My dry eye is improving but maybe only temporary?

[traveler]

I had Lasik February 1st this year and though my vision is fantastic my eyes are a bit dry. From pretty much day 1 after the surgery I was using preserved drops. The Doctor at the Lasik place gave me Optive as I developed dry eye about a week after surgery. My eyes were terribly dry for a few months and then the dryness got a little better. It was a good milestone for me. Well, I have been doing a lot of research and reading about dry eye lately and decided to switch to completely preservative free drops. I have seen quite a bit of improvement since doing so. My eyes are only slightly red after I wake up now and my eyes just feel better. So I feel that I may have been having a reaction to the preservatives in the drops that I was using.

Well, after doing some further research I have read about Doxycycline being used as a treatment for dry eyes. It just so happens that I ended up with Bronchitis a few weeks ago and my doctor just happened to prescribe Doxycycline, 100mg twice daily. I took the prescribed dosage for the duration recommended and my doctor gave me a refill as well. The cough from the bronchitis did not go away easily so I refilled the prescription and have been taking it for a total of 14 days now. I switched to non-preserved drops last Monday 6/2/08. I have been having a really good week with my eyes. Now my question is...where is the benefit coming from? The drops or the Doxycycline? I really, really, hope that it is coming from the drops.

For those dry eye veterans please let me know what you think. I would love to hear your opinions.

Thanks Adam

[traveler]

This is my routine.

Morning:
Bion Tears or Systane as needed throughout the day
Flaxseed Oil 4000mg
Omega 3 & 6 oils, 1000mg
Envision Eye vitamins
Eyebright
Billbery

Night:
Flaxseed Oil 4000mg
Omega 3 & 6 oils, 1000mg
Zinc 50mg
Bausch & Lomb Nighttime Ointment Preservative free

[shells]

Hi Traveler,

Welcome to DEZ! I'm glad that your eyes are starting to improve. You are so early in the healing process following lasik, that you will most likely continue to see lots of improvement. Do you know if your dry eye is evaporative, or if you just don't have enough tears? I would imagine that after lasik atleast part of the problem aqueous difficiency. I had both after lasik, and the doxycycline should help with the evaporative part (i.e. if your oil glands are glogged which would cause your tears to evaporate quicker). Has your eye doctor mentioned blepharitis or MGD? That would mean that you may have clogged oil glands. Warm compresses and eye lid hygiene might help with that as well. It would be helpful to get a good diagnosis to find out exactly what it causing your dryness/discomfort then you will better know how to treat it.

It is hard to say what might be helping, so I would just keep doing what you are doing and keep taking good care of your eyes. You probably should discuss the doxy with your doctor though if you are taking it longer than was prescribed. Preservative free drops are always a good idea, especially when you are using them frequently (more than 4 times a day). Good luck and I hope you keep seeing improvements. Please keep us posted!

-Shells

[vman]

doxy

I can't say for sure if your improvement comes from Doxy or the drops. But if it's Doxy, it is possible to take Doxy continuously at a lower (certainly less than 100mg/day) dose, at which its effect is not considered anti-microbial.

[traveler]

Thank you for the kind words and encouragement. I have been able to significantly reduce the amount of drops that I am using and I am no longer taking the doxy! So I do feel that things are moving in the right direction for me.

[curlygrl31]

Traveler,

One other thing to just look at is "Oracea" -- like Doxy, but can be taken longer term, I believe. Hope you are still doing well!

Curlygrl