Experiments with homemade solutions and materials.

[L8rgator]

I have been unable to find any commercial products that have enough of a seal to serve as an adequate moisture chamber for my one dry eye. And in this dry weather we have having now in the middle of winter, even the moisture chamber that worked the best just wasn't enough. My next goal is to look into scleral lenses,b ut in the meantime...

I've been experimenting with other creative solutions. I haven't found any perfect fixes, but I did want to list the things I've tried, possibly for people who don't need as perfect of a seal as I do. I should clarify - if my moisture chamber is not completely foggy, then it's not enough of a seal. Luckily I have only 1 dry eye, so I can manage (i.e. drive and function ok) with one foggy eye.

Here is the short list:
Moisture chamber (single): http://goo.gl/DG2YGQ
Smooth-On" brand "Dragon Skin" liquid rubber
CVS Ultra-Soft Silicone Earplugs Antimicrobial Protection
Grafix "Dura-lar" polyester film in CLEAR
Moormedical Adhesive foam 1/4"x6"x72" rolle #09237
Moisture Chamber Retention Goggles http://www.tecfen.com/medical/ophthal/dry.html
Curad x-large 2x4" Plastic bandages
Walgreens Clear Water Shield Bandages
Nexcare Knee and Elbow Bandages. Latex free.
Pac-Kit 1-475 Woven Bandage, 4-1/2" Length x 2" Width, Large (Box of 25)
Habitat Monitor XXL Auto-Fill Humidifier with Digital Controls - auto fill humidifier

The most effective (and actually cheapest) solution seems to be a combination of the single moisture chamber with a coating over the foam. The foam on this thing http://goo.gl/DG2YGQ drives me crazy - it's itchy and makes my skin very irritated. But it's one of the few that's big enough not to creep into my big deep set eye.

So I decided to try coating it with silicone. I found "Smooth-On" brand "Dragon Skin" liquid rubber. I actually bought this with the hopes of molding my own custom fitted moisture chambers for regular classes, but that hasn't gone so well do the thin consistency before curing. So instead, I dipped the foam in and let it dry about 3 times. It stuck great to the foam, and made a nice smooth surface. The ugly patch does not look any different than it did originally. And it added a bit more surface area to hold the patch in place. The downside - the patch is thicker so I can't put glasses over it (couldn't really before either).

CVS Ultra-Soft Silicone Earplugs Antimicrobial Protection are my next find. This is the squishy ear plugs you buy for swimming. I can mush this onto the dragon skin layer, or directly onto foam, and form it to my face so that there is a perfect contour. It's also a bit sticky, so that helps even more with a seal and to prevent sliding. On the inside of sunglasses it's hard to see. But it's pretty gross looking on regular glasses or eye patches - so I try to use thin strips of it.

Grafix "Dura-lar" polyester film in CLEAR is my newest toy. This is very thin plastic that you can find in booklets or sheets from art stores online. It comes in a few different thicknesses, so I bought a bunch of pads to try then all out. This could be good if you are trying to make your own moisture chambers for regular glasses. I had hoped to use this with the dragon skin to make my own patches, but I haven't figured out a good way to get the dragon skin (or much else for that matter) to stick. So instead I tried making a much larger patch, with no rim or padding at all. I'm actually pretty pleased with the result. Despite being much bigger, it's much more subtle than the huge ugly moisture chambers (which ALWAYS results in little kids in Walmart coming up and saying "Why are you wearing an eye patch? You are like a pirate. Arrrrrrrr."). It's not as irritating to my skin around the edge and is much more clean than the moisture chambers. and if I replace the nose piece off my regular glasses with a tiny piece of ear silicone, I can wear my prescription glasses and hide the patch even more. Not a perfect seal, due mostly to the injuries to my face, but with a little ear silicone to fill in the gaps, it's an improvement.

Moormedical Adhesive foam 1/4"x6"x72" roll #09237. I actually haven't used this for anything yet, but it's got the same type of material as the moisture chamber protection shields - so I know it's soft and non irritating. If I can figure out a good way to cut it. I think this would work great for homemade chambers using the Dura-lar, for in home use mostly.

Nothing stays on at night except bandages, so my go to bandage right now is Curad x-large 2x4" Plastic bandages. The smaller 2x3" ones someone recommended here were just not big enough for my deep set eyes, so these 2x4" are an improvement. I do put antihistamine cream on immediately before applying the bandage - partially because I'm allergic to adhesive, and partially because some bandages are crazy sticky and the extra oil fixes that. I also tape around the outside a bit and over the top for extra moisture retention since I think these are technically breathable. Hard to tell, but they ARE latex free.

Walgreens Clear Water Shield Bandages are also latex free. They don't fit my eye (2x3" is too small), but they are nicely waterproof and let a bit more light in.

