Dry Eye Drop That Has Done Amazing Things For Me

[Tankie]

Hi everyone. I want to share with all of you my experience with an eye drop I just tried yesterday that has done amazing things for my dry eyes. I feel absolutely incredible today, unlike I've felt in years.

First, a little history and information about myself.
- I've been suffering from dry eyes for 3 years.
- I've seen 3 different ophthalmologists, and none of them have been able to cure me.
- I've tried at least 10 different eye drops from pharmacies, none of them worked.
- I've tried cyclosporine (also known as Retasis), and it didn't work.
- Only 2 things would help my dry eyes, which were...
#1: Closing my eyes or sleeping
#2: Showering, the steam in the shower would help a lot.

And now I will tell you about the eye drop that has made me feeling incredible today!

It's called Preservative-Free TheraTears Liquid Gel (28 single use containers)
Here is a link to the eye drop: http://store.theratears.com/detail.aspx?ID=4

I bought this stuff about a month ago, but I never used it because I had just seen my ophthalmologist and just started my cyclosporine treatment, and I figured that it was just another eye drop, so what was even the point of trying. I was sure it would just fail like every other eye drop, and I figured I would give cyclosporine a try.

Well, cyclosporine to date has not worked for me, and so yesterday, after being in some pretty serious pain with my dry eyes, I tried the theratears gel. After putting this stuff in my eyes several times, sleeping, and waking up today, I feel amazing. I've put it in my eyes several times throughout today, and I've got to say that this is incredible stuff.

Anyway, I really really strongly recommend you guys try this stuff. I cannot believe how relieved I feel. I will start updating this post once every day for the next while to let you all know how I'm doing. Right now I'm doing incredible, both eyes are in great shape!

------------------
------------------
------------------
------------------
------------------

For the more interested reader, here is some additional information.

Unfortunately they only sell this stuff in daily use capsules. The capsules are these little things that you open up, it has a small amount of the gel inside, and the capsule cannot be resealed once opened. However, I strongly recommend that you do not throw away your capsule after you use it once, but instead save your left-overs by leaning the capsule against something to keep it in an up-right position. This way, the left-over gel won't spill out, and you can use it again later.

I recommend using as much of this stuff as you need. I personally put in about 5 drops at a time in each eye. It's preservative free, and the product claims to promote the production of natural tears in your eyes over time.

Anyway, as I said above, you cannot reseal these capsules, so really these things can only be used for home use. This is great if you're at home a lot, but if you have to go out of the house, I recommend that IN ADDITION TO buying the Gel, you also buy the liquid drops. I have just ordered my liquid drops today. They sell the liquid drops in an eye drop bottle, and so I can carry this bottle around with me easily and I can reseal it. I will be sure to let you all know how this works for me once I get them. I should have them in about a weeks time, but possibly 2 weeks if shipping is slow.

Here is a link to the liquid eye drops (not the Gel) in a 15mL bottle, and a 30mL bottle.
15mL: http://store.theratears.com/detail.aspx?ID=8
30mL: http://store.theratears.com/detail.aspx?ID=9

I'll update you guys on how I'm doing tomorrow, and I'll keep the updates coming. Good luck, and please reply to this post if you try my suggestion. I would love to hear from you!

Tankie

[Lucy]

Tankie, I'm surprised you just heard of TheraTears. I'm glad it's working for you! TheraTear has been around for the 10+ years I've had dry eye. It is a good drop that helps lots of people. If I am without drops and don't have a supply to choose from, usually TheraTears is in any store selling drops and I'm all set.

[Tankie]

The vials have caps on them and you should be able to pop it back on until you are ready to use again. The eye can only hold so many drops, so if you use more, isn't the extra just rolling down your cheeks?

Hi there. You're right, the vials do have caps on them, but you can't put them back on once they're off. I've tried, it doesn't work. The reason for this is because the cap just blocks off a tiny little hole which the eye drops come through. It's too small to fit the cap back in again. The only way you could do this, is if you taped it shut or something, but frankly I see that as a big hassle, especially if I messed up and it spilled. Nevertheless, thanks for the suggestion, and if you disagree with me, by all means, tell me I'm wrong haha.

As for "the eyes can only hold so many drops", the hole that the drops come out of is very tiny, and thus, the drops are very tiny also. My eyes can hold 5 drops at once of these tiny drops without them rolling down my face. However, with most eye drops you are indeed correct. My eyes can hold 2 eye drops at the most from a regular eye dropper.

Tankie, I'm surprised you just heard of TheraTears. I'm glad it's working for you! TheraTear has been around for the 10+ years I've had dry eye. It is a good drop that helps lots of people. If I am without drops and don't have a supply to choose from, usually TheraTears is in any store selling drops and I'm all set.

Thanks a lot, I'm glad it's working for me too!
You know it's really strange, but for some reason Wal-Mart would not order me the Gel, but only the Liquid... They said they do not carry the Gel. So what I ended up doing, is I ordered my Liquid drops from Wal-Mart (I pay 0 shipping, they didn't have any in stock), and I bought my Gel from Ebay. Thank goodness I've been working my butt off all summer and have money saved up (although it's supposed to pay my tuition lol).

