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Up until August 2010, I had mild/moderate dry eye, most likely due to my age, 59, which rarely was uncomfortable enough to use eye drops. Then I had neurosurgery for trigeminal neuralgia, TN, in efforts to block pain from one branch so I could get essential dental work done. I'll spare you the sordid details of how the TN and neuropathic pain started. Anyhow, the surgery was a disaster. Not only did it not accomplish its goal, but it left me with the nerves to lacrimal glands severely damaged, resulting in virtually no tear production in my left eye. It also resulted in an anesthetized eye (as well as fully half of my face and part of the scalp), depriving me of protective blinking of eye when foreign materials entered it.
The result of all this is permanent feeling of something in my eye, blurry vision which is only partially correctable by new prescription lenses, and pain that takes my breath away when exposed to cold, heat and wind. Just the wind created by walking at a normal pace results in total dry eye. And when sitting still, close reading work, such as at the computer, or in endless charts, dries my eyes in it seems seconds.
I also discovered that part of my vision changes were the result of EBMD as well, which is much more severe in my left eye. So - now I have severely painful DE, and uncorrectable blurry vision due to the EBMD. The DES also causes the vision to become blurrier, of course, as the eye dries out more. I have come close to total blindness once so far because of the interaction of EBMD and DES. My eye was patched for 3 days after a particularly large corneal abrasion, and I only found out afterwards, that the ophthalmologist had severe doubts I would regain much vision back in that eye.
The EBMD caused greatly increased pressure in the cornea, so I am on a lifetime regimen of MURO 128 drops, ointment, hot compresses, Genteal gel drops. I must wear goggle-type glasses - Panoptyx - to go outdoors at all, and to drive because the a/c and heat dry my eyes out. I was an avid photographer, just breaking into the pro world, beginning to sell my photos commercially as a sideline, which I was hoping to become lucrative. I loved and spent lots of time in the out-of-doors.
I am having a very hard time with depression.
It really helps me a lot to read other folks' stories, and to get their comments. Thank God for this website. Without it, I would've gone off the deep end, I think.
The result of all this is permanent feeling of something in my eye, blurry vision which is only partially correctable by new prescription lenses, and pain that takes my breath away when exposed to cold, heat and wind. Just the wind created by walking at a normal pace results in total dry eye. And when sitting still, close reading work, such as at the computer, or in endless charts, dries my eyes in it seems seconds.
I also discovered that part of my vision changes were the result of EBMD as well, which is much more severe in my left eye. So - now I have severely painful DE, and uncorrectable blurry vision due to the EBMD. The DES also causes the vision to become blurrier, of course, as the eye dries out more. I have come close to total blindness once so far because of the interaction of EBMD and DES. My eye was patched for 3 days after a particularly large corneal abrasion, and I only found out afterwards, that the ophthalmologist had severe doubts I would regain much vision back in that eye.
The EBMD caused greatly increased pressure in the cornea, so I am on a lifetime regimen of MURO 128 drops, ointment, hot compresses, Genteal gel drops. I must wear goggle-type glasses - Panoptyx - to go outdoors at all, and to drive because the a/c and heat dry my eyes out. I was an avid photographer, just breaking into the pro world, beginning to sell my photos commercially as a sideline, which I was hoping to become lucrative. I loved and spent lots of time in the out-of-doors.
I am having a very hard time with depression.
It really helps me a lot to read other folks' stories, and to get their comments. Thank God for this website. Without it, I would've gone off the deep end, I think.