pain changes

[patrick]

hi all,

just curious if someone here is experiencing the same as i.
the following has happened to me over a period of approximately two years;
at first my eyes felt just dry,sore,tired and sometimes i felt the 'menthol' sensation a bit.
nothing uncommon for someone with laser induced mgd i guess.
but lately the pain has changed considerably into something even worse than described above.
my entire eyeballs hurt and this results in a undescribable pain that involves headaches,pain in my set of teeth and just an overall feeling of fatigue. my guess is that this pain is the result of the nerve endings in my cornea that are constantly exposed to a hostile environment lacking a sufficient thick tearlayer. as this is true how can it possibly be that the nerve endings in my cornea are able to detect dryness,but on the other hand are not able to send a message to the brain to produce some oil for my glands? hmm,seems a bit contradictory to me.
anybody here who recognises this or something somewhat similar?
i'm also very curious to hear what i can do best to reduce this agonising pain,because i really haven't got a clue at this point.

any input very welcome of course!

patrick...

[Rebecca Petris]

Trigeminal nerve? I think that eye pain can set off a reaction there. Has happened to me anyway.

[Mawsky]

I work with a woman who has corneal erosion from long term contact wear and dry eyes. She described the pain as excruciating. She said it was a nightmare finding out what it was, apparently it's not something they can see, she said they put some kind of pain killer drop in her eye and bingo the pain was gone, this may not be your problem, but it sounded familiar to what she said. The way you say your teeth hurt tho does sound like the TG nerve, I've experienced this too, with me it would start along my upper teeth, and move to my eye, didn't feel like irritation in my eye more like a deep pain around and behind my eye, thankfully it only would last a couple of hours, it was a horrid pain. I'm a little worried to know that it can be a bit connected to the dry eye problems, I hope the best for you, have you asked a doctor? What do they say?

[Rebecca Petris]

Mine would start with a 'headache in the eye' which I would feel all over the orbit and it would radiate out across the entire side of my head until I was just clutching my face trying to make it go away. Nasty. Haven't had that for quite some time - now I know the signs before it comes and do whatever I can to control it before it escalates.

What stops it will be different for different people depending on the trigger. For me, weirdly enough my PROSE lens in my left eye will occasionally be the 'last straw' trigger, apparently because of my GPC. If I don't catch it soon enough, then even after removing the lens the pain will go on for 24 hours or more. But I have never come across someone who had my same problem (not that I've asked). Anyway if the trigger for that kind of pain is just plain dryness/surface pain, I'd suggest cold compresses, isolating the eye in a presspatch or bubble bandage or something, moisture chambers or whatever, just anything it takes.

[patrick]

hello mawsky and rebecca,

first of all;thanks for reading and your replies!
i really very much appreciate this. and rebecca, i want to take the opportunity to thank you for establishing this site! i think it's great...
to the point;
i never ever heard of the trigeminal nerve,but at my next doctor's visit i will bring up this subject and hear what his opinion is on this possible cause of pain. i'm curious to hear what he has to say about it!
the pain is quite nasty indeed,but luckely i don't have it constantly. it appears after i've been in a hostile environment for my eyes for a rather prolonged time (several hours). i can feel it come up and the pain increases over time if i don't change the circumstances i'm in immediately.on the other hand if i close my eyes for a little while this pain disappears quite rapidly. for instance if i had a bad day at work and i come home with a really bad headache mostly closing my eyes for an hour or so is enough to make it disappear and i'm good to go for the rest of the day.
however,i'm not exactly having the feeling that i'm moving into the right direction with all this. i'm really trying to pull the emergency break here and try to stop and reverse this horrible eye condition,but with not much success till so far.
i've been to several opthalmologists with this and i'm visiting a very dedicated optometrist regularly.
outcomes of the various tests i've had over time ;tbut between 6 and 8 seconds. osmolarity 293. vision 20/20. no other medical issues whatsoever.
so,it is dry eye,but i think it is still in the moderate regions. i guess this doesn't really correlate with the pain i'm currently experiencing. am i wrong?
short overview of my dry eye history;
-contact lens wear age 24 till 34.discontinued
due to intolerance. (yep,that was a warningsign that is ignored)
-lasek 2005 at age 34. (-2.25 and-2.50).
-first 3 years no problems at all. no dry eye,no pain,nothing.
-first signs of dry eye after the 3 year mark.since then problems have only increased,despite my efforts to reverse it.
-last two years dry eye symptoms and all the problems that go along with it skyrocketed and seems sort of unstoppable. and obviously i just can't and won't accept that.
i hope all i described above gives you a bit insight of how things went till the point i'm now at.

i'm of course very curious to hear your opinions on this.

patrick...

[Koray]

terrible eyes after IPL

I have eye pain too. Pain is located in my right eye and it is present all the time. It increases with attention required works such as reading , surfing internet ...It increases with eye movement( like someone holds my eye and pull it back ). I have these problems after IPL hair removal ( light comes to my eyes ) I explained to everyedoctors but they dont believe in me. I was diagnosed with dry eyes but 2 days before I saw a professor doctor who said I have nothing wrong in my eyes even my eyes are have normal tears but they are evaporated easily. He emphasized that dry eyes NEVER cause pain like mine. Pain with dry eyes are related to surface not inside. I will buy an eye glasses after I will write it goes away or not

[abbygirl]

I am having the same pain right now!! I woke up with it yesterday and again this morning..it starts with an itchy, sick pain that quickly progresses to a boring pain that radiates into my left eye socket and eyebrow area. I usually wake up with it (I am usually OK at night) and I use drops, hold frozen peas on it and take Aleve and the pain is still there!! I finally got the pain under control yesterday but by the end of the day my eye felt swollen and like it had been through a rough game of football!! This is not normal dry eye surface pain. This pain is much deeper and is hard to function with.

I only have the pain in my left eye (thank goodness) which has had alot of trauma (my intro tells it all). My doctors can't figure it out and I have had lots of tests including a CAT Scan which came back OK. It is hard to describe this pain to my doctor...any of you have the same problem?? What advice are you getting??

I also have to put a drop of Timolol in that eye for pressure..but this is not pressure pain. I can also go weeks without the pain!!!

**Update!! It has been 2 hours since I posted this and I took another Aleve and the pain is subsiding..does this mean it is a nerve/muscle pain of some kind?? Or will pain relievers help with dry eye pain??