blood serum question

[jenny2008]

i have been dealing with sjogrens for about 4 years now and at first my doc talked about having me try blood serum drops.. when i brought it up a year later he said that the surface of my eyes looked good (even though i am extremely dry).. well now he retired and i am going to a different doctor..

my question is this: does blood serum help with severly dry eyes if the ocular surface is ok .. is there anyone on here who uses and continues to use blood serum drops instead of other non-preservative drops? Is blood serum only used when there is a disruption to the corneal surface???

thanks to anyone who can help me with these questions!!!

[Guest]

My cornea apparently looks great, and always has... despite my psycho dry eyes. (lucky me, I guess!) Anyhow, despite my not needing help with a damaged cornea, I believe the serum drops have helped me... within a couple of days of starting them, my eyes were no longer toast by 6 or 7 pm every evening... maybe it was coincidence, but the change stayed... I did see one study afterwards where they noted that the subjects using serum noticed improvement within 2-3 days, so at least it's not just me thinking they started helping so quickly! (wish I had the link handy, but it was ages ago that I was reading about serum studies) I wonder if the serum might have helped me due to the presence of anti-inflammatory factors in the serum... but who knows...

Anyhow, my thoughts are that assuming they don't cost too much money where you live, they are highly unlikely to do you any harm, and if they help, then that's a huge plus!

Here, they are relatively inexpensive... for a 3 months supply (about 50ml) of 100% serum drops, packaged in 3ml bottles, I pay about $105 including the fee at the lab to get my blood drawn... I use them 4 times daily. Eventually, I may try using them in lieu of PF artificial tears as well, but I haven't gotten around to trying that yet! The hardest thing for me is getting the lab tech to cooperate when I insist that in order for me to get 50ml of serum for a 3 month supply, they need to draw about 110-120 ml of blood. (Most of their patients get only 20% serum and therefore don't require so much blood to be drawn.) Anyhow, hopefully after seeing the crazy 100% serum drop girl (----> ME<-----) a few more times, they will FINALLY no longer need me to debate with them about their reluctance to take so much darned blood! (although I debate with them in the nicest possible way!)

my question is this: does blood serum help with severly dry eyes if the ocular surface is ok ... Is blood serum only used when there is a disruption to the corneal surface???

I wondered these exact things myself... knowing my cornea LOOKED ok made me hesitant to push for starting serum.. but then my doc suggested it back in March, so I figured "awesome! now I don't have to ASK for them!" From what I've read about serum drops on PubMed, it seems there is still a LOT that researchers have left to discover about them.

Let us know how you make out if you try them!

[jenny2008]

thank you.. i pm'd you..
not sure if my new doc will presribe it.. only my 3rd visit with him this coming monday.. he may want to see me several more times.. or he may not know a lot about it.. although the doc he trained under had mentioned it to me.. he is now retired. i will let everyone know if i try it.