"dry" eye - would describe in other ways too

[Margaret]

My eyes feel so differently from month to month. Does anyone else have such fluctuations? Last month I was finally feeling like I just had dry eyes - light burning, but stable, no pains, just dryness. This month however, my eyes around the lids feel almost sticky and burning, almost goopy, without any "goop" to see. It's as if there is a dirty film across my inner edge of my lids. My eyeballs themselves burn too, some days worse than others. It's been very hard to get through this month. If anyone has felt the same, it would be greatly appreciated to hear from you.

[Jesslin]

Hi Margaret,

My eyes feel totally different from one day/ month to the next as well. Sometimes they feel raw and stinging and water a lot, other times they have the thick goopy feeling like my tears are very thick and it's hard to blink and makes me feel very tired. When they feel goopy no amount of eye drops makes them feel normal. Sometimes I have a lot of pain on the surface, other days not so much. My vision fluctuates quite a lot to. My problem is abnormal meibomian secretions so I think the different feelings may be partly to do with how the oil is as it varies in consistency daily, sometimes it even has granules and lumps in. If I'm somewhere hot and stuffy more meibom seems to come out and this causes the goopyness i think. I never know how I'll feel from day to day. Perhaps it is the different environmental conditions that cause this for you? I think that hormones etc can also play a role, there's so many factors that seem to effect it, it's hard to find a pattern.

[y-gwair]

Hi Margaret. how are you doing?

Yes, my eyes are similarly unstable, although their condition seems to correlate closely with that of my skin (currently flushing, burning and horrendously dry with closed MGs and poor meibum flow). I'd guess hormones may be at least a part of the problem; at the age of 44 I'd guess they are starting to fluctuate and quite honestly I live in dread of what may be to come.

[Margaret]

Same here! I have a year of dry eye history to work with and one of the past months my eyes were watering a lot too. Now it's my lids. They just hurt right now, feel thick, hard to blink, etc. My vision fluctuates a lot as well. I think hormones plays a role in my case as well. Around that time of the month my eyes seem to deteriorate, however, on some particularly bad months my eyes will stay bad for months. I wish I could somehow narrow the variability down so that I have more even days. I know I will have dry eye for the rest of my life, but can I manage the curve balls somehow?

[Colin P]

Mine goes like this!.
Started off in January as 'foreign object' sensation, or Grit (not 1 piece) all over like someone has thrown sand in your eyes. Progressed (arf!) into dry as a desert feeling, oh and Eye fatigue/strain when driving.
Eye drops have limited use, so try different brands, last month on 'Rohto' the foreign object was replaced by what i can only describe as my eye bulging, and too big for the socket. I moved onto 'Thera-tears' and same again! went back to 'Hylo-tear' Bulging went away but now got 'Menthol' (cold pain) currently on 'Clinitas sooth' Not had foreign object for over 3 weeks now, and white powder i used to get in corners of eyes has virtualy stopped. Stiil got the menthol!.
I have no-idea what is going on, and am terrified eyes are getting worse? Did 'Rohto' cause the change? and will it not go-back? is-it nothing to do with Rohto?
Is 'Menthol' here to stay?..
A million questions to ask which an opthamolagist will just look at me like i'm crazy asking all these questions? as it's not a question and answer session..
Like others, it's ruined my life and unless i get a serious eye-injury no-ones gonna take me on!. "here have some drops and go-away"...
There is no pattern to it, and ive yet to speak to anyone who's examined my eyes, tell me exactly what ive got? or give a sh*t...
RANT OVER (for now)...

[Trac]

Colin,
You need to see a good ophthalmologist that can diagnose your dry eyes and give you some proper medication.
My dry eyes change not from day to day, but from moment to moment. I can go from being okay to feeling like a have an ice pick stuck in my eye, to my eye lid swelling shut. Some times at night the light/glare from the stop lights burns my eyes and I have to squint my eyes shut to drive. My vision fluctuates also. It seems like things as simple as stress have an effect on my eyes. One problem I have is when my eyes don’t hurt as much I am less likely to put in my eye drops, but I put in drops 20 times a day, plus pills to increase mucus secretion 6 times a day, plus 3 fish oil pills a day. Plus an antibiotic and 2 ointments at night. I told my doctor with all of the intervention I have I should have bionic eyes, not dry eyes.