Update:
Today is another beautiful day for me. Eyes feel great. I'm using the TheraTears about once every 2-3 hours though. The eyes seem to need a boost about that often, but really, they feel great otherwise!

[Tankie]

Update:
Well, I'm afraid I don't have all good news this time.

These eye drops are definitely doing great things for me. Over the past 2 days, I've experienced periods of near perfect eyes. Some times, although not too often, I feel absolutely no pain at all.

However, on the flip side, I also have had a lot of not so good times. A lot of the time one eye is at about 90%, and the other eye is at like 60%. The good news, is that most of the time the pain is bearable. 60% is bearable pain. I would say I've dipped into the 30-40% range on a few occasions, but it's rare. By the way, the 30-40% range is pretty painful, and pretty unbearable, so basically when that happens, I've got to finish whatever I'm doing fast and put more drops in, close my eyes, or hop in the shower.

My life the past 2 days is as follows:
- 50% of the time, one eye is 90%, the other is 60%.
- 30% of the time both eyes are in the 60% range.
- 15% of the time, both eyes are 90+%
- 5% of the time, one eye is in the 30-40% range, and funnily enough, the other can be anywhere from 60-100%.
- I've never had both eyes in absolute terrible shape (ie. both in the 30-40% simultaneously) over the past 2 days.

A few things to note:
- Currently I am not working or at school, that doesn't start until September 7, so I'm still spending all my time at home and I am closing my eyes a lot throughout the day. Once school starts, we'll really see how well I'm handling things. I'm very very worried though.
- When I wake up, I'm often very thirsty. It doesn't seem to matter how much water I drink before bed, I'm always very thirsty when I wake up. In fact, even during the day I'm still a bit on the thirsty side a lot of the time. As of today, I've started to make a conscious effort to drink more water. Does anyone have any ideas as to what could be causing this? Does anyone have any ideas as to what this could mean for my eyes? Does anyone have any new ideas for me with this piece of information to help cure my eyes?
- I'm still wearing my goggles, even when I sleep.
- I went on a 2 hour walk last night (yes 2 hours, that's a lot!). Anyway, I had no goggles on, and the pain varied from 100-60%. At the start of the walk, I was at 100ish. However, after about 45 minutes I started to decline to 60 where I remained for the rest of the walk. The pain was about equal in both eyes for the entire walk also.

It just seems like my eyes are going through cycles of pain and no pain. If only I could find out what makes them cycle to "no pain" and keep it there. The crazy thing is that, as I said, about half the time one eye is feeling great, and the other is not.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why my eyes have cycles of pain and no pain? If someone could answer this, they would be doing me a huge favour!

[spmcc]

RE: tested for Sjogren's?

Have you been tested for Sjogren's?

[magoo]

diabetes can cause excessive thirst, have you been tested for it?

[tearless2]

Do the eye Dr's know if your eye is aqueous deficient and/or MGD? Perhaps you can find one in Canada that can help. If not, it might be worth it to come to Washington State and get help from one of the excellent optometrists there.

[Tankie]

Have you been tested for Sjogren's?

diabetes can cause excessive thirst, have you been tested for it?

Do the eye Dr's know if your eye is aqueous deficient and/or MGD? Perhaps you can find one in Canada that can help. If not, it might be worth it to come to Washington State and get help from one of the excellent optometrists there.

In response to all 3 of you, I have not been tested for any of these things, nor do I know if I am aqueous deficient or have meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD). I think I have MGD, but I don't actually know this for a fact. I'm definitely going to look into getting tests for all of these. I sure hope I don't have any of them though...

I'm seeing the doctor today (regular doctor, not ophthalmologist) for some blood tests. Hopefully I'll be able to rule out a few of the diseases you 3 mentioned soon.

Update:
Today has been a very good day. I've been out on a walk with no goggles and the eyes held up very well. Also, when in the house with my goggles on, they've been in good shape too. I've been drinking a lot of water, and maybe it's making a difference! On the flip side though, I might just be having a good day, and the water drinking is only a coincidence. Either way, I'm going to keep up the water drinking for sure!

I cycle from good, to bad, to worse, to great, to bad, to good, to worse, to good.... etc. so often, I don't know what to think. The TheraTears I feel are definitely worthy of a lot of the credit for this good day though. Also, I've been on cyclosporine for about 7 weeks now, so maybe I'm just starting to see the benefits.

[Tankie]

Update:
Another great day today! Unbelievable that my eyes are in such good condition. I just hope this keeps up because I'm living my life again!

I saw the doctor yesterday and I'm going to get some blood work done right now actually... just about to head out the door.
I'm going to be tested for Sjogren's and diabetes, as well as several other things. Thanks for the advice the 3 of you . I just pray I don't have any of them, because that would be... devastating.

I should have the results by Monday at the latest, if not earlier.

