Bloodshot from Dry Eyes. PLEASE HELP!

[suneetk1]

Hi everyone,
I am new to the site & looking for some help/suggestions.
A little about me, I first noticed my dry eyes about eight months ago when my eyes had been stinging for a couple of days for some unknown reason. I saw an ophthalmologist who diagnosed me with Dry Eye Syndrome, recommending the usual preservative free eye drops (genteal & Refresh). Prior to this incident I never suffered any sort of eye redness nor eye irritation, those were the good old days!
Now, six months on, my eyes are permanently bloodshot & I only occasionally suffer from a little itching or sometimes a little white/yellow discharge. After using the above mentioned eye drops for about five month, for the past two months I have been using Homeopathic Similasan Dry Eye drops. Again, haven't seen any improvement from the redness. I use the drops extremely frequently, at least once every two hours. I work infront of a pc all day, so I know that doesnt help but I have no idea what has caused this. One day, I thought I could use both similasan & Refresh, was I wrong! My Eyes were set on fire! They were so red and i had so much white discharge, it took about two days for them to return to their normal level of redness, my ophthalmologist suggested I have sensitive eyes.
Since this has happened I have lost completely confidence in myself, I cannot look anyone in the eye as I dont want people to see my awful red eyes. I am afraid to stay up late at night or wake especially early as I fear lack of sleep will make my eyes more red. I spend soooo much time looking in the mirror at my eyes, its awful. I no longer want to go out & spend time with my friends etc as I dont want them to see me looking like this.
Can someone please reccomend some reading (articles, personal story or links), or products they think could help?
I'm pretty sad & depressed, I am tired of thinking about my red eyes all the time.
Thanks for taking the time to read my story.

[nanship]

red eyes

Hi there !

I am new to this dry eye stuff as well, and I want to say that this initial reaction is normal . I also want to say that you should keep trying different eye drops- I have a drawerful so far, and have found that dwelle and nutra-tears , (sold here on this site ) and genteal gel at night help me a lot . I also like theratears (in vials , no preservatives ) in between .. this is a tough problem , and it does take time . One more thing-have you checked into an underlying cause for the dry eye ?? I found out I have an autoimmune disease , that has been brewing (undiagnosed ) for years , and it just sort of "kicked in " on November 18th of last year .. Anyway , I hope you find a viable solution soon , and I am thinking of you -you will get lots of help here on this site .

[suneetk1]

Bloodshot from Red Eyes

Thanks for your reply.
I think my problem is that I don't know what caused the dry eyes, I am only 30yrs old & I know its not menopause.
When I asked my ophthalmologist, she just kinda shrugged it off saying that it can happen to people over time.
How do I go about finding out the cause of my dry & red eyes?
Thanks.

[Rebecca Petris]

When I asked my ophthalmologist, she just kinda shrugged it off saying that it can happen to people over time.
How do I go about finding out the cause of my dry & red eyes?

First step: Get a different doctor.... You are going to need one that takes it seriously and has some real knowledge in this area. I'd also read up on this site before your next appointment so that you can go prepared with detailed questions and ask for specific tests if possible.

I'd also suggest scanning this page which lists some of the common causes of dry eye conditions to see what risk factors you might be able to identify.

[Rojzen]

preservatives question only one of many

So glad you've come to this site. . .and we all echo Rebecca's strong recommendation that you get an excellent diagnostic workup from the right doctor. . .I'll just contribute one small concept, here, which is that while aiming for a preservative-free drop is a sensible approach, other considerations, such as the content of the drop aside from preservative, may be equally or more important.

It could turn out that the drops out there that come preservative-free have nothing much else to offer you, therapeutically. . .Conversely, the best drops for corneal healing, in my mind, i.e., the Dr. Holly product line, do include a preservative. . .On balance, because the preservative in Dr. Holly's line is very well-tolerated and has been studied carefully, I go with the Dr. Holly drops. . ., and rate them better than several PF drops I've tried, over the years. . .I only have to use the Dr. Holly drops once or twice a day, moreover, because of the way they work. . .and so even if the preservative in them were irritating (and it is not, for me), I'd be getting only a tiny exposure to it. . .The payoff is that my eyes seem to be getting better. . .really better. . .after nearly 10 years of pretty intense symptoms. . .

[suneetk1]

Update for the bloodshoot eyes - Lotemax, leading to Restasis.

So I followed everyone's advice and went to see a Dr that seemed more interested in the cause of my dry eyes.
She did a number of tests and was very surprised that I was not in any pain, apparently the glands around my eyes are producing no oil whatsoever, which is what she thinks is the cause for my redness. She was very surprised that I have no pain considering how dry my eyes are...I thank God that I am not in pain, hopefully we can alleviate the redness.
She recommended a humidifier at night, Systane eye drops, Refresh pm & also prescribed Lotemax. I am going to see her again in two weeks after which if there is no improvement in the oil production she will be putting me on a 6 month trial of Restasis.
I have been taking flax seed oil for 2 mths now so she wants me to continue with that.
I'm pretty sad really to find out my eyes are this severe, I wish I had gone for a second opinion sooner and maybe they wouldn't have gotten this bad.
I hope there's some improvement. I'm a little worried though as it has the preservative Benzalkonium Chloride- is that BAC? What are the known problems with BAC/preservatives?

[dianat]

Do a quick search about BAK (not BAC) on this site. You'll learn a great deal.

It sounds like you're on the right track finally, though I would suggest adding warm compresses to your daily regimen, two times per day. You can do a search for methods or look here. I would venture a guess that warm compresses are more effective in treating those clogged glands than anything else your doctor suggested. All the other suggestions are great as well, but not without compresses. I've even heard that supplements will not help if your glands cannot get the oil to the eye.

http://www.dryeyezone.com/encycloped...ompresses.html

[atta]

Is that really impossible?

I think there should be a kind of product, must be very very thin and not transparent, white in color of course, to cover the sclerals, and move to the side when eye balls move. we can use artificial tears as usual, and they just guarantee white eyes.

Or there should be a kind of contact of solid "artificial tear", which should melt with time, melt when we blink, maybe in 5 or 6 hours. We just need to insert a new one when they disappear.

Is it that hard to design such products for red eyes suffers? Or there're not enough patients so no company would invest for such products?