Pac-Kit 1-475 Woven Bandage, 4-1/2" Length x 2" Width, Large (Box of 25). Do not say latext free.

Nexcare Knee and Elbow Bandages. Latex free.

Habitat Monitor XXL Auto-Fill Humidifier with Digital Controls - auto fill humidifier. Awesome if you can't get a whole house humidifier and have a possible water line nearby from a sink.

[dryeyedave]

you need to get fitted for a scleral i have one bad eye and one terrible eye. I wear the scleral in my terrible eye and it allows me to function very well even in the dry winter climate.

[MeibomianGlandman]

Hey Bud You want some good Goggles Try these, What I Use

http://www.google.com/imgres?sa=X&bi...art=41&ndsp=18

[saralynn143]

I also have just one dry eye, due to damage to my facial nerve during surgery, and wear a single scleral lens. I wrote a web post about my experience, including a list of all the sclerals I could identify that are available in the USA with links to their web sites. I hope the info may be useful to you.
http://www.sarahartman.com/the-eyes-have-it/

[L8rgator]

I also have just one dry eye, due to damage to my facial nerve during surgery, and wear a single scleral lens. I wrote a web post about my experience, including a list of all the sclerals I could identify that are available in the USA with links to their web sites. I hope the info may be useful to you.
http://www.sarahartman.com/the-eyes-have-it/

Thanks! I'm a little confused - are there stock scleral lenses that don't have to be custom fit??? I have only heard of the ones that require week+ long travel and fitting.


I'm disappointed today as I gathered all my prior records from my eye doctor in preparation of asking my insurance to consider covering the cost of a scleral. I always felt he wasn't taking me seriously (so they wouldn't either), but now I can confirm it He kept writing things in there about how my eye seemed to be in good or at least "better" condition and that he felt my pain was sensation based and not dry eye based. Well duh - at some point I had to completely give up on the drops and gels and waterproof seal/tape it shut 24-7. It's much better and not painful at all when it's completely sealed for days on end. This went on basically monthly for a year and a half. At one point 6 months ago he voices his frustration about my (seemingly unfounded) complaints in his notes and finishes with "prior shirmer's test was normal". WHAT????!!! He NEVER gave me a schirmers test until just last week, after asking "and we've done a schirmer's test on you - was that normal? ". He immediately did it without and then with anesthetic - I scored a "barely 2", and a 0.

I hate doctors.

[L8rgator]

Until I am able to be evalulated for a scleral lens, I have a new go-to solution for my eye in this horrible weather.

I use Grafix "Dura-lar" polyester film in CLEAR and Transpore Tape (http://goo.gl/MoRuQk) . I cut it to fit around my eyebrow and just over my nose, and then tape it all the way around. I'm having a much easier time with this because:
1. I can put my regular glasses on over it, so I can drive at night again (I only have one bad eye, so I can see out of my good one great this way).
2. No straps around my head to give me a headache.
3. The dura-lar is crystal clear, so no double vision upon removal (like I got from the Quartz eye shields, and regular bandaids). And eyesight is foggy but still somewhat helpful for depth perception.
4 I can make it air tight. So I get it really moist and seal it up. Don't need lots of refill drops during the day or night unless it pops open (and I can totally feel the dryness immediately when it does).
5. It stays on good at night - better than anything else I tried.
6. It's not as itchy as bandages, and I don't need cortizone
7. I almost never squint. I didn't realize how much I was before this solution. My face is much more comfortable and relaxed now.
8. Fairly easy to sanitize and clean - I just rinse and wipe with alcohol based lens cleaning cloths and leave out to dry.

Downsides:
1. Reaffixing the patch (in case of itches, or clearing it off, or adjusting the pull, or whatever) is time consuming and often requires new tape.
2. When you get an itch it's so disturbing and very irritating that you can't immediately itch it - at least not without the slow process of peeling off the patch.
3. The tape isn't fully waterproof, so on super dry days (today the weather is below 0 so I'm feeling it bad) or when the tape just starts to peel away from the skin too much moisture still leaks out
4. I start out with the tape pulling my eye together a bit, like a face lift. After a few hours, it's the opposite - so when I try to squint it feels like someone is holding my eye open. So the tape shifts thoughout the day.
5. It looks like I've taped drippy foggy plastic to my face. Well, because I have. I've grown my bangs out to cover it a lot. And if I'm trying to be extra subtle, I'll put bandaids over the tape on my nose so it looks more like a fresh injury than a weird way to handle a permanent eye condition. At least I haven't had any little kids at walmart and the grocery store tell me "why are you wearing an eye patch? like a pirate!" since switching from the old patches. That was getting really old.

[L8rgator]

I also tried acupuncture yesterday after my sister in law gave me a gift certificate. It's actually much WORSE today, so definitely didn't help.