Another young, confused dry eye sufferer....

[gormz]

Gormz, I sympathize with your DES problems, and I hope that you can find relief, and also that you have a lot of patience until you find what helps you most. Other people have responded to you with excellent suggestions, and you have done much research too; there is only one suggestion I can add. Make sure the lenses in the motorcycle glasses or other sunglasses you are wearing are polarized. I went through two pairs of motorcycle glasses that only helped a little before I discovered that polarized lenses are much, much more helpful. I've been wearing 7eye Panoptx polarized moisture chamber sunglasses indoors and outdoors for the past couple of months and that has helped me to cope. One other suggestion, if you do reading on the computer, the f.lux program is extremely helpful in taking away the glare on the computer screen; it makes the colors on the screen much gentler on your eyes, yet preserves enough contrast so you can see clearly.

Hey thanks for the tips. I made sure my lenses were polarized when i got them and i put f.lux on my computer as soon as i got it. It seems to help a ton

[BigNate]

Gormz,

With the exception of the ulcer, your story seems to be spot on with mine. I have gone through all the dry eye treatments you have with no luck.

I started writing in to a couple of sites like this one. I wrote in to Yahoo Answers and some eye doctor answered my questions referred me to this blog he had. Right now you're probably thinking this sounds like a waste of time. However, this eye doctor is really helpful because he has always answered my questions within 10 minutes of me posting them and he isn't trying to sell any product or service or anything, which makes me believe he's just in it to help people.

I told him how I had dry eyes. Again, it was much like your story minus the ulcer. He had told me how he rarely sees dry eyes in people of our age. That completely stopped any logical process I was making. Then however, he said something that has me really curious. He said, "if you were cruising along just fine & never had a problem before & suddenly now one or both of them move around when you blink...and they're not inside out & they're the same contact lens you've always had etc etc then its GPC."

Perhaps the ulcer has something to do with your issue. This however describes me perfectly and has me wondering since he said it is one of the most underdiagnosed issues. He said many eye docs just say its dry eye.

Maybe this sounds like your issue with getting extra veins and all that? I have that issue too. If you find that everytime you blink and the contacts moved, maybe this is your issue? Have they ever checked the back side of your lids?

Good luck. Hopefully that gets you thinking and gets you on the right track to the answers.

[BigNate]

The link to the above that I mentioned above is http://www.myeyepod.blogspot.dk/2012...d-dry-eye.html

This doctor has been very helpful in answering questions, not to mention he has a ton of posts and information.

[lady_asphodel]

gormz, I'm sorry to hear that you are struggling so much. I know the feeling. I also have trouble with obsessing. It's incredible when I have a good day and I hardly even think about my eyes. I feel so happy and think I'm getting better. But then the next day will be a painful reminder that I'm right back at square 1.

What is the refresh pm information to which you're referring? I couldn't find it under search. I used refresh pm for a while. It seemed to help short-term, but the longer I was on it the more my eyelids became swollen and clogged up. When I stopped completely, it seemed I was worse than when I started.

[MeibomianGlandman]

So that is my (long) story........I still dont know the reason behind my dry eye despite seeing 7 different ophthalmologists.....

Been down that road buddy, MAKE SURE TO SEE A DRY EYE SPECIALIST, MOST GENERAL OPHTHALMOLOGISTS HAVE NO CLUE WHAT TO DO ABOUT DRY EYE! Call rhein medical to see where they sold their meibomian gland duct probe too, this should lead you in the right direction. TRUST ME, IT WILL HELP TONS...Also make sure to go over what you are doing everyday, Dry Eye is what I call an Environmental Disease....Make sure to see what it is you are doing to your body, like what you are drinking, what you are eating, Read the Fine print, especially on the med's you are using, i mean check the cleanliness of your bed, the soaps you use, the quality of water that you drink. Trust me all these things can lead to this disease. Mine was caused by seborrheic dermatitis on the scalp combined with mineral oil sensitivities and chemical sensitivities to a preservative in soap. Beware these things. Good luck

[gormz]

Been down that road buddy, MAKE SURE TO SEE A DRY EYE SPECIALIST, MOST GENERAL OPHTHALMOLOGISTS HAVE NO CLUE WHAT TO DO ABOUT DRY EYE! Call rhein medical to see where they sold their meibomian gland duct probe too, this should lead you in the right direction. TRUST ME, IT WILL HELP TONS...Also make sure to go over what you are doing everyday, Dry Eye is what I call an Environmental Disease....Make sure to see what it is you are doing to your body, like what you are drinking, what you are eating, Read the Fine print, especially on the med's you are using, i mean check the cleanliness of your bed, the soaps you use, the quality of water that you drink. Trust me all these things can lead to this disease. Mine was caused by seborrheic dermatitis on the scalp combined with mineral oil sensitivities and chemical sensitivities to a preservative in soap. Beware these things. Good luck

Solid advice. I have been to so called dry eye specialists. Even a couple that have written extensively on dry eye. I got about the same advice for treating it as i did from regular ophthalmolgists although they were more sympathetic about it.

Lady-Im not sure where i saw the info about the refresh pm but it said something about affecting the tear osmolarity and this can lead to more problems the more you use it.

[gormz]

update

So just a quick update on my whole situation. I ended up having to take a medical leave from PA school. The eye situation was just too difficult to deal with on top of an already difficult program. The good news is that i can come back in a year without having to apply again.

So im still hesitant to post this on dry eye triumphs but my eyes are definitely improving. It was definitely the right decision to take the medical leave. Over the last couple months ive been having more and more good days. This is very promising especially since the humidity from heating is much lower in the winter. Ive gone from using eye drops hourly at my worst to only using restasis 2x a day and Clinitas ultra 3 at night. I also used to wear my chem goggles inside and also my liberty motorcycle glasses whenever i left my house. Now i dont wear either and i can go outside in the wind or a grocery store without them. I cant begin to describe how awesome this feels compared to last summer when i thought id never be able to do that comfortably again

Today i was even able to nap without putting any drops in and my eyes felt fine/weren't red at all when i woke up. I never thought id be able to do that again in my life.

So what ive been doing:

-meditation (hey it cant hurt and its very relaxing)
-exercising (i guess ive always done this but its great for your body and mind)
-GAPS diet (lots of probiotic foods, bone broth, lots of fats, lots of veggies, meat/organ meats) and also following a lot of advice found on Chris kresser and Marks daily apple blogs
-Cod liver oil (Ive also gotten rid of a lot of the foods high in O-6s to balance the ratio of O-3 to O-6)
-Vitamin D (great for immune system functioning and a lacking nutrient in the northern latitudes)
-Food diary (i really think i was having reactions to foods i was eating and doing this allowed me to pinpoint some of them)
-restasis-2x a day (really thinking about quitting since my eyes didn't feel better until i started my diet)
-clinitas ultra 3 at night (Also thinking about not using it at night but nervous to stop)
-doing less and less compresses and expressing of glands (paradoxically my glands dont become blocked as much)
-Not thinking about/researching dry eye

So i'm hoping my eyes continue improving. The body has a remarkable ability to heal so i figure if i remove the root cause of the problem i should be able to go back to normal (or almost normal). Im really hoping the diet is addressing the root cause of the problem. This is what has been working for me so i just thought id share it with you guys.

[heyjude0701]

Thank you for posting this, Gormz. So glad there is hope!!!!!! Judy

[Andrey_V]

So how are you doing now?