Dry eyes cause soreness similar to eye fatigue?

[Sammy B.]

Dgreen,

I was at my eye doc's office yesterday and I asked him why the symptoms vary so much. He said that is the nature of dry eye - so much depends on factors such as how much did you drink last night? How well did you sleep? Is the person next to you at work wearing a lot of perfume? Is the humidity level different than yesterday?

I also asked him about the soreness. He asked if it was like a "pulling sensation" and this is exactly mine is like - is yours? He said that is a muscle issue. Mine could be two-fold, so could yours. He said first off the eye is trying to focus out of a blurry lens created by dry eye - this strains the eye.

Second, I have a very mild prescription now plus an astigmatism so he told me that wearing glasses will help a lot with this strain. I ordered a funky pair of glasses with my RX in them that also have the computer/anti-glare coating on them.

Try wearing your glasses for longer and see how you do. Make sure you wear them in front of the computer and make sure you get the anti-glare coating put on.

I know we had LASIK to get rid of the glasses but 1) I'm just looking for total comfort now so I'm willing to do whatever it takes and 2) I went from a -8 to a -0.25 in each eye so at least I can see SOMETHING if my glasses were to get knocked off of my face. Before I was blind!'

Finally, some drops just don't agree with your eye and that goes for people who have dry eye and people who don't. Keep trying different ones, but try to use only one for two weeks straight before giving up. Also, you could not have a bad dry eye problem, just some ild dry eye plus some strain issues. No drop is going to help a strain issue! The drops are for another type of mechanical issue.

- Rose

[dgreen97]

hey sammy thanks for your post. looks like we have similiar problems with this. yes my soreness feels like a fatigue/pulling/heavy feeling on my eyes. a good way to describe it would be if you hadn't slept in 3 days and you were so tired you couldn't keep your eyes open.. the feeling of your eyes being sore from that is very similiar to how i feel.

did he recommend anything else to combat the eye soreness? i know you mentioned wearing the glasses all the time which is what i'm doing now. i have noticed increased soreness in the past day or two but that could also be my eyes adjusting to wearing these all the time. i also have a mild prescription:

Sphere: +0.25
Cyl: -0.75
Axis: 001

Just in my left eye to compensate for the astigmatism. If I look with just my left eye at objects and my right eye isn't there to help they are blurred out... not to the point I can't see them but enough to cause some problems for my vision.

What you said about varying symptoms could explain why one day we feel great and another we feel terrible. guess its just a matter of pinpointing what is helping and whats not.

Also you mentioned:

"Also, you could not have a bad dry eye problem, just some ild dry eye plus some strain issues."

I definitely don't think my dry eye is as severe as some people on here. I feel really bad for you all who have to suffer with this daily. I would say my dry eye is moderate where it interferes with my daily life but doesn't put me out of the game.

I'm actually wearing the glasses right now and I notice a pulling feeling my left eye much more so than my right (my left has the astigmatism). Could this just be my eye adjusting to seeing things clearly for a change instead of blurry? Any idea on how long it will take for my eye to not have a straining/pulling feeling anymore?

Sorry this post is long but I'm just trying to address each point you made

Thanks

Alex

[Sammy B.]

Alex,

How long ago did you get your prescription for your glasses? Could it be that the glasses aren't the absolute best prescription for you now?

Also, you are not staring at computer screen for hours on end, are you?

I did not ask the doctor how soon after using the glasses that the pulling/straining sensation would go away. The girl who was assisting him in the room said to me after he walked out, "I know exactly what you are describing." She has never had LASIK and has pretty mild dry eye, but she says she wears her glasses all the time now to avoid the pulling/straining feeling.

The doctor seemed to think that the astigmatism would create more of a pulling issue - he didn't state that outright but when I mentioned the strain he said, "Well you DO have an astigmatism..." Perhaps get your prescription checked again and make sure you're using the best Rx possible.

You don't wait for the pulling/straining feeling to start before putting on the glasses, right? Try putting them on in the morning to avoid the strain all together. Spare your eyes for a few days in doing this and see how the strain level is.

