Dry Eye Book Club

[Rebecca Petris]

Has this already been posted about somewhere and I missed it (or forgot it) ?

Dry Eye Book Club

I saw this when I was scrambling to catch up on news today and was so excited... until I went to the link and realized it's just another variation on the Restasis.com theme, this time with a feeble attempt at adding some humanity. (No offense, of course, Allergan.)

p.s. LASIK/PRK/etc patients, don't click on the last tab, unless you really want to gaze admiringly at a large picture of one of the top refractive surgeons in the US.

[kitty]

I should not have clicked that link. It made me angry. Not one mention of Lasik as a cause of dry eye. And the woman on the front page....If I only had to use drops 5 times a day, I would consider myself nearly cured! I use drops 5 times within the first hour of getting up in the morning! Feeble attempt is putting it mildly.

[Rebecca Petris]

Oh but just think. We could all join the Dry Eye Book Club (aka Optive Frequent Buyer program)! No strings attached!*

*except for providing Allergan with all your personal information, letting them contact you for polls, and getting on all their marketing lists.

Honestly, I never would have guessed even the big A could come up with an idea this cheesy. Sponsor a 'tear-jerker' novel as a marketing game?

[liz56]

Obviously, they have not considered how "crying tears" actually make dry eye worse. I try not to cry, because I'm afraid that it will give me an erosion.

[Lucy]

This thing is cheesy (as RP said), schmaltzy, and sexist. What a crock.
Yes, like having dry eye makes for good reading. Grow up.
Read and weep. Indeed. Ladies, don't make a run for it. No pushing. Men stay away.

[rubyslippers]

Liz, can you explain more about the crying and what it does? My first really, really horrible dry eye day last winter was the day after I cried several hours in the evening (death in the family). It was during that night that I woke up with awful eye pain --first erosion I had ever had, and the next day took me right into the doctor. I had no idea that the crying was linked as I had had pink eye just before that.

[Teri]

Thanks, Rebecca, for the Outrage of the Day.

Good grief. That website is almost enough to make me throw my Restasis out.

The "sometimes I have to use artificial tears as much as five times a day" thing got me, too.

And the picture of her sitting there happily reading a book...Argh.

[lboogie]

OMG -- that is sooooo bad. I am in the marketing profession -- and from a totally professional stand point -- it's just terrible!!!!!!!!

Yeah - not one mention of lasik, and seriously, crying is sooo bad for your eyes, AND I have only read one book for pleasure since my lasik! I'd love to be in a book club, but I'm afraid that I couldn't get the book read in time. Which I hate b/c I used to love reading before bed ;(

ARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH is right.

[nahzee]

OMG -- that is sooooo bad. I am in the marketing profession -- and from a totally professional stand point -- it's just terrible!!!!!!!!

Yeah - not one mention of lasik, and seriously, crying is sooo bad for your eyes, AND I have only read one book for pleasure since my lasik! I'd love to be in a book club, but I'm afraid that I couldn't get the book read in time. Which I hate b/c I used to love reading before bed ;(

ARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH is right.

Having dry eye, for many people, can make you 'print disabled' under the law. This means, you can get in on free audio books from the national library service, and better yet, you're exempt from those pesky copyright laws regarding books- you can legally scan, download, break protections on PDFs, so on, if it means you can access printed text you otherwise couldn't.

One of the easiest means to get books you can read with audio is bookshare.org, which uses the qualification of "... professional must be a recognized expert who attests to the physical basis of the visual, perceptual, or other physical disability that limits the applicant's use of standard print."- basically, if your ophthalmologist says your dry eye significantly limits your ability to read a book, you can get in on bookshare, and download audio-convertable to your heart's content.

Just.. don't give up on reading! It's hard to be motivated when you can't read as fast as you did with print, but get back into the habit of reading (or listening, or touching) books for pleasure.