Dry eye, how do you hold down a job??

[sazy123]

Hi,

As many will know ive been a long term member (5 years now).

Ive been in school the last two years and worked part time/full for my mum over the past 5 years... obviously shes understanding and forgiving for my limmitations and work and inconistency because of my eyes. But im moving to the US to live with my fiance soon.

And this is something that has scared me the whole time.. How am i going to hold down a proper job??

I find it extreemly difficult to concentrate with dry eye, does anyone else get this? and i think this is going to hamper me in a job... I miss what people say despite really trying to listen.

Also i find eye contact difficult, and i look like im not listening because i have to look down or i cant hols eye contact for long...anyone else find this?

why would an employer be patient with someone like me who has a disability that effects how they work? (esp in the economic climit where many people need jobs).

What sort of jobs are dry eye friendly, that arent as taxing on concentration etc?

I will have a degree but i wonder whats the point if all i can do is ''easy'' jobs that dont require much... am i being negative?

I got back from volunteering in a mental health hosptial, and even doing simple things i foudn stressfull.

Its hard being young because we have alot to ''prove'' to an employer.

[Guest]

For me, moisture chambers if one kind or another are what allows me to work and keep my eyes tolerable... fortunately, my job doesn't involve constant computer use...

I found MEGS to be helpful... surprisingly, I've received multiple compliments on them from my customers in the past several weeks "high fashion", " very European looking", " they look like they belong in Vogue" etc

So I guess my strategy of trying to dress well while wearing them is working to make people assume that MEGS are just such a new fashion that they haven't heard of them yet lol

I just ordered a pair of custom moisture chambers to further improve my comfort at work...

I can totally relate to the looking down thing and not always being able to look people in the eyes... bit I've found customers to be incredibly sympathetic when they find out what my "trendy" megs are really for...

As far as what kind of job... you know the drill... minimal reading and computer work is best...

I've been wishing lately that I could work in a humid greenhouse lol... it would be nice for these dry eyes!

I currently work in a retail environment... so it's not too bad... I think jobs involving in person customer service type stuff is usually minimal for computer use... I've always thought being a real estate agent would be an interesting job and not too bad for dry eyes...

Not sure what your degree us in... so hard to know what to suggest...

[sazy123]

What perscription are you?

I have a high-ish rx, i have not been able to find any decent looking goggles that they will fit with my -4.5.

I have wileys but i have to where them 'blind' which is no good for work.

MEGS look massive? do you have a pic of you in them you could send me.. my email is elizabethwin8@hotmail.com

What do you do in retail, what does your job entail?

If i could find some stylish chamber glasses that WOULD be a massive help to me whilist working. But like i said most that are small and stylish will not fit my -4.5. It sucks!

I know im in this for the long hall, because ive had it 5 years so far and not much has helped.

Funnily enough i find working on the PC pretty easy with dry eye, its the interacting and feeling stressed because its so hard to communicate with eye contact and listening that i find hard.. which is required in most jobs.. I wanted to go into health which you need these skills for. I have the skills but dry eye is preventing me using them well.

[woodart]

You just have to go job hunting when you get here and learn to adapt. Not sure what else I can say except to keep working at it. I work at construction type work and have learned how to look at things by many different angles to see what I am missing, but I have work and I am making a living. I just learned to adapt to this and I just stay with it. I don't know what you want to do but I do know for us we will have to work harder at it. I have talent that would earn me a great income but I stay with what I can do and just be thankful that I have eyesight at all. I have had a long life of dry eye trouble, about 50 years worth. There is progress being made in that field and if you have not tried everything yet or changed docs those could help. I have seen many docs in my lifetime but only 2 of them were helpful in dry eye. Keep trying and if you haven't done so look over this site for ideas on treatments and things to try so you can get some relief. People here are most helpful.

[André Pereira]

It really is something I've been thinking too.
My dry eye was really bad after I quit my last job to study (read 11 hours a day with dry eye is not a cool thing to do) ...

But since that moment as I've been thinking about working again. The likely services should I get will have air conditioning and require me to work with the public.

I think we have to get a nice glasses. The problem is that clear lens glasses with a giant foam on the side are not pretty

Frankly, I see no choice but to eyewear. I would be very ugly adapt those models 7eye w / clear lenses?

The cool thing is that I did LASIK for me to get rid of glasses and now I have to use other 300x more annoying and terrible.

As for the computer. When I use my glasses protected my eyes feel nothing at the end of the day.

My friends say I'm like the Robin (yes, Batman's Robin) with these goggles ...

[kitty]

It's a challenge. My employer has been accommodating with getting me an anti-glare screen for my monitor. I have had building maintenance come in and direct the vents away from my work space. Up until now I have managed by working at home part time where the environment is more suited to my DES and I can more easily alternate tasks during the day. Now my boss wants me at my desk more which is wreaking havoc with my DES. The only reason I am managing is with Rx FreshKote and Lotemax twice daily. I make sure I take breaks (I never used to) twice daily. I physically leave my office for 15 minutes so I am not tempted to take my break in front of my computer. I also leave for my lunch break and go sit in my car and close my eyes. I have cut my computer use at home way back as well. I too fear the day will come when I won't be able to tolerate work with my DES.

[Guest]

The pics of the young people wearing megs on the company's website are pretty accurate I'd say... not sure what kind of rx they can take though... I see perfectly since Lasik, so don't need an rx lens...

If the megs don't fit you well enough, I'd highly recommend looking into custom moisture chambers... You can pick almost any kind of frame that you would for regular rx glasses, but them get the moisture shields fitted specifically for your face... my guy is charging me $160 CDN for the materials/labour to make them... then of course, there's still the usual cost of whatever frames you pick out and your rx lenses.

