Tips for going to grad school with Dry Eyes

[MyDryEyes]

Hello All!!

Some of you may have seen my Dry Eye Triumph post about going to grad school with dry eyes. I am wondering if any of you who have been dealing with the eye issues for a while have gone back to school. How did you cope with your dry eyes? If any of you have tips, please let me know!!

Thanks!!

MDE

[gilligan_1434]

I'm a student so this post caught my eye.
Here are some things that work for me:

If the humidity in your study environment is low, get a humidifier (I prefer the models that have a washable mesh rather than a disposable paper one)

If you need to go over lectures outside of class (IE you listen to a recording), use that time to rest your eyes as you listen or use it for warm or cold compresses (depending on your eye condition and treatment required)

Try to figure out when your eyes are going to dry out (perhaps walking in the wind) and take actions to prevent it (drops and/or wrap-around glasses)

Good Luck!

[redandsensitive]

I had to quit school because people where laughing at me because of my dry, red eyes. So now my government is paying for my life... So I'm sitting home doing nothing beacuse I'm afraid of the people laughing at my red eyes..

Im sorry I didn't have anything positive to say, but THIS is MY life!! This is MY reality...

I hope you don't experience this... but..

Have a nice NOT- dry eye day or NOT RED EYES day

redandsensitive

[dave25]

One thing that really helped me was letting my teachers know before hand. For me, letting the teacher know made me feel a lot more comfortable in class. If I was having a really bad eye day I would occasionally get people who looked at me a little strange, but I have never had anybody say anything to me. I am really sorry to hear that redandsensitive had people laugh at him.

I think all of the suggestions above are very good ones. One thing that really helped me for some reason was/is getting to school a little early and finding a relaxing place to sit and close my eyes for about 10 minutes. My eyes always seem to calm down a little when I do that.

[gilligan_1434]

I'm sorry to hear about your experiences R&S.

I got a small taste of that during some of my worst weeks. I had a teacher single me out with a question... she called on me as the one "going like this" and imitated the way I was squinting in pain. Ironically, the question was "what is vision?"
Another time I was just walking through walmart and overheard someone say "look at this guy..." I got the feeling he thought I was on drugs.

I have noticed at least 2 other people who have extremely red eyes at times out of the 100 or so people that I see regularly.

[irish eyes]

Boy - can't people be absolutely vile?

I had a few awful experiences as a mature student doing a post-graduate qualification a few years ago. Now in the UK, we have something called the DDA or Disability Discrimination Act - and it includes education as well as employment. Things are not perfect by any means but a whole lot better than they used to be.

Whilst one cannot legislate for attitudes, I would certainly made your needs known to the course organisers. There might be times when your assignments will be in late - not through any fault of yours. How about exam conditions - if you are anything like me, then you cannot cope with being in a very hot room. I got doctor's note to explain why additional time would help me; there were conditions attached ie I used to use the additional time to rest my eyes and just do nothing. I've invigilated plenty of exams myself so I knew how important it was to inform the invigilator what my needs were before the exam started.

Try and target your reading; find out what is important, what can wait. You must be the one in control though - don't leave it for the tutors or course organisers to draw partial or incorrect conclusions about your needs.

Don't tire yourself out. (That's a mistake I often made).

I work with higher education students and this is the advice I give them - and it's also based on my own experience. Good luck with it all.

[Ctane]

going to university, i haven't had a whole lot of luck passing units.. but the best thing by far is registering with 'disability' services. i don't know if that's available to you, but at the two universities i've been to here in aus i've been able to receive free note-taking services, alternate test/exam room conditions and time for eye drops, arrangements to email certain lab-work in from home, etc. at the end of the day, i still get behind on a lot of work and i haven't particularly found a great way to manage the whole study schedule in general with the eyes - but this has helped in a big way

[Mika]

I have dry eye around 4 years now. I had it since I was around 17years. So I made my way through high school and university with it. My dry eye was severe, lots of mucus and bloodshot often.
But I made it through the studies I obtain good result and had a lot of friends

So be positive. Stop focusing on your eyes and more on your studies. Learn to let yourself to live and rejoice about life rather than being sad about the disease....
it wasn't easy for me to do this initially and it is not easy now also. but i tried my best and I feel I am succeeding....

so try...

[nycdryeyegirl]

Hi!

As well as having dry eye symptoms, I have a condition called transverse myelitis (inflammation of the spinal cord) caused by my underlying connective tissue disease and I when I was getting my masters of social work degree, I registered with an office for student with disabilities. This enabled me to take classes over a period of four years, so that I could finish my degree. I also had paper extensions and note taking available to me (when needed).

By taking my courses over a period of four years, I was able to focus on my classwork and internship in a manner that was manageable and not too stressful for me.

Another suggestion I have is that you might wish to consider wearing brown-tinted glasses (when necessary) when using a computer (which seemed to be all the time for me!)

I hope these suggestions are helpful.

Pam

[Plat]

redandsensitive, look into vitamin B2 defficiency as bloodshut eyes are a symptom.

http://www.vitamins-supplements.org/...deficiency.php

[Michael2]

also to add mydryeye...
i'm not sure what exactly your issue is, but mine caused my eyes to be severely dry (alot of pain) and also i was thrown out of my contacts so i felt my world was tiny (world enclosed within glasses and within the pain)

so i found some chill sunglasses that fit my high prescription and now I wear them all the time...allows me to 'blink' more without looking ridiculous, takes away glare/eye strain that usually will add to the discomfort, and also really increases my field of vision etc. and added bonus is they block wind (not like moisture chambers) tho. i always find i'm in more discomfort when i wear normal glasses than these

[Súil Eile]

Firstly, congrats! I hope you really enjoy going back to college.

I'm at the end stages of a postgrad course at the moment, and there's something that I realised a couple of weeks ago that I wish I had copped on to earlier as it could have saved me a lot of pain.

The work load at grad school level is pretty high (though enjoyable!) and there are often times of relative relaxation and enjoying college life followed by pure mania of deadlines! My first semester went well, and I was so delighted that I was able to manage my dry eyes despite all the extra reading. Even my classmates were having trouble with their eyes...by Christmas it became obvious who had been wearing contacts as half the class came in with glasses on the final week of classes as they couldn't handle contacts anymore!

The second semester was a different story. It was probably an accumulative effect that had been building since September and I hadn't noticed. Last April/ May I had a series of deadlines that all arrived at once. Suffice it to say that for 5 weeks I barely left the house and was either reading articles or glued to the laptop frantically trying to get all the work done on time ( had I chosen different modules the deadlines would have been more spread out...just my luck!). I was very stressed out, got very little sleep, and my eyes got very bad. Considering the time I was spending on my computer I had expected this and took it as par of the course and put up with it. I regret that now. Those five weeks caused my eyes to deteriorate so much that I now have had to apply for an extension to finish my thesis.

What I should have done in hindsight was discuss my condition with my lecturers and ask for my deadlines to be spread out more evenly to give my eyes a chance. That way I would have prevented them from getting so bad to begin with.

I just wanted to mention this in this thread as I hope you may find it useful! It's so easy to get caught up in the excitement of going back to college, learning new stuff and making new friends...but the course will finish at some stage and you'll still have your eyes at the end of it, so it's important to look after them.

I really hope it all goes well for you Enjoy it!