Dwelle advice needed

Well, I must say, I appreciate you guys ever so tactfully suggesting that I try to cut back on my drop usage... Sometimes you just need a gentle kick in the butt, you know??

Would you believe that I've been able to go an entire glorious HOUR between drops ALL DAY?!?!?! I am so freaking happy it is not even funny!

On the 10th I was at every 20 minutes... on the 11th, I was able to go 30 minutes... yesterday (the 12th) I was going 45 minutes between drops, and TODAY, O YAY!!!... I've been able to go an entire hour between drops!! WHOO HOO!!!!

O...

My...

Gawd!!!

Now in case anyone else reading this is in my situation, you should know that when I first started cutting back on my eyedrops, my eyes were itching like mad... it was brutal (but note that I did not have any pain... I would think that pain would have been a sign to maybe not cut back so much??) Anyhow, using a cold tissue over my eyes (or splashing cold water over closed eyelids) helped a LOT... today, I'm finding the itching is much reduced, and I actually am able to go part of the time in between drops without noticing my eyes. Also, I'm still wearing my Wiley X's pretty much 24/7, and doing cold compresses 3 times per day.

I've been reading everything I can get my hands on by Dr. Holly (on these forums, plus on his website... lots of food for thought there...) I came to the conclusion that perhaps over the summer my dry eye flare up had changed from just insanely dry eyes to a chemical kerititis from using drops so frequently for so long...

After reading everything Dr. Holly has written here twice over, I decided on the 11th to switch my eyedrops to Dwelle (I placed my order yesterday!). This time, I'm going to give Dwelle a serious try... ie. stop ALL other drops, and use nothing other than Dwelle for at least a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I had a couple of unopened bottles of Dr. Holly's Nutratear sitting around, so I switched to using Nutratear exclusively for now.

After reading all of Dr. Holly's info, and experiencing such great progress over the past few days, I have renewed hope that I will get this dryness back to a more manageable level.

"I know there are times when my eyes get dry during the day, but sometimes I just work through it and then my eyes will feel moist again. I don't know if I am doing my eyes any favors, but I am using less drops. "

For the first time in MONTHS, I am finally able to do this... it's wonderful! My eyes sting a bit after instilling the Nutratear, but by the end of half an hour, they feel much better.

"Blink, blink, blink. The more you blink, you may be able to get through your urge to use drops at least some of the time. Lucy"

I've been thinking of this comment all the time since you wrote it! It does indeed help!

Man o man... I am just so grateful for this site and these forums!

[Lucy]

Blink, blink, blink. The more you blink, you may be able to get through your urge to use drops at least some of the time. Lucy

[msienkiewicz]

I know there are times when my eyes get dry during the day, but sometimes I just work through it and then my eyes will feel moist again. I don't know if I am doing my eyes any favors, but I am using less drops.

Best wishes,
Melissa

[calli66]

I know it's hard----keep trying!

Are you able to use swim goggles at all?

Also, I've noticed for myself that when I'm doing stuff outside (like walking or gardening), the time goes faster. As for "time," have you tried not wearing a watch or noticing the time interval between drop applications? Maybe if you took clock-awareness out of the equation you could break the cycle---I have no idea if that would have an effect, but maybe it's worth a try.

My point is (in relation to the eye and drops) that there is both the physical sensation and the mental reaction to it, and each can be a slave to the other.

C

"As soon as you start to feel the dry sensation after applying drops, then instead using more drops, take a tissue, wet it with cool water, close your lids, and wet your lashes and lids. Make them pretty wet, but not so much that water runs into your eyes. Then gently open your eyes and wipe the wet tissue along the lower lids."

Thanks for the suggestion! I've been trying this today, and you know what? It really helps! It's allowed me to go a bit longer before needing drops... it really calms that itchy sensation that I was previously relieving with drops... Now don't get me wrong, I'm now using drops once every 20 minutes (sometimes I've lasted 25 minutes!) but at least that's a bit better than every 10-15 minutes, right?

And, I haven't run into that stabbing pain sensation that I was scared about... YAY!

So... maybe this will help jumpstart the process of tapering back on my artificial tear usage... I'm crossing my fingers! I'd love to be back to only needing drops once per hour... that would be heavenly compared to where I'm at now. And THEN, once I get permanent plugs put in, and get on Restasis, who knows... maybe I can get even better... I'm hoping anyhow!

"How about using the eyelid spray - called claramist in GB
Is it tears again in USA ? "

I'm up in Canada... so far, I haven't seen this product in stores... but I'll look into a bit more!

[stella]

How about using the eyelid spray - called claramist in GB
Is it tears again in USA ?

[calli66]

A friend of mine with super dry eyes used to wear swim goggles around the house and then Wileys when she had to go out.

Drops every 15 minutes----I been there at times, but it's not good! (as you know). Here's an idea you might try:

As soon as you start to feel the dry sensation after applying drops, then instead using more drops, take a tissue, wet it with cool water, close your lids, and wet your lashes and lids. Make them pretty wet, but not so much that water runs into your eyes. Then gently open your eyes and wipe the wet tissue along the lower lids. Keep a wet tissue handy and gently wipe your eye area as often as needed.

I used this technique to 'wean' myself from using drops so often. What it does is calm the itchy dry sensation without actually adding more liquids to the eye surface. Use the surface wetting technique as long as it provides any relief and go as long as possible before putting in more drops.