- Rose

[dgreen97]

yes i do have to look at a computer screen for 6-8 hours a day. i'm a web designer. however i take frequent micro breaks (every 5 minutes for 20-25 seconds) and look away at distant objects to adjust my focus. this was actually working for a number of weeks where i was coming home with very little eye fatigue but since last week when i started taking celexa i noticed the fatigue coming back. what i was doing before was wearing my glasses at the computer for the 6-8 hours and then coming home where i would take them off. i think this might be causing additional strain so 3 days ago i started wearing them full time... i put them on in the morning and don't take them off until night. the last time i had my prescription checked was feb 25 of last year so it's pretty up to date. i also know the prescription is right because i went to two different eye doctors in a 3 month period and they both confirmed the same problem of astigmatism in my left eye.

however one doctor said that i should wear the glasses all the time. the other doctor said that it's not a big enough problem to have to wear the glasses constantly (since my left eye is just a little bit off). perhaps she was wrong though. i'm thinking that even my left eye being the slightest bit off makes my right eye compensate for it and then on top of that my eyes never adjust to one type of vision because i'm wearing the glasses half and half each day. what do you guys think?

thanks for your advice

Alex

[Sammy B.]

Alex -

At this point, what do you have to lose in wearing the glasses all the time? I would definitely try it and see how you do.

I think our LASIK'd eyes might work a little differently from someone who just has a touch of a prescription. Maybe yours/mine aren't working in conjunction with each other correctly, who knows.

But knowing now that the pulling/straining sensation is a muscle issue leads me to believe that's what we have going on. I don't think what I am experiencing anymore is straight-up dry eye. I think I've got the dry eye pretty much under control and it's an eye strain issue now. Hey, if you look at it that way, we're improving!

- Rose

[dgreen97]

yeah i'm wearing the glasses all the time now as an experiment to see if they are helping or not. i'm guessing its going to take a while to find out though and not less than a week. even though i don't like wearing glasses it's probably better for my eyes anyway to have them both in clear vision rather than one being blurry and one being fine.

as for the dry eye, today i was testing using less drops. i put one systane drop in when i went to work today and drank tons of water. i had mild dry eye but nothing that bad but when i came home i put one more drop in my eye and then it seemed like my dry eye got worse. it's been worse all night now and it just seems weird to me... i put the drop in to keep it lubricated but it seemed to cause more of a problem. any idea on why this is? obviously the solution to that would to be not putting the drops in but how do i know when that is? my eyes felt a little dry so i thought another drop couldn't hurt but i guess it did...

[GinaJ]

I think when seeing how ones eyes respond you need to give it longer time then just a few days. I know for me I have flare ups where it is so bad and there is no reason behind it. I used to blame everything on why I was in added pain and it made me a neurotic mess. I still do it to a degree but I also remind myself my eye pain and condition has worse times for no reason to. I do know though certain factors such as weather,smoke,fragrances etc increase and anytime of rx med for my eye. As for docs I have seen about 10 eye specialists and 50 apts for this over 2 years. I got so many ranges of what was going on and how bad it was. Hang in there

[dgreen97]

any idea on how long it takes for eyes to adjust to a prescription? I only have prescription in my left eye and I've been wearing the glasses full time for a little over a week. I used to only wear them at the computer and then take them off for the rest of the time but I thought this could be bad for eye strain so I decided to switch to wearing them full time. Does it take weeks? Months to adjust?

[Sammy B.]

Alex -

I see you have an appointment with your eye doc in a few days, so please run the current prescription by them to see if it's EXACTLY what you need.

I think you'd need at least two weeks of wearing the glasses religiously to know if they were going to help.

Finally, and I think this is the case with me, I am SUPER SENSITIVE and HIGHLY AWARE of my, um, being. If I stub my toe I think of it constantly, if I have a hang nail I dwell on it until I get it resolved. You and I could be highly aware of our bodies and eye issues whereas someone else would think they were simply a nuisance. Not sure what you could do about that, other than try an anti-axiety med or something of the like if you thought that might help to calm your nerves.

- Rose

[dgreen97]

i see what you're saying rose.. but do you think the anxiety issues would elevate the pain to this degree? its almost impossible not to worry about your eyes when they're in pain like this.. i know you know what i mean. i have OCD and anxiety disorders as well as ADHD and i'm taking a small dose of pexeva for it again, but I'm not sure what could be the issue anymore. here is a really weird coincidence however.

