Burning Eyes, Fatigue, Sinus Issues

[Rowdy]

Hello to all. First of all, please forgive me for not searching this entire forum for the answers. Normally I would but do not have the energy to. I really need some help with some answers from anyone who might have an idea of the following..

About two years or so ago, I started having very bad eye pain. It was more burning than anything else. Along with it I have had major fatigue. I get up in the morning and feel so-so and by the time of 2-3pm, I am zapped. Before, I have been a healthy 40 year old with no health issues. I have considered myself to be way above average for being in shape. I have always run circles around my kids playing basketball etc and had excellent energy. Now, I have this mysterious thing going on and its affecting my life. Its all I can do sometimes to even move later in the afternoon. When I lie down, its like I feel this buzzing fatigue envelope my entire body. At least when you are tired, it feels good to lie down but this is different and its hard to explain.

I went to an eye doctor and he said I am not producing hardly any fluid for my eyes to stay lubricated (hence the reason I came here). He said it is not allergies. I have been taking genteal gel and oasis eye drops and nothing seems to help. My entire sockets just deeply ache and burn like crazy. I have also had sinus issues off and on as well and figured that it was just referred pain into my eyes. I have been doing the sinus rinse at night to help me breathe better as it always seems my sinuses are overly productive and never dry out. When I do the sinus rinse, I get tinges of blood every time I do it and I also get occasional low grade fevers around 100-100.4 I've had blood work done and no one sees anything wrong in my panel.

I had a bad week last week and went to see a Dr. I am currently on 875 mg of augmentin twice a day and taking a week's worth of methylprednisolone 4mg dospack of 21 tablets. I have one tablet left of the steroids and into day 5 of the augmentin. I don't feel any better. Its like I'm a healthy individual with this cloak of fatigue and eye/sinus pain that has come over me. Like I said, its been doing this for quite awhile now and I thought it was allergies but its not.

What's next to check? This is driving me crazy.

[calli66]

Wecome to Dry Eye Talk

I hope you can get some support here. I have Sjogren's and Hashimoto's--and so every time I hear about somebody with debilitating fatigue and dry eye, I naturally think of those. Have you been tested for auto-immune conditions? They usually do ANA (antinuclear antibody), RF (rheumatoid factor), thyroid antibody tests, and some other tests. Sometimes blood tests don't show anything, but there's still a problem.

Sounds like your doctor is taking a good overall approach so far. Antibiotics if there's sinus infection (maybe that's why the fever) and steroids to knock down inflammation. But coming up with the right diagnosis can be hard. What kind of doctor do you have---a specialist? It's hard to say what direction you should go in next since your symptoms could be caused by quite a few different conditions (I'm sure you've probably run across the multiple possibilities while web searching).

I don't know what to say, except that you should keep going back to the doctor---maybe the medication dosage needs to be adjusted and maybe needs longer to start to feel the effects. Get a referral to a specialist if and when your doctor runs out of ideas.

For your eyes, try cold compresses or hot compresses----see which one feels better. Keep on with the gel. Make daily notes of your symptoms---include the level of pain, fatigue, etc.--to give to your doctor.

Calli

[Rowdy]

I have only had general blood profiles run for fatigue like thyroid and a couple of others. I don't currently have a specialist but I was seeing an allergy doctor for awhile. One of my doctors referred me to an Infectious Disease doctor so I am in the process of scheduling that appointment.

[JAH1973]

Don't know exactly where you live, but please see my post on Cleveland Clinic Diagnostic Service. If you don't live close enough, you could probably call a hospital close to you who may offer a similiar program.

I ran from doc to doc before this and knew that this was my final hope since I am going broke and about to lose my job. This was the end of the road for me.

Hope this advice helps.

[liz56]

Hi, Rowdy.

I agree with everyone else about getting checked for thyroid and auto-immune problems.

Also, you may want to ask your doctor about your vitamin D levels.

--Liz

[JAH1973]

Ms. Liz,

Your response it rather interesting since I may have learned what is causing my dry eye... Not absolutely sure yet, but may find out soon. (Can you tell that I am impatient?

At this point, I have been told that I may have the following:

Sarcoidosis
Fungal Infection (can't remember the name)
Cancer

The first two are treatable and may allow me to live a normal life and the third is just plain awful. Hoping for the best for myself....

Anyway, when I was being tested, the considerations were Sjogrens and Thyroid. From my research, Vitamin D is bad for Sarcoidosis therefore I may have to avoid that as well. Therefore, it is amazing that you mentioned those things to Rowdy since he has similiar symptoms as I do....

[Rowdy]

Thanks for the replies. I will be seeing an Infectious Disease doctor soon. In the meantime, my doctor put in some temporary plugs and gave me some ACULAR.

