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Hi my name is Matt and I thought I’d write a post to get some feedback and advice.
My apologies if this is a bit of a lengthy read however I want to give full context of my situation In the hopes it might give someone on here a reference point to give me advice. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated I have been lurking this forum for about 2 months now.
This story somewhat starts in high school, at some point mid high school I began to use contact lenses. They were at times uncomfortable not feeling moist enough and giving me some eye fatigue my optometrist said I had some dry eye I went though periods of wearing them and not wearing them. Overall it wasn’t a very big deal though they were just uncomfortable for me.
After the end of my first year of university I had LASIK. I had some dry eye for a month probably less.
After a while maybe a year later I noticed my eyesight getting slightly worse but only when on the computer or reading, so I went to the optometrist and got reading glasses.
At some point maybe a year after this I noticed myself squinting and my eyes eventually watering in shopping centre’s/ mall’s I assumed this was because my prescription was changing and my eyes were straining (this was normal I’ve had glasses since I was 6). It was at this point I went to my local optometrist and she said I could probably go back to wearing glasses again full time if I wanted to. I didn’t do this because I didn’t feel it was necessary I could see quite well but I always noticed when in a shopping centre after a while my eyes would slightly water.
I now in retrospect believe this is from the air conditioners running in shopping centres.
Fast forward a bit further and I found more and more my eyes were very dry in the morning this wasn’t uncommon but it just became more frequent until it got to the point where I needed to have my drops (Sistine ultra) ready to put in as soon as I opened my eyes. I could go without drops if I wanted, be uncomfortable for a while and eventually the dryness would subside. I also began to notice more and more without my glasses my eyes would water and I would be squinting.
Fast forward again to 6 months ago I started working my first “career” job (Im a programmer).
Everything was going fine until about 4 months in I noticed more and more fatigue in my eyes at work I assumed well some days I’m tired and I’m on the computer all day I’ll take drops to work. However I assumed this was mainly me adjusting to me having to wake up at 5:30AM every morning (big adjustment for me) and just the stress of starting a job I really cared about. Now I realise it was the central heating beginning to dry out my eyes.
Then I noticed more and more irritation and feelings of fatigue in my eyes until one day I realised I put in so many drops that my eyes stung(the stinging which I would later learn was because of the preservatives in the eye drops, well that and putting in far to many).
The heater at work seemed to be what was causing the problem.
I got quite panicked immediately I spent the weekend resting and assumed with some rest over the weekend it would go away.
When I got back to work I had the same issue.
I took the next day off and went to a dry eye clinic that I read about at work the day prior I have OCD and this eye situation had me so panicked after I started reading about dry eye.
The optometrist who runs the clinic is very thorough and spends a lot of time explaining everything.
He ran a couple of tests I vaguely remember the TBUT:
4.8 right eye
7 point something in my left.
He diagnosed me with evaporative dry eye and have been told there is nothing functionally wrong with my eyes the glands look normal and so do my eyes but because of vascular inflammation my meibomian glands are not producing enough oil.
He recommended IPL treatment as it targets vascular inflammation and I have since been doing that.
He also recommended I use a preservative free eye drops with I am currently using called Oculocin Propo.
After the first appointment on the optometrists recommendation I had a series of auto-immune tests done.
I was positive for HLA-DR & HLA-DQ which it was explained to me 95% of people who are celiac have these genes present. I do not have celiac disease I was tested a while ago.
The optometrist explained to me that this has gives my body the potential to cause an inflammatory response but all of the main things they were testing for namely Sjogren's was not present.
But since this has started even now with the IPL my eyes seem to be gradually getting worse and worse.
I noticed things that would require me to be in a central heated room for a period of time began to occur in a room without heating then it occurred faster then I was ok in a separate room with a humidifier then not as great. The same type of things just occurring faster (the people at work are very nice and I’m in a closed off office space and I run a humidifier all day, without this i wouldn’t be working).
Also now using my iPad at all seems to give my eye ache rather quickly not on computers just my iPad.
As mentioned I am undergoing IPL treatment my second treatment was over a week ago and I feel I continue to decline, like the IPL makes no difference.
I have also since been back to the optometrist after a day of eye pain and panic in which I decided to book an appointment. He thinks iI experienced a flare up due to auto-immune issues. Im not sure whether the headaches were caused by bad posture because of my job I have since stretched and haven’t had the ache again (happened to me before) or just from iPad use. This however doesn’t change the fact that I continue to feel worse.
My next course of action is to see an allergist which is occurring in roughly 2 weeks I have always had hay fever, a bad response to certain asian cuisine (MSG related I believe) and about 3 months-is ago I had a reaction to some nuts in a candy bar. I also on the optometrist’s request am going to further explore auto immune issues.
An odd thing I have recently noticed though is that drinking a lot of water seems to offset/ stop the dry eye (but very large quantities) and I do always seem to have some minor pain in my stomach and very dry mouth and dry lips (but I was tested for Sjogren's so I guess thats out).
Currently I get a feeling like there is a dry contact stuck to my eye at points and my eyes sting slightly at points after a period using computers however I will mention this is when avoiding heaters.
I feel as if this issue has been developing/ progressing very slowly for a long time and is now just continuing to do so except now I’m not mistaking it for eye fatigue.
I just ordered the dry eye remedy and thought it would be a good idea to post here as well.
I have some questions if anyone wants to answer:
If you have read all of this (thank you if you did) what are your thoughts? theories?
What have other people done to rid themselves of vascular eyelid inflammation?
Will this just continue to progress?
