suggested, but as a general rule I saw a big improvement since I switch to that from baby shampoo which has serious side affect and could adverse the situation in some cases...

Also http://www.clarymist.co.uk U.S--> Tears Again Advanced Liposome Spray is quite useful in this case as it add a lipid polar componenet that stabilize the unpolar lipid oil, which is the the problem in most cases of MGD.

Personally, I found steroids/doxy/drugs to do more harm than any good, as they interfere with the tear film stability which is what MGD cause in the first place. For more details check Dr. Holly's Instanbul lecture in the Dry Eye Zone. By releasing the trapped lipid oil, and by improving its quality, bacteria activity is reduced and that has a more effective results than any drug out there that also offer side affects.

you might want to look at Dr. Latkany book or search this forums for squeezing/expressing glands/oil tips. As drug doesn't penetrate deep into the glands where the bacterias inflammation origin.

Thank you so much for this post....when you say "poking" the glands, what exactly were you using and doing. I have ocular rosacea which has led to MGD. What was the cause for MGD, and if it was rosacea, what did you do to manage the rosacea?

My symptoms are not that bad, but I do have a TBUT of 3 seconds and sometimes use pataday.

[HOSADOS]

Thank you so much for this post....when you say "poking" the glands, what exactly were you using and doing. I have ocular rosacea which has led to MGD. What was the cause for MGD, and if it was rosacea, what did you do to manage the rosacea?

My symptoms are not that bad, but I do have a TBUT of 3 seconds and sometimes use pataday.

Dear Meebo, please review the post with the topic "My Hygiene,Glands Openning & Squeezing (expressing oil), Complete Routine", which I have just posted in the open patients forum (for those of you who read this later on, the post I' referring to would be probably eventually transfered to the appropriate forum, probably to the Blepharitis /MGD forum if I have to guess).

I hope would be more clear and that you will find this helpful.
http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showthread.php?t=7402

[DarrenM343]

It`s early days for me as I was only diagnosed over just over a week ago. For some months I had been getting a dry right eye especially while wearing contact lenses. I decided to ask about it at a contact lense check a coupe of weekends ago, that is when they noticed blocked glands and some severe block glands in the right eye. Admittedly I had also been getting a dry right eye when not wearing contacts recently also but put it down to a few late nights (late night friday = dry eyes sat) -.
For along time I have been getting tiny blisters on the lids but my optician never really said anything about it. I do remember mentioning 'sticky' eyes to them probably back in about 2001 and they mentioned I had thicker secretions than normal but that was all that was said - they mentioned that I should use a Qtip (cotton bud in the UK) once a week and that was it, nothing was ever mentioned again.

Anyway, I started my self-treatment last week but to be honest I only really got into it over this past weekend when my right eye again felt dry, as if someone using a razor blade on it and trying to remove the cornea with it!! I don`t know if this is just because I am aware of it but already I 'think' things are improving. Yesterday I noticed my eyes felt wet when walking in the wind while wearing contact lenses. Usually my eyes would dry out and become blurry while wearing my contacts and walking into the wind. As I have said however, it is early days and maybe yesterday was just a good day. Today my eyes actually felt sticky this morning after the compresses and this strange feeling actually lasted a while during the day which was weird because I scrubbed the lids after the compresses. My vision has been good and the right eye is fine also although in the afternoon my eyes felt tired but I think that was just down to restless nights sleep last night.

I`m not sure what MGD I have. I don`t really get crusts or anything on the eyelashes but my optician said I would know when it`s under control when my lids become the same colour as the skin on my face. I`ve been told to do compresses and scrubs for rest of life. So as of Saturday I have been doing warm-hot compresses twice a day, after which I pull the corners of each eye towards the ear and run a finger along the side of the lid under the lashes starting from nose and working towards the ears. After this I do the lid scrubs with a cotton bud (QTip) soaked in boiled but cooled water with bicarbonate of soda added.

So far so good although I should mention that last week was good also even though I had only just started the treatment once a day without the scrubs, until the weekend when I had that dry painful right eye.

I have been taking omega 3 enriched cod liver oil although this has been normal practice for me for a few years now although for 3 months before the MGD was diagnosed I had not taken any due to a change of lifestyle partly. I don`t think that lapse in the use of the oil caused the MGD however, I`m sure it has been there for years to a lesser extreme.

I felt a bit sad last week because of it as I consider myself healthy and in good shape - ha ha ha. This week I`m just settling into doing the regime. I`m starting to feel a bit like a lady however as it took me nearly 1.5 hours this morning to get ready for work, partly due to the eye regime. If this continues I may change my name to "Doreen" or something. Guys are supposed to jump out of bed, shower, hit the road. Me, I`m in the bathroom using QTips on my eyes. Is that or

Bye bye
Darren