accidently left my serum drops outside :(

[chimera]

hi, i sarted trying auto serum blood drops this saturday. On Sunday I accidently left the bottle out on my shelf for 2 hours(I know, I was kicking myself for that!) Are they still ok to use? I have been using them 4 times a day since, and I havent felt any improvement, on the contrary my eyes feel more burning/stinging than before. I usually use Restasis twice a day & refresh plus preserve free every hour. Am i contaminating my eyes? i dont want to throw them out if I dont have to b/c the drops are so expensve!

[Hopeful2]

Hi chimera,

I don't think leaving the drops out on shelf for two hours would be a cause for alarm. I am assuming they were in an a/c environment, or at least that the room wan't too warm. Are your serum drops diluted with artificail tears? You might want to try buffering them if they are 100% serum. The serum drops are designed to slowly heal your corneas. They are not meant to be a lubricating drop so they would not offering the lubrication relief that you would get in an artificial tear.

[chimera]

hi hopeful2, yeah, I did call my opth & she said it was ok(leaving them out since it was inside & not out in the sun & not cloudy.) She also said that after I use them i really shouldnt put any ATs after bc they need to stay on the eyes(not washed out by the ATs) to heal them. I'm having a really hard time with that... my eyes are so bad that i have to lubricate them with Ats once an hour but now I cant so my eyes are more painful now.

I was taking them twice during the day & twice at night but now maybe I should take all 4 doses at night when i can atleast sleep the dryness off?

[PotatoCakes]

It's odd that you are experiencing stinging / burning with your serum drops. That doesn't sound right.

What is the percentage of serum / saline you're on? Even if they are 100%, I wouldn't think you'd have stinging. SAAG is on 100% and hasn't mentioned anything like that; I'm on 50% and haven't experienced stinging either and I've not heard of that issue with the more common 20%.

How are you applying your drops? My first specialist told me to close my eyes for 2 minutes following application of drops. I found that made a significant difference in how all of my drops worked and lasted. He also had me putting drops in, whether OTC or serum, EVERY hour. I no longer need to do that unless I'm having a really bad day but in the beginning my eyes were bad enough that it was necessary. You don't want to wash out the serum drops but you should be able to put drops in more than 4 times a day without worry. Are you still using the Restasis? That caused a lot of burning for me and now I'm on compounded Restasis without the castor oil. I put that in when I wake up, wait 20 minutes (instructions say 15) then put in my serum drops. I use my serum drops as needed when I'm at home. When I'm on the go, I use OTC preservative-free drops. At night, I put my 2nd dose of Restasis in, wait 20 minutes and put serum drops in right before I go to bed.

Could you ask your doctor if you can use the serum drops more often? That way you wouldn't have to worry about washing them away with other drops. My understanding is that the average "dose" is at least 6 times per day for serum drops. It seems that you could increase your dose from 4 to 6 without a lot of risk. I recently asked my physician if I could increase my percentage of serum to 75% for winter and we talked about the risks, they are minimal and from what I understand, reversible (protein deposits on the cornea which go away if you stop or lower your dosage of serum, in the last 3 years, they've had one case and it was with over 50% serum. Many more patients using over 50% with no problems at all).

[Lea]

Hi PotatoCakes!
This was very interesting to me as I just started the Serum drops a couple of months ago. No one told me about closing my eyes for 2 min after putting them in and to be honest I think alot of them roll out of my eye every time I use them. I am only on 20 percent and am hoping to go to at least 50 or more. My eyes are just a bit better but not as much as I had hoped although I just got back from the doctor today and she said the dry spots had decreased on my eyes quite a bit so that was good. I also only use mine 4 times a day and think I will increase mine as well. Can you tell me how long it took for you to tell if the serum drops made a difference?
Thank you!
Lea