What could have triggered this?
Thanks,
Matt
My apologies if this is a bit of a lengthy read however I want to give full context of my situation In the hopes it might give someone on here a reference point to give me advice. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated I have been lurking this forum for about 2 months now.
This story somewhat starts in high school, at some point mid high school I began to use contact lenses. They were at times uncomfortable not feeling moist enough and giving me some eye fatigue my optometrist said I had some dry eye I went though periods of wearing them and not wearing them. Overall it wasn’t a very big deal though they were just uncomfortable for me.
After the end of my first year of university I had LASIK. I had some dry eye for a month probably less.
After a while maybe a year later I noticed my eyesight getting slightly worse but only when on the computer or reading, so I went to the optometrist and got reading glasses.
At some point maybe a year after this I noticed myself squinting and my eyes eventually watering in shopping centre’s/ mall’s I assumed this was because my prescription was changing and my eyes were straining (this was normal I’ve had glasses since I was 6). It was at this point I went to my local optometrist and she said I could probably go back to wearing glasses again full time if I wanted to. I didn’t do this because I didn’t feel it was necessary I could see quite well but I always noticed when in a shopping centre after a while my eyes would slightly water.
I now in retrospect believe this is from the air conditioners running in shopping centres.
Fast forward a bit further and I found more and more my eyes were very dry in the morning this wasn’t uncommon but it just became more frequent until it got to the point where I needed to have my drops (Sistine ultra) ready to put in as soon as I opened my eyes. I could go without drops if I wanted, be uncomfortable for a while and eventually the dryness would subside. I also began to notice more and more without my glasses my eyes would water and I would be squinting.
Fast forward again to 6 months ago I started working my first “career” job (Im a programmer).
Everything was going fine until about 4 months in I noticed more and more fatigue in my eyes at work I assumed well some days I’m tired and I’m on the computer all day I’ll take drops to work. However I assumed this was mainly me adjusting to me having to wake up at 5:30AM every morning (big adjustment for me) and just the stress of starting a job I really cared about. Now I realise it was the central heating beginning to dry out my eyes.
Then I noticed more and more irritation and feelings of fatigue in my eyes until one day I realised I put in so many drops that my eyes stung(the stinging which I would later learn was because of the preservatives in the eye drops, well that and putting in far to many).
The heater at work seemed to be what was causing the problem.
I got quite panicked immediately I spent the weekend resting and assumed with some rest over the weekend it would go away.
When I got back to work I had the same issue.
I took the next day off and went to a dry eye clinic that I read about at work the day prior I have OCD and this eye situation had me so panicked after I started reading about dry eye.
The optometrist who runs the clinic is very thorough and spends a lot of time explaining everything.
He ran a couple of tests I vaguely remember the TBUT:
4.8 right eye
7 point something in my left.
He diagnosed me with evaporative dry eye and have been told there is nothing functionally wrong with my eyes the glands look normal and so do my eyes but because of vascular inflammation my meibomian glands are not producing enough oil.
He recommended IPL treatment as it targets vascular inflammation and I have since been doing that.
He also recommended I use a preservative free eye drops with I am currently using called Oculocin Propo.
After the first appointment on the optometrists recommendation I had a series of auto-immune tests done.
I was positive for HLA-DR & HLA-DQ which it was explained to me 95% of people who are celiac have these genes present. I do not have celiac disease I was tested a while ago.
The optometrist explained to me that this has gives my body the potential to cause an inflammatory response but all of the main things they were testing for namely Sjogren's was not present.
But since this has started even now with the IPL my eyes seem to be gradually getting worse and worse.
I noticed things that would require me to be in a central heated room for a period of time began to occur in a room without heating then it occurred faster then I was ok in a separate room with a humidifier then not as great. The same type of things just occurring faster (the people at work are very nice and I’m in a closed off office space and I run a humidifier all day, without this i wouldn’t be working).
Also now using my iPad at all seems to give my eye ache rather quickly not on computers just my iPad.
As mentioned I am undergoing IPL treatment my second treatment was over a week ago and I feel I continue to decline, like the IPL makes no difference.
I have also since been back to the optometrist after a day of eye pain and panic in which I decided to book an appointment. He thinks iI experienced a flare up due to auto-immune issues. Im not sure whether the headaches were caused by bad posture because of my job I have since stretched and haven’t had the ache again (happened to me before) or just from iPad use. This however doesn’t change the fact that I continue to feel worse.
My next course of action is to see an allergist which is occurring in roughly 2 weeks I have always had hay fever, a bad response to certain asian cuisine (MSG related I believe) and about 3 months-is ago I had a reaction to some nuts in a candy bar. I also on the optometrist’s request am going to further explore auto immune issues.
An odd thing I have recently noticed though is that drinking a lot of water seems to offset/ stop the dry eye (but very large quantities) and I do always seem to have some minor pain in my stomach and very dry mouth and dry lips (but I was tested for Sjogren's so I guess thats out).
Currently I get a feeling like there is a dry contact stuck to my eye at points and my eyes sting slightly at points after a period using computers however I will mention this is when avoiding heaters.
I feel as if this issue has been developing/ progressing very slowly for a long time and is now just continuing to do so except now I’m not mistaking it for eye fatigue.
I just ordered the dry eye remedy and thought it would be a good idea to post here as well.
I have some questions if anyone wants to answer:
If you have read all of this (thank you if you did) what are your thoughts? theories?
What have other people done to rid themselves of vascular eyelid inflammation?
Will this just continue to progress?
What could have triggered this?
Thanks,
Matt
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