Eyes driving me crazy

[rooneyandfergie]

After a period of relative stability (though not fully comfortable) period where my eyes generally was less red and more comfortable, things have really made a turn for the worse for me in the last 2 weeks. I thought it would be good to be specific about my symptoms and the current treatments i am having so that perhaps someone who have gone through a similar situation can provide some advice.

Generally the symptoms that really plague me are
- Red eyes (really red !!!) that fluctuates. But it gets pinkish like i have pink eye at best
- Soreness, pain in and between the eyebrows
- developed sinus issues since dry eyes (sometimes causes a blocked sensation in the left ear)
- Really bad burning sensation in the eyes
- Sometimes hives (or little rashes) appear on the eyelids ( I wonder if this is due to an allergy to any eye drop that i am using or is it due to my eyes becoming more allergic due to dryness or is it due to food allergies?)
- Had one or 2 days of really bad redness in the left eye where the white part became slightly swollen (allergic conjunctivitis) without apparent reason


Treatment used
- Refresh plus ( use this most often nowadays)
- Refresh classic
- Bion tears
- Warm compresses about 3 min 2 times a day
- lid scrubs
- theratears nutrition (2 pills 2 times a day)
- ciclosporine compounded 0.5% 2 times a day ( now increased to 3X a day)
- opticrom just started this week due to allergy
- steroidal nasal spary for sinus
- have already used doxy for a month back in oct i think

By the way, I have tried my best to cut down my usage of artificial tears due to having read many post saying that overuse is bad as it dilutes away the beneficial components of my natural tears. However I don't know if i should be using it more to keep my eyes moisturized and to wash out any allergens. I am a bit confused because whether i use it more often or less often, my dry eyes symptoms are still as bad. Btw i have also been changing over to Refresh classic PF as i was not sure if Refresh plus was causing the allergies. I have read that the active ingredient in Refresh plus carboxymethylcellulose has a reputation for causing allergies in some people. I have stopped putting ointments into my eyes before i sleep since i don't think putting thick ointments is good for your tear film stability.

I feel that one of the aggravating factor that i cant escape from is the drying air conditioning and computer that i face in the office. I have tried to use moisture chamber glasses but i have come up against a few obstacles. Firstly, my prescription means that many moisture chamber glasses are unable to hold my rx lenses. I do have a wiley airrage that can hold up to my rx prescription. But unfortunately they are not discreet enough for an office environment plus it sometimes makes me a little giddy due to the curvature of the lens. Furthermore, the glasses tend to make the discomfort in and between my eyebrows worse. I have been thinking about maybe using a humidifier but i don't know if it would be effective since my office is pretty big. Are there any viable solutions? This is really a big problem as i love my job but they do aggravate my dry eyes more.

Another thing that i was thinking about is that i have once been told by an eye doctor that the compounded ciclosporine i am using is bad and that i should stop using it to allow my tear film to stabilize. Reason he gave was that the olive oil vehicle used is very nasty for the eyes and destabilizes the tear film more. Is there any truth to that?

Have been thinking if it is possible that some kind of low grade allergic reaction is causing my dry eyes. It's really a problem because if i do not use eyes drops to treat the allergy, the eyes feel horrible. If i do, i understand it dries out the eyes more.

Many websites says that forcefully reminding yourself to consciously blink when using a computer helps to relieve dry eye symptoms. However, if your eyes are dry or if you suffer from MGD or blepharitis, is it good for you to keep blinking. What i mean is if your eyes are dry and u keep blinking, its like a lot of impact on your conjunctiva and cornea with lack of protection due to insufficient moisture.

I am really fed up with the redness in my eyes. It's so obvious that it's affecting my self-confidence in social situations and also gets me down quite a bit. Have anyone successfully or significantly tackled the problem? Artificial tears don't really do anything for the redness. I don't really want to do any of the eye whitening surgeries until as a last resort. Are there any eyedrops such as anti-vegf or future treatments for people that suffer from chronic redness.

I havent been following up with the latest news in the dry eye world but are there any upcoming dry eye treatments in the pipeline or research that can offer cure of a hope from this terrible disease. I feel i have already exhausted most of the dry eye treatment options available but still my eyes are giving me so much problems. I dont know what else i can do.

Sorry for venting my frustration but it has been a really tough week for me.

[bp77]

have you tried celluvisc from refresh? this is the onlything that helps me. I use it day and night.

[y-gwair]

The more drops I used the worse my eyes got. I had to stop taking all of them when I was using steroid drops, as the lids started swelling alarmingly; the swelling went down overnight when I stopped using viscotears/simple eye ointment and celluvisc. Ophthalmologist agreed that the drops were probably making things worse. She suggested using only celluvisc very sparingly (just single drops), as this has the fewest additives so less likely than others to cause irritation. I find even celluvisc makes them burn so manage without anything. I should have realised this before, as I have extremely chemical-sensitive skin and problems tolerating many medications.

The only way to find out if the cocktail of chemicals may be interacting to cause more irritation is to eliminate them as far as possible, and see if it makes a difference. The problem is that most drops seem ok for the first few days of use, the irritation can take a while to build up, so it can be hard to make the connection with what sets it off.

Rash on the eyelids sounds more like some sort of dermatitis to me, which might be related to rosacea, something I'm starting to look into myself as I hadn't previously realised there might be a connection between my other skin irritations and dry eye.

[rooneyandfergie]

I have tried celluvisc on many occasions but there are a few things i dont like about it. Firstly it tends to blur the vision when u put it in. Also when i put in celluvisc my eyes tend to feel gritty although they do last longer and give a bit more protection to my eyes. however my eyes sometimes turn a bit red when i put in celluvisc.

I have tried not putting in any drops or as few as possible but the burning sensation gets pretty bad or the eyes could become pretty red. Sometimes there is like a pulling sensation on the eye and even a dull ache between the eye brows when i dont use the drops. I guess the ache comes from exerting the facial or eye muscles to read or use the computer when my eyes are dry. Hence i often tend to need to use the drops although they are not satisfactory as well as a solution to my discomforts.

Yeah i do get what u mean y-gwair. Hence i have been trying to use artificial tears without CMC which has reportedly caused allergies in some people. I am not too sure what rosacea is. Is it like reddish looking cheeks? Is it a form of allergy? Anyway i have been using refresh eye drops which is PF and also milder. I was thinking that maybe it has a propensity to cause less allergies

Anyway i do suspect if its possible that some kind of low grade allergies are actually causing the malfunction of the lacrimal glands and the meibomian glands that constitute dry eyes.

[jads]

Hi, have you looked into hormone imbalances? Often, this is the major culprit \ underlying cause with dry eyes.

Too much estrogen and not enough androgens contribute to degraded meibomian and lacrimal gland function.

http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/entry...out-of-balance

Best