Symptoms and other signs

[dryeye4ever]

Im a long time member and I want to talk about you guys on how hard it is living with dry eyes everyday. I guess everyone here feels a lot of pain and while im studying and using the computer a lot, sometimes I felt like giving up. But its okay next summer I plan on working on a recovery meaning no computer, no phone or etc to retrieve my eye health.

How is it for you guys daily? Dry eyes is really tricky, some days I feel like dry eyes is just an illusion but another day I start feeling the pain. Is it normal I feel all stressed out and some people say I use it as an excuse and that dry eyes is nothing. I mean 3 days on 7 i forget i have dry eyes but 4 day son 7 i forget i got dry eyes. The pain is less then before.

[Mawsky]

Hi, I haven't been on here as much lately, and was feeling pretty helpless and very depressed. I came on here because I feel so alone in this. I can relate to what you are saying there are days when my eyes feel "almost" normal, and by that I mean I'm not putting in drops every 15 minutes, with only a second or two of relief. I find myself looking at everyone else who has normal eyes and thinking that will never be me again, while watching TV I'll see someone who is sad shed a tear and think I'll never do that again! I'll see people having long conversations with one another without having to put drops in. I see ads in magazines with women with pretty eyes with makeup and look at myself with my makeup washed off or worse under my eyes making me look ugly like a raccoon! I'll think about being stranded or some other situation where I'm without my drops, and I panic! No one seems to know why I have this and my corneal specialist just looks at my eyes and says the corneas look good....what? I have never been somewhere and saw someone put drops in there eyes!! I've almost gotten in a accident doing it while driving. Depressed and hopeless doesn't even cover it. I have read on here about recovery and that is the hope I'm clinging to, I just wish my eye doc had not been such a Debbie downer when I asked him if he thought it might just slowly get better and I could be normal again one day. If you have days where you forget your dry eyes then I think there is much hope for you, sounds like your on the right track.

[NotADryEye]

One of the vexing things for me was having undiagnosed conjunctivalchalasis. I have no idea why this was so easy for so many experienced doctors to miss. It was terrible. I felt like I had tissues shoved under my eye lids. There were also the completely blocked meibomian glands. One lid had only two functioning glands. Not good. Then there was aqueous deficiency. Demodex mites. Sleeping with my eyes opened. Bacterial infections. Eye lashes growing every which way preventing my eyes from closing properly during a blink. And lashes growing in the wrong places, like the lid margin, which can be excruciatingly painful.

The key, I believe, is finding a doctor who is able to diagnose all of these different conditions and has the knowledge and experience to treat them effectively. Keep looking. There are really good and compassionate doctors out there who can help you.

And all of us are here too. You are not alone. Not at all.

[dryeye4ever]

I find that that dry eye is really unknown. Everyone uses technology all day long ignoring it could cause them dry eye. Im in the middle of studies right now and I absolutely dont see how I can keep up with this. Why do we not consider this as serious? Would you like one of your kid to get this and have his future ruined? I know I wouldnt and we tend to wait before its too late because our healths aren't priorities anymore.