new allergy diagnosis

[grant555]

i recently saw dr. latkany and he diagnosed me with ocular rosacea and likely an ocular allergy. I saw an allergist this week and she found no allergies, but sensitivity to every indoor allergan she tested. so, she gave me pataday which is helping quite a bit. however, as we all know it contains BAK, which i do not want to use.

I am thinking of trying a compounding pharmacy for something similar. but my question is - can i go get allergy shots for the allergans that i am sensitive too and would it improve my ocular symptoms? Or do you have to use an allergy eye drop?

If shots are out of the question, does anyone have any good alternatives to a BAK-containing eye drop.

thanks

[Faith1989]

Hey grant!

That is great news you found out why your eyes have been bothering you! Dr. Latkany is apparently one of the best. I want to see him one day but live in Canada is I have to save up. What did Dr. Latkany tell you to do?!

[Faith1989]

Also I think I have allergies and pataday really helps me. I think if you can't find anything PF , maybe use the pataday for a while. I have used it with no ill effects. Plus, it helps with that annoying pain which makes the dryness less severe. Just my opinion

[grant555]

hi faith. Yes Latkany is very good. He thinks my problem is mostly ocular rosacea and a possibly an allergy, which i confirmed with an allergest. i think your right that pataday once per day probably isnt harmful. but my eyes are definitely sensitive to BAK so I would prefer a non-preserved drop. Zaditor makes a preservative free version in Europe. I may order it online and see how that does.

Basically, Latkany said restasis could help with my inflammation and that I need to do cold compresses and flush my eye out with saline a lot. he said the biggest thing i can do about the ocular rosacea is tinker with my diet. cut out all sorts of bad foods and see if it improves my eyes. (side note - i disagree that I have any significant amount of ocular rosacea since I do not really get rosacea on my face) I think I mostly have issues partly because of the allergy but I think its my lagophthalmos that is my biggest enemy.

we shall see. Does the pataday work for you long term? It only helps for about 2 hours and then stops working. this is why i would like a preservative free version so i could use it more often.

Latkany was good but I think i liked ****** better (minus the cost and the fact that he recommends chalasis surgery for everyone)

[Faith1989]

Hi Grant

I am almost certain I am in the same boat as you. I have been on Restasis for eight months and my eyes are no longer red, but the lids still are sometimes. I think it helps. I now am on it four times a day. I use pataday most days but some days need Alrex for the pollen. I agree with Dr. Latkany when he told you diet is a big role. I have been juicing (cleansing) for three days now and am lasting longer each day before my eyes start to bug me. You dont have to change your diet but it may help. I dont really have facial rosacea either, but it is still possible to have ocular rosacea without facial symptoms. It bothers me that somehow I ended up with ocular rosacea that came out of no where. Do you take doxy? I take 100 mg a day right now, 40mg when im not flaring for maintenance.

I am going to add the cold compresses and saline rinses. You can get preservative free saline which I'd recomend. BAK bothers my eyes too. I know how you feel. No one in my family has rosacea, so its just astonishing somehow I was "lucky enough" to end up with ocular rosacea.

Let me know.

[grant555]

i tried restasis and doxy about 7 years ago. restasis burned my eyes so terrible. i also tried 1% cyclosporine (20 times stronger than restasis), which obviously burned a lot too. they tried that because they though i had OCP for a little while. unfortunately, i didn't see much benefit from it, although i may have needed to be on it longer. the burning was just so bad though i dreaded it. i may give it another shot. doxy did nothing for me either.

im primarily allergic to dust mite, so I am going to "dust mite proof" my bed over the next couple weeks haha and see if it improves my eyes in the morning. they usually feel terrible when I first wake up.

i also somewhat doubt the rosacea is a huge contributor to my symptoms because the cold compresses and saline are not really helping much. warm compresses are the only thing that makes my eyes feel better. FUN