Eye pain

[Gogo]

I have noticed that most of you talk about eye pain and I was wondering what types of pain everyone was experiencing. Most of my eye pain is burning. But when my eyes get particularly dry, it extends to my trigeminal nerve and that is a whole different story. Then it is throbbing, burning, aching, tingling, and creepy crawly on the right side of my face.

Just what is the trigeminal nerve and where is it located?

When my dry eye flares up I can run my finger down my temple and I can feel a sensitivity at a nerve that goes right to the corner of my eye. Is that it?

[Gaye]

Eye Pain

That is basically where it is. You can have pain on the right or left side. Mine is on the right. My Ophthalmologist/Neurologist told me that when my eyes get dry, the nerves in the cornea send that signal to the Trigeminal Nerve, as they are directly linked. For me, this will be a flare up and I try not to let it get that far. Again, only a Neurologist can diagnose this. Many times it comes on after dental surgery, but eye surgery could possible cause it. Mine definitely came around the time I was diagnosed with Dry Eye Syndrome.

There are many sites on the internet that explain what the Trigeminal Nerve is. From everything I have read, it is one of the largest facial nerves we have. This site has some interesting information about it.

http://www.trigeminalneuralgia.us/what.htm

[fernellen]

eye pain

I have looked through a lot of the discussions trying to find similar descriptions of eye pain and solutions. Most people use warm compresses to ease their pain. For me, it is ice, but then I am out of commission for a good three or four hours. The area below my eye (the one that was operated on) swells and becomes painful way before my eye starts burning.

This all leads to head ache, upset stomach, all that lovely stuff associated with pain.

Any thoughts on quicker recovery?

[Gaye]

A shot of Tequila maybe (just kidding!)?

[kitty]

I can best describe my eye pain as a constant burning in both eyes. It varies in intensity. I also get aching pain when my eyes are really inflammed. When the pain is at its worst, I cannot stand to keep my eyes open.

[Vicki In Oregon]

what is erythromycin ointment ? Annie your pain sounds like mine. I have burning and tired soar achy eyes but the foreign object is the worst for me, regardless of how bad the other 2 pains get. I cant stand it. If you think about it, before this whole thng began for us, if we had so much as an eyelash in our eye we wont do ANYTHING before we remove it. We wont go work out, eat lunch, go to the store and then say "wait! I forgot to remove my eyelash!" yet it feels like sooo much more than just an eyelash but MANY eye lashes or a pebble and/or sand. Hate it so much.

[Vicki In Oregon]

Crazy burning all of a sudden

Oh my gosh I was wrong. Now that my eyes are burning like crazy that pain sucks too. Before they burned but not like this. Now every drop I put in stings like they never did before. The only advantage to burning is that you can put pressure on your eyes and it kinda helps but if I use pressure on my eyes with the foreign object feeling then it makes it worse. Ugh.

[atta]

foot massage

hi,
I have some headache sometimes and feel tired all over my body when my eyes get too dry.
Recently I am doing a lot of foot massage to myself. Whenever I got the chance, I will do it.
http://www.popularmassager.com/images/leftFootLarge.jpg
The eye area is at the lower part of the second and third toes, which is dark green on the picture. It pains a lot when I massage it, its a signal for eye problems, but I enjoy it very much too. It wouldnt give a fast cure but its a healthy and safe way to release the eye problem.

[brown_eyes]

yeah, that is true. Not everyone react the same to the same treatment. The some trials that has to be done with each medications till you find the most appropriate one.
For me i first tried neurontin but i could not take the side effects. I was sick and getting shaky.
Then i tried trileptal and that was ok. I had no bad trip with it.
I consider that i had the chance to adapt to the second prescription because most people i know had to wait to approximately the fifth prescription to get along.

[IanJ]

Hi,

Glad I found this thread!

I get real pain in my right eye, and yes it does extend across the whole right side of my face. The only way to relieve it a bit is to go rest, some eye drops, and in a cool place. I also get burning, itching etc in both eyes but the real pain I get is different, and only in my right eye.

Definitely gonna chase up Trileptal etc...............

The pain in my right eye has been my No.1 complaint to all the eye docs I have seen. Most have simply shrugged their shoulders. My right eye developed the symptoms suddenly some 2 years ago. I remember the exact minute it happened!

Now after 2 years I feel I've found out why I get the pain. I am quad occluded now, meaning that I have plugs fitted to all 4 punctums.
My left eye does weep a bit, but my right eye never weeps and is still dry and to the point of foreign body feeling for 75% of the day.
It's being quad occluded that has led me to finally develop my own theory.

