noticed something odd this morning

[yoganut]

so I've gone back to trying warm compresses/expression.

A little history. Back in 05, my eyelids started itching like crazy - usually in the evenings. They really would be bad and I would be digging at them all evening. I was referred to an opth who gave me opthalmic bacitracin or erythromycin to apply on my eyelashes at bedtime. he didn't explain why I needed or and didn't tell me my diagnosis. So I applied it and over a couple of months things got bettered and I wasn't getting the itchiness anymore.

Fastforward to 2007. I had been wearing daily disposable contacts occasionally on the weekends and then tried some 2 week ones. I went on vacation and although I cleaned them at night I wore them on the beach and when in the water. I guess I figured as long as i soaked them at night they would be fine.

When I got home I tried wearing them a couple of times but my vision would get blurry and then one weekend I woke up the next morning and my eyes were pink, matted and I could barely see. I found an optometrist open on a sunday and she diag me with dry eyes - she looked at them thru the slit lamp. Since them I've been to see 3 different eye docs. None of them have diagnose me with 'you have this, or that condition'. I"ve run the gamet of
'rub your eyes with a warm washcloth', here's some Restasis and Lotemax. Take fish oil' blah blah. And the last doctor dropped me with plugs, out of desparation I suppose and nothing else seemed to work.

So my current symptoms are: eye lid itchiness, redness, sensitivity to sunlight, soreness, particularly in right eye, occasional blurriness.
What do I have? I mean, the bacitracin ointment seemed to stop the itchiness, that was last 2005, and I really didn't have any symptoms for all of 2006. Plugs didn't seem to help. Restasis just made the skin round my eyes pucker and itch like crazy. '

Is the itchiness a big cause of my problems? Is it bacteria overload? Is that why the bacitracin seemed to calm my symptoms down? Also I had a facial once and the facialist told me I had a little Rosacea. I have a few capillaries on my nose and some small 'bumps' more like clogged pores on my forehead and in my temples but thats it... I specifically asked my last eye doc when he was examining me if I had ocular rosacea and he said no.

I'm really wanting to get to the bottom of this as my husband is out of work so now we have no health insurance so I can't go to an eye doc.

I've been trying the warm washcloth and sterilid - this a.m. I did this and my right eye which had been sore yesterday started watering as I was blowdrying my hair. It wasn't awful, it wasn't because I got shampoo in my eyes, they just started watering, I kept having to blot my eye as I was getting ready. There was no pain or discomfort.

My question is; is this a good sign as a result of doing the warm compress and gland expression?

[skygoddess]

Hi,
From my experience Eye Docs aren't great about spotting rosacea.
Did he see you without makeup? A dermatologist is better equipped to help treat rosacea. But if you don't have insurance, maybe check online for resources.

Sounds like allergic conjuntivitis to me, but I always think that, since that is what I suffer from. I also have mild rosacea. My eye Dr's missed it till I went without make-up.

A cheap compress for allergic reactions is half milk half ice water.
If your rubbing is causing an infection, you probably need antibiotic drops for pink eye.
Publix pharmacy gives some basic RX prescriptions free. Not sure if pink eye is one of them, but it might be.

A free public health center or GP can handle a pinkeye diagnosis .
They see it in kids so much. It is treated the same no matter how you came by it, from a kid, or a more complicated process.

I think the eyelash cream was for staph. You could be a staph carrier and reinfecting yourself.
Occusoft Plus kills staph Even mrsa. I noticed I get less pinkeye by using it
Good luck,

[mjf79]

Yoganut...you sound like me! I have been so frustrated in the year since I started having severe dry eyes. I was diagnosed with ocular rosacea with very poor quality tears due to bleph and MGD. The itching was ruining my life...especially in the upper corners. Mine was worse in the evening. But I have finally found a solution that works for me. The itching for me is due to severe dry eye and that area not getting enough lubrication. It is worse at night due to the stress of the day. I now do warm compresses 5 times a day with my rice bag (5 minutes each time) and gently express each time. I do lid "scrubs" in morning and at night. I use preservative free systane every 2 hours on the dot, and preservative free celluvisc at night along with a sleep mask to avoid air conditioning drafts. I started this about 3 days ago, and I have had significant relief with the itching, and my vision has improved in just that short period of time (it has been horrible for over a year due to poor tear film). And whatever you do...DO NOT SCRATCH. I have made my eyes off limits and refuse to scratch and even that has made a huge difference since scratching only furthers the vicious cycle.
I have done doxy and flax seed in the past with some benefit, but am now pregnant and a lot is off limits right now....so the home remedies will have to do. I recently had the plugs out thinking it was causing more issues and that was a huge mistake. I was back in a week later getting them back in...they have given me huge improvement in comfort.

[yoganut]

Yoganut...you sound like me! I have been so frustrated in the year since I started having severe dry eyes. I was diagnosed with ocular rosacea with very poor quality tears due to bleph and MGD. The itching was ruining my life...especially in the upper corners. Mine was worse in the evening. But I have finally found a solution that works for me. The itching for me is due to severe dry eye and that area not getting enough lubrication. It is worse at night due to the stress of the day. I now do warm compresses 5 times a day with my rice bag (5 minutes each time) and gently express each time. I do lid "scrubs" in morning and at night. I use preservative free systane every 2 hours on the dot, and preservative free celluvisc at night along with a sleep mask to avoid air conditioning drafts. I started this about 3 days ago, and I have had significant relief with the itching, and my vision has improved in just that short period of time (it has been horrible for over a year due to poor tear film). And whatever you do...DO NOT SCRATCH. I have made my eyes off limits and refuse to scratch and even that has made a huge difference since scratching only furthers the vicious cycle.
I have done doxy and flax seed in the past with some benefit, but am now pregnant and a lot is off limits right now....so the home remedies will have to do. I recently had the plugs out thinking it was causing more issues and that was a huge mistake. I was back in a week later getting them back in...they have given me huge improvement in comfort.

Thanks mjf79, my itching is also worse in the evening, though it hasn't been as bad lately.

For the past 3 1/2 weeks I've been doing warm compresses in am, sterilid scrub, a big dollop of Genteal gel in each eye, then dr. latkany's cooling eye gel mask which I keep in the freezer, a couple more dollops of eye gel during the day, another warm compress in evening and lid scrub, eye, and lastly genteal gel and probably another cold gel compress.
i like the genteal gel because I wear makeup and don't like to get eye drops all over my eyes and face. It's bearable, I keep waiting for that break thru moment *eureka* but it hasn't happened yet.