[magoo]

tankie, glad to hear you're getting those tests! best wishes, they will probably rule out those conditions

[Tankie]

tankie, glad to hear you're getting those tests! best wishes, they will probably rule out those conditions

Thanks a lot for your encouragement and advice. I really appreciate it!

Update:
What can I say? It's just another great day for me! Eyes feeling spectacular! I'm wearing my goggles around the house as a precaution, but even when I take them off to go out I feel great.

One minor thing to report... I went to see the doctor yesterday for 2 minutes to pick up an allergy eye drop. I don't have allergies (or I'm about 99% sure I don't), so I don't think it will make any difference, but I've used it 3 times now. I was feeling better before I tried it, but it can't do me any harm so I might as well keep using it until it's done like the doctor told me to.

He recommended it to me as a "just in case by some miracle you have allergies which I don't think you do" sorta thing. It's really not necessary I think, but whatever.

[Tankie]

Update:
Good news! My blood tests came back all negative. I don't have diabetes or anything like that. In theory, I'm a perfectly healthy person.

I went out for about 7 hours straight yesterday with some friends. I was out doors almost the entire time and my eyes felt pretty good for the most part. I had to use some eye drops mid-way through the session to help keep my eyes in good condition. Also, we were sitting out on a peer in the sun for a while, where I closed my eyes and rested them somewhere around the 5.5 hour mark, and at that time they really needed the break. But after closing them for 10 minutes, they were fine for the remainder of the time out.

To sum up, they survived 7 hours straight, with one eye drop break, and one 10 minute break in pretty good condition. After waking up today, they feel really good again. TheraTears folks, they seem to get the job done! I'm also using cyclosporine and an allergy eye drop (the allergy eye drop probably does nothing though). Also, I'm still wearing goggles when I'm at home and when I sleep. Lets see how long this lasts though, cuz I usually return to pain sooner or later... I sure hope I don't though, I don't want to go back to that...

[Tankie]

Update:
I don't have all good news today.
So my eyes hurt a fair bit yesterday. However, I ran out of TheraTears... but personally I think this is more of a coincidence than it is that the TheraTears were the thing that was keeping me healthy (although I do give them a lot of the credit nonetheless). I think it was a coincidence because the previous day, as I mentioned, I was out for 7 hours, and so while they felt fine when I woke up, they did not last that long after that. I went out and did some shopping, and it was a nightmare. I was in horrible pain. It was unmanageable pain, like it was really bad.

The good news however, is that I now have some new TheraTears in liquid form (I'm still waiting for my gel to arrive) which helps, but so far I much prefer the gel. The liquid helps, but it just doesn't seem to do as much for me as the gel. Maybe I'll update you guys on how the liquid does for me in the future since I haven't really given it a fair chance yet.

I put in some lactri-lube before bed last night since I was in pain and figured it might help. I was basically just grabbing for anything that would help. Here's the funny thing though...

I've never tried this before, but when I woke up this morning, I put 2 ice cubes and wrapped them up in a cloth. I sat on the couch, applying the ice to my eyes (especially the lower eye lid as best I could) and it really helped the pain go away! How does that work? haha.

Just to outline really quick what I did:
- I put 2 ice cubes in a face cloth
- I applied the ice to my eyes at 20 second intervals. Any more than this, and it was just too painful since it's so cold. Even 20 seconds was a bit too much to bear at times, but I sucked it up and held it on anyway.
- I did this for a long time, probably about 30 minutes straight. I would put it on one eye for 20 seconds, take the ice off for 40 seconds and just hold it in my hand, put it on the other eye for 20 seconds, take the ice off for 40 seconds and just hold it in my hand, put it on the other eye for 20 seconds, take the ice off for 40 seconds and just hold it in my hand, etc. etc.

I have a question that I hope someone can answer!
When I was doing this ice treatment to my eyes, my left eye would tear up some times, but my right eye would not. Instead, liquid would come out of my right nostril (right side of my nose). Why didn't my right eye tear up like my left eye did? An answer to this question might be key to helping me find a cure, so please help if you can!

[Tankie]

Update:
Not a ton to say today. I woke up, and things were a little rough. I showered (holding my face in front of the spay to do a "warm compress" on my eyes for several minutes), and put in some eye drops. Things were still a little rough, but not too bad. Then I did the ice treatment and that seemed to help a bit more. As I am right this second, I feel great, but I'm wearing my goggles. I'm a little bit scared to take them off. Good chance I will take them off at some point though, and I'll let you guys know about that tomorrow should it happen.

[Dotanne]

I find Theratears in the vials really helpful during the day. I should try the gel again for nights tho last time several years ago I used it I got lots of stuff on my eyes when I woke up. I have using Alcon Polygel (pf) vials for the night for quite a while now. My eyes are cleaner in the morning but I do need a good few drops (spread over 10 minutes) of Theratears to thaw them out so I can see comfortably again. I also do a warm rice baggy session, express my eyes with a cotton bud and do a lid cleanse each morning.
I find if I fall asleep(even for a cat nap) without gel I have trouble opening my eyes again - they sort of glue together so I always make sure I have drops beside me.
Dotanne