As i described in a post a few weeks ago on this forum, I have another chronic pain condition called plantar fasciitis in my feet. it too has the same type of aching shooting pains that don't start until i've stood on my feet for quite some time. i acquired this condition the same way i acquired the sore/aching eyes... i started working at fedex as a package handler standing on my feet for 4 hours a day. a month or so later i started experiencing severe foot pain from it and it's been that way ever since. 5 years later i still have the same foot pain and i've exhausted every treatment for it. my eyes happened the same way.. never had an eye problem in the past with aching and then i started my web design job and 2 months later my eyes starting aching really bad and it's been that way ever since.

doesn't this seem too similiar? if i work a standing up job i have that pain or if i work a job that requires a lot of eye work i have that strain. perhaps there is a psychological problem happening here i'm not aware of? when i went to the podiatrist (many many times) they always said they couldn't find anything wrong with my feet. they couldn't explain why i had this pain and when they ultrasounded my plantar fasciia there wasn't anything wrong with it. the same thing happened with my eyes... i have a slight astigmatism in my left eye but other than that there weren't any real problems.

[Sammy B.]

Alex,

None of your medications are known to cause eye issues, right? This Pexeva, that doesn't cause, say, dry mouth, correct? Because if it is known to cause dry mouth is can darn sure exacerbate dry eye.

Now I also know for a fact I am HIGHLY sensitive...in all aspects. If someone honks at me in traffic or gives me a dirty look in the supermarket, I think I tend to get more emotional than the next person would. If I get really stressed, I've been known to get a bad cold. Or yet another fantastic personality trait of mine is obsessing about details. I go on trips and I've got point A plotted to point B and then onto point C....and so on. NO STONE GOES UNTURNED!!

I guess what I am saying is that perhaps what you are feeling is mild eye strain yet with brains like ours, we "feel" it in a more harsh way than others? This leads to constant obsessing over it wherein we feel there is nary a moment that goes by without the sensation?

Everyone has their own level of pain tolerance. I think this is a sliding scale, from person to person.

Hopefully you'll get some more answers tomorrow.

- Rose

[dgreen97]

yes the pexeva has dry mouth as a side effect but i've had this problem way before i ever thought about taking these drugs so that can't be it. i'm wondering if these problems are psychosomatic... i'm not sure if you have OCD or not but from what you're saying it seems like you have some of the symptoms. i'm not a pro at this but i know the mind can create physical ailments to prevent unwanted feelings from coming to the surface. i also know that overworrying about having a physical ailment (or obsessing about it like I do) can make it much worse. the problem is how do you not obsess about it when you're reminded of it constantly? this is what i'm trying to figure out

[dgreen97]

went to the eye doctor today and i still have the same prescription in my eyes. she said i had some dry eye problems but the main problem that is causing the fatigue is convergence insufficiency. she said my outer eye muscles are stronger than my inner eye muscles and they are constantly pulling away which causes my vision to go out of focus and times. she also said this is why i have to consciously correct the focus problem... turns of my ciliary muscles are really weak probably from years of computer use and no strengthening done. i'm getting prism glasses in about a week and im going to religiously start doing eye exercises each day and see what happens. rose did you ever have anybody tell you have you a convergence problem?

[Sammy B.]

Alex,

I've never had anyone mention convergence issues, no. My new glasses are ready today so I will try to get down there and pick them up. I will definitely ask the eye doctor at my recheck appointment on 3/12 if he thinks I have a convergence issue though.

Do you have sore eyes even when you wake up? Or does it come on after working at the computer or "using" your eyes for a period of time?

I have it when I wake up, in one eye, and it lasts all day. Beginning to wonder if I have a sinus issue or something (whole side of my face hurts but the pain seems to originate in the eye socket).

So do you feel better knowing what it is??

- Rose

[dgreen97]

a year later

Coming back to this post a year later it's interesting to read the comments everybody posted. There were a few that especially caught my attention with the pulling sensation in the eyes. I started doing convergence insufficiency treatment around August 2010 until present day and I can definitely saw that the pulling sensation is an issue with the muscles in the eye. The biggest thing that has been helping me eye wise has been using ultrasonic humidifiers and doing convergence eye exercises.

Supposedly after a few months of doing these exercises you're not supposed to have to do them anymore because the reflex in the eyes becomes automatic. I'm going to test this out this week by not doing the eye exercises every day. The program I'm using for the eye exercises is HTS Home Vision Therapy if anybody has a similar problem to me and is interested in it. Still going with this though so maybe in another year the problem will becompleted resolved. Hopefully all of you had a great christmas and I wish you the best in your eye conditions as well in the new year.