I have a theory...

[presh]

Bear with me, I know I'm new to this but I've been thinking so hard about all of this and my sister is a NP and we've been discussing the fact that so many people have eye pain.

I gues the eyes are the most innervated part of your body. ANYTHING that starts your eyes being in pain (whether it's Lasik surgery, ocular rosacea, an infection, dry eyes as we age, gland dysfunction, etc) starts a cycle of pain in the nerves (which in turn affect the muscles around the eyes and tear glands, etc.) causing the dry feeling, swelling, pain, redness, etc.

Some people do great after the initial pain is over but in other people (alot according to my sis) the initial pain can be gone but the "wind up" is still there and the brain doesn't recognize that the initial pain is gone and the nerves keep giving the signals to emit more pain.

Sooo it takes calming the nerves down to heal those of us who have this problem regardless of the initial event that started it. That's why eye tears & gels work well because they provide the releif sensation your brain needs to trick it into ending the pain cycle.

This may also explain the reason why Elavil seems to be working for me. I just upped my dosage again and the relief is very "real" to me.

She said people do NOT have to live with chronic symptoms forever, the key is to find the "right" trick that will work for their nerve endings to calm them down, whether it's artifical tears, compresses, medicine, diet, etc. - that when a person believe something is helping them, then it really IS because it's breaking the pain cycle for them.

Does this make any sense???

[Mawsky]

could make sense

I think that there is a real pain cycle that happens with people in other areas, especialy those that are on pain killers for a real injury for some time and then cant get off even when they should be healed, I worked in a clinic for about 5 yrs and was surprised at how easily some people have gotten hooked on pain meds, one of the Docs there explained to me that there initial pain was very normal and real, but that once they got on this pain cycle they needed more and more pain meds to cover them. Maybe your on to something here in regard to how it may be a cycle. I have noticed that for no reason that I've yet figured out my eyes will be almost normal, a day will go by and I'll realize that I haven't need drops, and then for some reason I'll have a few horrid days, where my days are limited because of my dry eyes, I tend to put in alot of gel on these days even tho I cant see for several minutes after putting them in (this really stinks at work) I'm begining to think that maybe using the gel for a few days builds up in my eyes somehow, and calm them down, what do you think about it? It could be like getting hooked on the pain pills the way some people have, One other thing that doesn't quite fit is that I have almost no tears, when I cry nothing comes out, so that doesn't seem pain related does it? Just curious if you talked about the lack of tears/pain connection with your sister? Like you I'm fairly new to this and I'm thinking alot about it too, My biggest fear is what would happen if I were stuck somewhere without my drops or gel? what if I got in an auto accident and spend a week in the hospital unable to communicate, would my eyes be distroyed? Its kinda scary when you think about it.

[Guest]

My biggest fear is what would happen if I were stuck somewhere without my drops or gel? what if I got in an auto accident and spend a week in the hospital unable to communicate, would my eyes be distroyed? Its kinda scary when you think about it.

Same here! Such a scenario scares the crap out of me!

[presh]

well, pain comes from nerve cells and this can detrimentally affect your muscles, skin, etc. so I would say yes this is possible.

I worked for a Neurologist for many years and we had a few patients with "reflex sympathetic dystrophy". Noone knows what causes this. Let's say a person bumps their arm. There is pain. But in the person who has RFD the entire arm becomes excrutiatingly painful out of context to their injury. Then the arm becomes swollen and the skin gets either red or white. This is because RFD affects the nerves and therefore the other physical symptoms happen.

So in that same vein of thought let's say each one of us had an initial trigger to their eye pain.... rosacea, menapause, lasix nerve detachment, eye injury, etc etc. But for some strange reason it's in our chemical makeup that the pain and discomfort don't end from our brain's perspective. At least for me, at first, there was just some mild eye discomfort...then headaches...then my actual lids began to swell (as did my face/forehead area), then the dryness feeling and true pain began. I also have days where I feel much better (probably because my mind is distracted from it).

[PRK]

I’ve noticed that if I’m stressed I tend to have a bad eye day and thinking about that searing burning laser they used on me certainly doesn’t lower my blood pressure any. I try to keep that out of my mind as much as possible. I definitely notice my eyes are much better on the weekends than they are at work that’s for sure. All that cortisol certainly can’t be good for dry eye!

[Súil Eile]

what if I got in an auto accident and spend a week in the hospital unable to communicate, would my eyes be distroyed? Its kinda scary when you think about it.

I get freaked out by this every so often...and in my crazier moments I half seriously consider wearing a vial of Artelac around my neck with 'In emergency, break vial'! It's one thing I've drummed into everyone I know...if visiting me in hospital, forget the balloons and magazines and sweets...bring cartons of eye drops!

On the whole response to pain thing, I completely understand that it it was a once off severe trauma that the shock would throw the brain into response overdrive. But what about daily recurring, milder trauma? I'd imagine it would be very difficult to break the response cycle if the pain cycle was ongoing.

[Rowanberry]

I have recurrent corneal erosions so the thought of being unconscious is very worrying. You can get jewellery to wear that indicates serious medical conditions it is just hard to think of a way to put pour problems in such a way they would be taken seriously.

I carry lots of eye drop vials all the time (hospital pharmacies can take ages to get drugs to the ward) and my family have been warned that they have to make sure anyone treating me knows how important they are. I am also considering carrying a spare set of tranquilleyes goggles - better safe than sorry

I saw a paper recently, it could have been here, where they talked about using frequent eye drops for coma patients so that is reassuring.

Years ago, I read an article on how damaged nerves can regrow. When the end is damaged, instead of growing properly it can form little nervelets (like fingers on the end of an arm). Unfortunately, every little nervelet carries a pain signal so it is magnified.

Pain can certainly endure after the initial problem has gone but many of the diseases of the eye do not go away and the continuing pain is a natural response to a continuing malady. Symptoms can very day to day because of small changes in the microclimate of the body and the air.

Some doctors are very keen on the idea that we would not have any medical problems if we thought about them the right way and it can lead to our symptoms being dismissed.

R.