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Hi Everyone!
I am new here and have been reading through the posts. My heart goes out to all of you. Dianat, your story is particularly saddening to me and I didn't have Lasik but my dry eye came on suddenly and has completely changed my life. I am a 36 yr old Mother of two and it is awful how it can change the whole family. You are a very good writer too. Thanks for sharing. Thank you all of you.
Anyway, I have worn contacts successfully for 20 years and never had a problem. A year ago this May I contacted pink eye and my eyes have never been the same. The infection was cultured and came back as streptococcal pneumonia. I took Tobramycin drops to clear it up. After treatment my eyes were severely dry. Not sure if do to the drops or the infection itself and any resulting damage. I would awaken in the night with lids so dry- I could barely move them over my eyeballs. I used all artificial tears as prescribed by my Dr but that just caused more burning. I lived day to day for months with no help. Cried my eyes out over this with reduced tearing, I might add. Then about 3 months into this mess and after seeking out many different opths (I've seen 5 total) I was diagnosed with posterior blepharitis/ MGD and ocular rosacea. Looking back I had some symptoms of a pinkish red face and mild acne, but nothing that ever caused eye trouble until this infection. The Dr now says that the immune response in my eye due to the infection somehow unmasked an underlying condition of ocular rosacea. I started Doxycycline which seemd to help within the first month. I was never back to normal, but there was some relief. After several months (4 or 5) I noticed it no longer helped me and my eyes were uncomfortable and face was red. I discontinued at 7 months. Running out of things to try, the Dr put in permanent upper plugs. That and Restasis now 3 months in is helping a little, but not where I would like to be. I recently came off four kinds of antibiotics due to a bad flu and subsequent tonsil infection. While I was on amoxicillin, Zithromax and Cipro- my eye comfort did much improve. However, one cannot stay on that type of dose. It is really confusing as to which treatment was responsible for helping my eyes as I had also just come off a 7 wk trial on Flagyl because my derm wanted to rule out demodex mite blepharitis. She only gave me 7 days. I did feel better afterwards, but here I am a month later- and feeling crappy scratchy sore eyes and lids again.
I just can't seem to find the answer. I have an oily complexion and my eyes feel greasy and oily all of the time. It is a dry non-refreshing kind of feeling. I long for the wet feeling of tears. My Schirmer tests were low but not totally out of the ball park. (7 and 9mm)
I never have had any eye problems before- so this is so frustrating.
So far these are the things I have done:
Doxycycline
Lid massage
Warm compress
Ld scrubs
Bacitracin for flare-ups
Restasis
steroid drops- Prednisolene
Grapeseed Extract
I just wish I could figure out something to help and stick with it. Any suggestions on anything else to try- I'd appreciate. I have spent so much money on my small arsenal of eye drops and various treatment modalities- that it is rediculous, but I am not about to throw in the towel yet.
Thank you for reading this. I've written my story before on other boards and I just reread what I wrote above and it seems like a bunch of ramble to me. If you can't understand much of it- I totally understand. Sorry to be so rambling..
Amy
I am new here and have been reading through the posts. My heart goes out to all of you. Dianat, your story is particularly saddening to me and I didn't have Lasik but my dry eye came on suddenly and has completely changed my life. I am a 36 yr old Mother of two and it is awful how it can change the whole family. You are a very good writer too. Thanks for sharing. Thank you all of you.
Anyway, I have worn contacts successfully for 20 years and never had a problem. A year ago this May I contacted pink eye and my eyes have never been the same. The infection was cultured and came back as streptococcal pneumonia. I took Tobramycin drops to clear it up. After treatment my eyes were severely dry. Not sure if do to the drops or the infection itself and any resulting damage. I would awaken in the night with lids so dry- I could barely move them over my eyeballs. I used all artificial tears as prescribed by my Dr but that just caused more burning. I lived day to day for months with no help. Cried my eyes out over this with reduced tearing, I might add. Then about 3 months into this mess and after seeking out many different opths (I've seen 5 total) I was diagnosed with posterior blepharitis/ MGD and ocular rosacea. Looking back I had some symptoms of a pinkish red face and mild acne, but nothing that ever caused eye trouble until this infection. The Dr now says that the immune response in my eye due to the infection somehow unmasked an underlying condition of ocular rosacea. I started Doxycycline which seemd to help within the first month. I was never back to normal, but there was some relief. After several months (4 or 5) I noticed it no longer helped me and my eyes were uncomfortable and face was red. I discontinued at 7 months. Running out of things to try, the Dr put in permanent upper plugs. That and Restasis now 3 months in is helping a little, but not where I would like to be. I recently came off four kinds of antibiotics due to a bad flu and subsequent tonsil infection. While I was on amoxicillin, Zithromax and Cipro- my eye comfort did much improve. However, one cannot stay on that type of dose. It is really confusing as to which treatment was responsible for helping my eyes as I had also just come off a 7 wk trial on Flagyl because my derm wanted to rule out demodex mite blepharitis. She only gave me 7 days. I did feel better afterwards, but here I am a month later- and feeling crappy scratchy sore eyes and lids again.
I just can't seem to find the answer. I have an oily complexion and my eyes feel greasy and oily all of the time. It is a dry non-refreshing kind of feeling. I long for the wet feeling of tears. My Schirmer tests were low but not totally out of the ball park. (7 and 9mm)
I never have had any eye problems before- so this is so frustrating.
So far these are the things I have done:
Doxycycline
Lid massage
Warm compress
Ld scrubs
Bacitracin for flare-ups
Restasis
steroid drops- Prednisolene
Grapeseed Extract
I just wish I could figure out something to help and stick with it. Any suggestions on anything else to try- I'd appreciate. I have spent so much money on my small arsenal of eye drops and various treatment modalities- that it is rediculous, but I am not about to throw in the towel yet.
Thank you for reading this. I've written my story before on other boards and I just reread what I wrote above and it seems like a bunch of ramble to me. If you can't understand much of it- I totally understand. Sorry to be so rambling..
Amy