I believe that I have always had dry eyes.....due to bleph. I remember years ago and varying times in-between complaining to myself that my eyes were red/sore whilst sat at the computer. I walk around for 5 minutes and I was good to go again. However, 2 years ago I got a sudden and desperate blurred vision, and pain, in my right eye whilst sat at my computer one day and the pain triggered. It's at that point that I believe I suddenly developed lacrimal dysfunction in my right eye.
I do the lid massage thing and do put drops in all the time...but when the pain starts up there's no stopping it except from rest away in a cool place. No drops have any immediate effect.

I could easily live with dry eyes to the point of redness, and burning.....it's the pain that is so much of a discomfort.....sometimes to the point where it's hard to tell if I don't have toothache etc etc etc.

Again, thanks for the heads up......

Ian.

[Marina26]

I wanted to resurrect this thread, I think it's helpful to know what types of pain others are experiencing.

I'm amazed that I have finally found others that have pain similar to mine.

My pain is on the right side of my face around the eye. My original complaint were my contacts. I coundn't tolerate them. I'm in daily pain now and have had this problem for over a year. It basically begins as a dull ache, some burning in the eye then a deeper pain in the eye, then burning on my cheek and this tense pain on my eyebrow, then my temple throbs and i get a full blown headache. I used to also get some jabbing pains behind the eye, I don't feel these anymore since I was put on Neurotin. I like Neurotin I don't really have any side effects, except some days its a delicate balance between the pain and balance issues.

I have a lower plug on my right eye and my opthamologist put me on refresh pm ointment, which I find has made a bid difference.

One frustration I have is that my neurologist mentioned dry eye, but dismissed it quickly. I too want to find the cause of my pain and not just take a daily cocktail of meds.

I hope others will post about their pain and keep this thread going.

[IanJ]

Marina26,

Quote: "One frustration I have is that my neurologist mentioned dry eye, but dismissed it quickly. I too want to find the cause of my pain and not just take a daily cocktail of meds."

Are you saying that it's not a dry eye problem?

Ian.

[shoebox]

Doctors!

I hate it when doctors seem so focused on relieving symptoms in the absence of finding the reason for the issue!!
My dear husband is convinced that doctors like "House, MD" exist and he ants me to see a diagnostician who will take all of my varying symptoms that each doctor treats separately, and look at the whole picture to find out what my silly body is up to.
I was reading through this thread, and I am curious as to whether Lyrica is being studied for eye pain -- it acts similarly to Neurontin I think.

Anyway - I think my dry eye has contributed to frequent migraines.

[Gaye]

To Marina26

I too went through all of the same eye pain symptoms that you have and it took me down a long and winding road of doctors, dentists, eye doctors and finally an neurologist/opthalmologist who diagnosed me with Trigeminal Neuralgia. Up to that point, I was sure I had cancer, a tumor, etc., etc. He told me that dry eye symptoms and Trigeminal Neuralgia can go hand in hand because the cornea is linked to the Trigeminal nerve (dry cornea=irritated nerve). He put me on Trileptal (450mg) each evening before bed and referred me to a dry eye specialist. That doctor finally got the dryness under control with Lotemax originally and now I am on Restasis in the morning and Alrex in the evening (no pressure problems yet). I take massive doses of Omega 3's, use multitudes of drops (Dwelle and Systane especially) as well. We tried Neurontin first but I couldn't tolerate it at all. The Trileptal really works for me and now it is a generic. Interesting about the Lyrica information. Might be something to look into.

P.S. My symptoms were on the right side as well!

Good Luck!

Gaye

[buntbean]

I was told it was corneal neuralgia

I saw a pain specialist/neurologist 4 years ago who told me I had bilateral corneal neuralgia. My corneal specialist laughed and told me there was no such thing. Last year I went to Dr. Rosenthal in Boston at the Foundation for Sight and he also diagnosed me with corneal neuralgia. It came on suddenly 5.5 years ago. Felt like sizzling bacon or welding sparks in both eyes along the bottom lashline. Only by the grace of God I didn't kill myself. I was put on neurontin, tramadol, and cymbalta. My eyes are horribly dry and still painful (I don't work anymore and have to lay down every afternoon for about 2 hours) but the "nerve" pain is more tolerable. I've often wondered if it is a form of trigeminal neuralgia. For those of you who have been told it is trigeminal neuralgia has surgery been suggested?