Using too many meds/drops

[FAYE1]

I saw Dr. Pflugfelder today @ Baylor Med Ctr. Basically, he and his staff looked at my eyes through many different scopes and came up with the same diagnosis for my chronic red eyes. Dry eyes, little tear production and clogged eye glands. He recommended HydroEye and to continue with my current regimen of Restasis 4x day, doxycycline 2x day, lid scrubs and heat. He also mentioned something about my conjuctiva? is loosened around my eye and he could tighten it up if I do not feel the other treatments are working. I am not sure about any type of surgery since I do not have any vision problems. However, I was advised that the few tears I do produce are not getting over the eye well due to this "sagging of the conjunctiva." I may not have understood it completely, but I think I got the gist of it.

All of these treatments are very time consuming daily. And it adds up financially as well. Does anyone know if it is worth trying an herbal supplement, like Saw Palmetto to help with the acne which is probably contributing to the eye glands being clogged?

And should I keep taking the doxycycline indefinitely? It has already been 8 months that I have been on it.

I just feel like this whole dry eye and gland dysfunction has taken over my life - and to top it all off, my eyes are chronically red. Seems pointless at times for them to feel a tad bit better with all these treatments and still look so awful.

[Rebecca Petris]

He also mentioned something about my conjuctiva? is loosened around my eye and he could tighten it up if I do not feel the other treatments are working. I am not sure about any type of surgery since I do not have any vision problems. However, I was advised that the few tears I do produce are not getting over the eye well due to this "sagging of the conjunctiva." I may not have understood it completely, but I think I got the gist of it.

Sounds like he was talking about conjunctivochalasis. It's a fairly common problem. Sounds like he was being practical about it - I would be very cautious if anyone was more aggressive than that i.e. showing more certainty that it would help. One of the problems for people with dry eye is that there are often so many things going on that we cannot know which (if any) is the greatest contributor or exacerbating factor to our actual symptoms. I have to say that in all my years doing this I've very, very rarely come across people whose symptoms resolved to their satisfaction by excising the conj. But I'm sure there are people out there who are finding it helpful.

I understand how you feel about all the drugs etc. There comes a point when you have to kind of sit back and take stock of what you're doing and why and whether lifestyle-wise it is working for you. Some of us go the drug route and some don't. It's not something that we absolutely have to take for granted as the only path. Another thing I would encourage you to consider is... with all the redness... you want to be really, really observant of how your eyes respond to what you're putting in and to each time you heat or manipulate the lids. You can be taking a step forward and a step backward with these things. Tradeoffs are part of life but we want to be conscious of what we're trading for what. Perhaps it's too early for you to be thinking of this but if you have been taking things for months and are not sure that you're seeing satisfactory benefit, sometimes a 'drug holiday' is helpful so as to get some perspective on your baseline.

[FAYE1]

Thanks for the advice. I am so used to just doing whatever the doctors suggest figuring it is like a gamble, the more things I try, the greater the possibility that something may work just by trial and error. So far that has not happened. Dr. Pflugfelder did suggest that I may want to stop the Muro 128 since it does have preservatives in it and it stings something terrible when putting it in then adds to the redness. Perhaps I have associated burning and stinging with healing. However, I guess there is such a thing as doing too much treatment. And yes, even with the treatments, it can be hard to tell what is helping and what is not when you are using so many different things.

Plus, I have at least 8 Alodox kits that are mostly unused since the only thing I needed out of the box was the Alodox/Doxycycline. It takes me awhile to use the lid scrubs. What am I to do with all the heat goggles and lid scrubs? It might be a year or more before I get to needing all of these since I get a new box every month, so long as I choose to continue taking the doxycycline.

[PotatoCakes]

You mention stinging and added redness with Muro 128 use; one thing to consider is that stinging and redness can be an indication that something is actually causing damage. If your doctor is suggesting you discontinue use, I would follow his instructions, at least for this.