The custom ones will have more cool frames than the megs, and fit you better, but since the side shields are clear, they are a bit more discreet from a distance... up close from the side view they will look a tad goggly tho... but WAY better than something like the clear lens Wiley's that I wear at home.

[Guest]

One more thing... I was VERY self-conscious when I first started wearing my MEGS or sunglasses Wiley's at work... but you get over it... after wearing them a few times, if you work at it, you'll forget that you look different from everyone else, which is great... and eventually, you get so used to seeing yourself in them that you almost think you look "normal" in them lol (sometimes being delusional is a good thing haha)

Anyhow, while I assume most people probably think the MEGS look rather odd, it is kind of cool that a fair number of people actually LIKE them...

[avee]

about MEGs - do you say they really fit every face and it's safe to order them online? I dont' have anything decent to wear because the trial and error is too expensive for me. I ordered the onion glasses but they were too tight for me. So I remover the foam from onion classes and glued it to the sides of my regular sunglasses which protects my eyes from the dust coming in LOL.
About work - yes, I've experienced all that. avoiding eye contact and being very uncomfortable and at work. I've stayed home with my children for 5 years and now I have to go back. But I'm scared. I've also chosen myself a new career which would enable me to work at home but this involves mostly computer work and reading. And first I would have to go back to school to get a degree. So pretty stressful times of deciding....

[Guest]

about MEGs - do you say they really fit every face and it's safe to order them online?

No... the MEG's definitely will not fit every face... the reason I have decided to go ahead with custom moisture chambers is because the MEG's don't fit my face perfectly... for me, the protection that I get from the MEG's is better than wearing nothing, but not nearly as good as my Wiley's.

With the MEG's, they will let you return them if they don't fit properly (they charge a restocking fee though, plus you'd have to pay the shipping).

At the time I ordered the MEG's, I didn't realize there was someone in my city that could make custom moisture chambers... oh well... the MEG's will be my "back-up" pair... plus, depending on humidity etc, there may be times when my more closed-in custom ones fog too much and my MEG's will therefore be better!... geez... it sure does get expensive with all this though, doesn't it...

As for the safety of ordering them online, everything went fine for me in that regard.

[Guest]

I wanted to go into health which you need these skills for. I have the skills but dry eye is preventing me using them well.

If working in health would mean working in a hospital for example, I can't imagine it would be any worse than what I'm doing now (again, assuming not too much computer use and reading involved)...

Of course, I don't know how your eyes are... I can work NOW, but last summer my eyes were so bad I was damned lucky to be on mat leave, because I couldn't have worked at all with my eyes the way they were then...hopefully your eyes aren't as bad as mine were last summer!!

Anyhow, with my Wiley's on (and PF artificial tears as needed), I can do almost any type of work with the exception of
1) prolonged computer use
2) prolonged reading (ie. more than a few moments)
3) prolonged staring (some aspects of my job inevitably require this... but not much, and I take frequent blink breaks when I do these things)

Oh, AND, with sunglasses Wiley's on, no-one can tell if you're looking them in the eye or not anyhow... so if your eyes get sore, you could even be speaking to a client with your eyes shut for a few moments, and they'd never know it!

Ok... I'll stop raving about how much I love moisture chambers... err... actually it's a bit of love-hate relationship I suppose... would rather just look freaking normal like everyone else... but at least they help make my eyes feel better...

[sazy123]

I dont know how bad your eyes were, mine are generally really bad, My left is worse now and drops dont alleviate the dryness, i think the rosacea on my outer eyelid made it worse, and as such my right feels much better.

Where can you get custom madce chambers in the states?.. thats a very good idea i dont know why there isnt more people doing it?

[Lucy]

Don't forget to look in regular optical shops for "moisture chamber" glasses. You're likely to find something that might fit your RX there too.

For example, ladies who have a smallish face can try on children's frames. I just bought two pair of glasses. One side is -4.5 and the other -1.0. Yes, I've had Lasik and that's what I am now. I got my day glasses in child's frame. Then I got a pair on sunglasses which are NOT necessarily moisture chamber glasses, but they are so tight to my face there is little room for air blowing in or across through the sides.

I also have Panoptx goggles with RX. Since I got my plain old sunglasses, I don't wear the Panoptx as much. Again, I would just take some time going through the optical shops in your town. Tell them what you are looking for. Ask if they have any catalogues to look at.

I have seen the MEGS in person and would get them if I had to, but I don't have to, so it's a moot point. Look around you, you might be surprised.

Lucy

[jlg_uk]

Read this thread with interest, as my current IT job may well soon be ending, primarily because they seem to be getting sick of me working at home for 2 days a week and having slightly different hours (by 30 minutes due to traffic). I'm going to be independantly assessed and probably got rid of. I find the job hard to do physically, and won't miss that. The money on the other hand is good, which I will miss.

I think I might be back on the job market quite soon, and really need to find something that I can do that doesn't require much traveling. Something part time would be nice if I can make that work financially.

Problem is, every job would seem to mess with my eyes either indoors or outdoors, and I'm also having (less severe) problems with my feet, legs, hips etc which makes something very physical not ideal either.

But I'm also unlikely to be obviously severe when it comes to being assessed for disability allowances and things. Whichever way I look at it it seems I'm ****ed

[littlemermaid]

Round by us there are IT guys bombing round fixing desperate people's home computers for decent money (cabling, upgrades, antivirus, software). We worship them. Charge what you like for emergency call out. Software training businesses are doing OK too. You need never be out of work, my friend