Extreme burning in right eye. Considering an eye patch, is it a good idea?

[Daniel2]

Hello everyone,

I am diagnosed with MGD. Both eye has been burning, but my right eye has been absolutely killing me. It seems that no amount of drops or steroids relieve the pain, and It's always inflamed. I have a very busy schedule as a student and need to study, so I'm considering of putting on an eye patch for the right eye for as long as I need to. Does anyone think that would be a good idea? I know that keeping any organ in the body inactive leads to atrophy, and the best thing you can do is keep them active, but the pain has really dimish my ability to study or work. I'd appreciate any input I could get. Maybe its a stupid idea but I'm really desperate.

Thanks
-Daniel

[meibomian]

Constant severe bilateral burning eyes even without any relief on steroid drops sounds unusual. What type of steroids was used? Is it burning or photophobia (severe sensitivity to light)? Worse in evening or constant all day? Does washing the eyes with saline provide relief? If not, this suggests an inflammation on the cornea or inside the eye (uveitis) or something under the upper eyelids (follicular conjunctivitis or foreign body scratching the cornea). Steroids would have helped with any inflammation on the cornea or uveitis (typically causes severe photophobia). Eversion or flipping the upper eyelid inside out would reveal any foreign body or inflammation on the lids. The lacrimal system would have to be asses for any obstruction if there's constant burning that's not relieved by eye drops and steroid drops - see my other post for more details on the lacrimal system. Placing a patch over the eye is not an effective solution until you find the underlying cause and if both eyes are affected, then bilateral simultaneous patching would not help with your studies for obvious reasons : )

[Daniel2]

Hi, yeah It's the constant burning. I don't know if I have photophobia... It's worse as the time passes by throughout the day. Washing my eyes with saline does not provide relief and I'm using Lotemax. 2 times a day.

Yeah I'd ben diagnosed with uvitis, but my doctor said that it's not that severe. He put it on durezol 4 times a day for 2 weeks, he said that the infflamation behind the eye got better and I need to check with him in the coming months, but I still felt the same symptons for my dry eye condition and it has gotten worse with time. I constantly see little dots and 'spider webs' throughout the , if it helps in providing the information, I have gotten to a point where I just keep getting worse and worse and there's nothing I can do to stop it even though I tried almost everything.

-Daniel

[Irina]

Daniel2, for how long do you have to use lotemax?

[MGD30]

I've tried the patch before, it helped a bit but it wasnt as useful as I thought and my good eye ends up getting more irritated when I am using it by itself.

[Daniel2]

Daniel2, for how long do you have to use lotemax?

I'd been using Alrex, but I just have my 2nd Lipiflow done gland probing, so I need to use Lotemax for 2 weeks. So far I feel no difference at all.

[meibomian]

If you're seeing "spider webs" and have a history of uveitis with durezol treatment 4x/day, this would suggest inflammation behind the eye, in the vitreous or even on the retina. Have you seen a retina specialist? This may be why nothing has worked since eye drops do not work well when the back of the eye is involved. There may be a coexisting issue with MGD/dry eyes but seeing spider webs is NOT typical for dry eyes.

[Daniel2]

Yeah I went to a retina specialist and he referred me to an uveitis specialist. It's a little strange because I told him if my dry eyes has anything to do with the uveitis and he told me that it doesn't, they are two completely different things.

I remember that I started having dry eyes years ago I didn't see any dots or spiders webs, it's with years when my dry eyes had gotten progressively worse and inflammed every single day where I started seeing all those things. Sort of like a cause-effect, but I'm not a doctor of course, I guess I'll have to take his word for it.

[savino]

.............

[Daniel2]

I don't think I have seborrheic dermatitis savino, I don't have any of the symptoms.

[Jimmy01]

May be try scleral lenses

[Daniel2]

Jimmy01, do you know what type of liquid they put inside the Scleral lenses to stop the burning? Is it artificial tears?

[Jimmy01]

They use saline solution in it I guess which is sterile and it keeps eyes moist, which helps dry eyes. check this video for more info https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iET0MgZhhw

[Daniel2]

Thanks for the information. I have a last question. Is saline solution enough to bring relief? Because I'd been reading in this forum that the oils from the eyes are very complex. In fact I had tried saline solution as artificial tears before without really much sucess at all..