JAH1973, I will read your post shortly.

[Rowdy]

Wow, that sounded exactly what I'm after and probably many others. Someone who takes us seriously instead of bandaging everything. I left the eye doctor today only with some drops and temporary plugs. Nothing more. Some of these doctors don't realize that this dry eye a lot of us have is not something like a day out in the wind or chlorine in the eye from swimming.

It is debilitating and I spent Thanksgiving this past year in a dark room wanting to spoon out my eyes! I have been so healthy all my adult life and then this at age 41. I can't believe the change in my life simply from this. I thought it was all allergies for several years. I was wrong. The only thing so far that makes sense is either an immune issue or a fungal infection. I do a sinus rinse since that area gets stuffy so easy and thought maybe the eye pain was referred from my sinuses. I get blood tinges every time I do a rinse at night. Either way, I would like to have the ability to just take a week off of work, spend that time in front of some doctors and say, "Here ya go, find it!"

[Rowdy]

Day three of these temporary plugs and they don't seem to alleviate the eyeball/socket pain. The only thing that has helped and temporarily at that is 2 drops of ACULAR in each eye. It burns going in but since it is currently helping, I don't care in the slightest. I have one day left of the 1750 a day Augmentin and my body can't handle it anymore. I now have nausea and bright yellow diarrhea.

Oh the joys of complaining!

Sorry all. I guess that is what this forum is for at times, I just can't stand sounding like a whiner.

[calli66]

Hang in there, Rowdy!

I don't know a thing about Acular, but as for temporary plugs----I never noticed they did anything for me at all----not sure it's a "fair" test. Actual silicone plugs with the little mushroom tops do a much better job.

Keep pursuing the answers from your doctors. You sound like a fighter, and that's good, because you'll just keep at it till you get some answers and some relief.

Calli

[Yoyo]

Fybromialgia

Hello Rowdy !

How are you these days ?

Have you considered fybromialgia ? (Sorry about my english, perhaps it's fibromyalgia... Hehe)

I felt extremely tired, depressed, had nasty headaches, pain in all my body, and tons of more "little" symptoms... Even when I felt tired, I could sleep... I used to wake up every 2 hours and never had deep sleep... It took me 10 years before I met this great Dr. who finally diagnosed me and gave me medicine for this illness, not hundreds of pills for every single symptom I had !!!!

Good luck !

[Rowdy]

Thanks for the reply.

Some days are better than others. I had the temporary plugs and I was told they dissolve within 3-4 days. I can't say they really helped but if I am told that I have severe dry eye, then they must have done something. I am willing to get permanent plugs if needed. The doctor I am to see strongly suggests that anyone seeing him has a referral. My insurance is set up to where I can see anyone I want to but he requires one.

My allergy doctor wants to see me one last time and that is scheduled for the 5th I believe. What he wants to talk about, who knows. I had a skin test performed and I had approximately 14 4+ and 4++s about five years ago. I tried two sets of allergy injections and they brought everything down to only a 4. After I get this appointment with this ID doc, it'll be another month of waiting I believe.

Something that I have noticed is approximately 1.5 to 2 hours after I eat something, I find myself lying on the bed and feeling like I am down so hard that only my eyeballs are blinking out of the mattress. The fatigue gets REALLY bad then for a few hours. It isn't like a blood sugar thing or hypoglycemia I don't think because that would affect me fairly soon after eating. I don't know if its an intestinal thing since a few hours of food in the stomach goes somewhere.

That's great Yoyo that you finally found someone who diagnosed you properly.

[calli66]

Rowdy,

The fatigue after eating---I've noticed that, too. I'd eat lunch, and then be SO tired. I don't have that much at all now, and I don't know why. Like you said, it might be a blood sugar thing. Be sure to mention it to all your doctors when you go for an appointment. Maybe there's some test they haven't done.

A friend of mine with dry eyes, Sjogren's, fibromyalgia---and other things----told me this week that she was finally tested for diabetes, and it was positive. She was a person who I think had every darn lab test in the book, but nobody had tested her for diabetes.

Calli

[Yoyo]

Feeling tired (or more tired) after eating is normal. Everybody experience that. It is because our body is processing what we just ate.

What I hate of fibromyalgia is that there is no test to detect it...

Good luck with your tests, doc visits and everything Rowdy !

[Rowdy]

I understand about the eating part. This isn't blood sugar levels going up and down and it isn't hypoglycemia. I've eaten big meals and I feel normal afterwards. I know what a carb dump feels like as well and its not anything of that nature. It normally happens after an hour and a half when it hits me hard. It's like something in my intestinal tract farther down past my stomach. But who knows, thanks for the well-wishes.