If my eyes are really 'impossible' to tolerate, I use Genteal Gel during the day, which really helps but is blurry. I usually only put it in my worse eye so at least I can see out of my other eye.

Let me know if this helps at all.

Calli

"a bottle a day is truly waaaaay over the top"

"yeah, uh, that sounds solidly unhealthy."

I know... going through a bottle a day of eyedrops sounds completely nuts...

I use the drops as soon as I start to feel dryness again (you know... burning, itchy, and just, well, dry...)... the trouble is, that happens every 10-15 minutes.

One problem with using less drops is, if I try to use drops less frequently, the usual result is that after several hours, I start to feel sharp stabs of pain on my eyeball when I blink... I've always feared this might be the start of the dreaded corneal erosion, so whenever this happens, I go back to using the drops as soon as I feel dryness, and the sharp pains go away.

So far, I've been told that aside from being dry, my corneas look great (no scarring or anything like that)... and I'm hoping to keep it that way...

Soooo... where do I go from here?

I would love to cut back on my drop usage, but am scared of that sharp pain that arrives as a result... I was hoping that if I just continue what I'm doing, that as the inflammation improves, I'll start noticing that I only feel dry every 20 minutes... then every 30 minutes... then only dry every hour... etc. (that's how I got to using drops only once every 1-2 hours a couple of years ago... but then this rotten flare-up arrived in April, and I'm right back to every 15 minutes! grrr....)

I won't be getting access to any precription treatments other than the temp lower plugs I have now until I see the corneal specialist on Oct. 30...

re: humidifiers: I'm a stay-at-home mom at the moment, so I don't have to worry about dry office air or anything like that. We have a humidifier on our home ventilation system, and the humidity level in the house never drops below 50% in the summer.

re: moisture chamber glasses - For weeks now I've been wearing my Wiley-X's with the light-adjusting lenses 100% of the time when I'm at home (which is pretty much 95% of my waking hours, as I'm here with the kids). If I go outside, then I wear my darker Wiley-X's to block the wind and sunlight.

Do you guys think that wearing Wiley-X's indoors would be equivalent to moisture chamber glasses? They fog up if I'm doing anything the slightest bit active (ex. housecleaning)... so I assume they're doing a decent job of keeping moisture in...

Thanks for reading!

[nahzee]

yeah, uh, that sounds solidly unhealthy.

When I first started using dwelle, I was using about 30 drops a day of other eye drops- refresh endura, celluvisc, bion tears, anything. By the third day of dwelle I was at 14 drops a day.

Now, I use 4-5 drops of freshkote a day and a dose of muro nightly. If my eyes are excessively dried for some reason, like a windy environment, I might just use another freshkote drop, or use a refresh classic ampule once or twice a week.

For me, the relief from Dwelle was immediate in terms of reduced need to drop. The actual improvement of my eye condition- and long term pain control- took time.

Using too much Dwelle wont help. It'll make your eyes sticky and gritty and disgusting and it'll wash away whatever natural tears you're producing.

I'd suggest doing a 'cold turkey' trial of dwelle for -a few weeks- at least not dropping anything else to see if you can get results. Focus on options like humidifiers and moisture chambers for symptom control, NOT overdropping.

If that's not something you can or are willing to do, just add dwelle to your current schedule and see if you get anything out of it. Wait at least 15 minutes between using any other kind of drop, though, or else you might as well be slopping it uselessly down your nose.

[Rebecca Petris]

I think it's possible, though not probable, that adding a normal dosage of Dwelle (e.g. 4-5 drops per day) to your current regimen might help. Certainly worth a try.

I have a very difficult time imagining that using 14 bottles of Dwelle in 2 weeks would be a good thing, because I worry about the effects of over-dropping, and Dr. Holly who formulated Dwelle has pretty strong opinions about this. But then I'd say the same thing about any other lubricant for the same reasons. And ... just being pragmatic for a moment... if you're already using that many drops anyway come hell or high water, well, theoretically you don't have much to lose and potentially a lot to gain by trying. In many cases the use of Dwelle seems to reduce the frequency of needing drops. Still, a bottle a day is truly waaaaay over the top.

Is there any way you can cut down on your drop frequency while testing new products by using moisture chambers? It's hard to figure how you could test the efficacy of anything when (a) using a lot of other therapies concurrently and (b) using the product being tested in a way that's not recommended.

All that said... I'm not trying to get on your case about the dropping frequency, I understand the desperation for relief. Just trying to be realistic about what can be expected

Hello all!

I am currently using artificial tears every 10-15 minutes. I am considering giving Dwelle another try.

If I were to use it exclusively, I'd probably go through 1 bottle per day. I've read that no other drops should be used while giving Dwelle a try, and that it can take a few weeks to kick in... so... that would mean I'd have to order at least 14 bottles for a mere 2 week trial period!! If I decide to try it exclusively for 3 weeks, then I'd need to order 21 bottles!

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?? I'm desperate for relief! Would this be crazy for me to try it even though I'll be using so much of it??

I'll gladly fork out the money for a gazillion bottles, and learn to embrace the white flakes on my eyelashes if I can get some relief... hmmm... I suppose what I really need is a psychic here... i mean, It's not like anyone can guarantee it'll work right? haha

Anyone out there starting out with dry eyes as bad as mine who had success with Dwelle?? Any advice?? (I know there are no guarantees here... but just looking for some input from my virtual dry eye friends here!)

Thanks for reading everyone!