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Hi everyone,
I am a 28 year old healthy male that was diagnosed with Dry Eye in June 2006. My condition was probably as bad as it gets without corneal ulceration. And then there was the emotional toll but I won't bore you with that. That's all in the past for me now. I'm going to tell you about how I have started the road to real recovery. But before that I think it is important to detail my history.
My eye problem came on out of the blue in June 2006. Tearing, redness, inflammation, discharge all in the matter of a day and my eyes never normalized. Over the last 5+ years in my hunt for a cure I tried everything (lubricating drops, punctal plugs, Restasis, Patanol, Alrex, Lotemax, PredMild, Azasite, Elidel Cream on eyelids, doctor assisted MGD expression, allergy shots, etc.). I was desperate and so I foolishly put all of these chemicals into my eyes and my body. In hindsight, I believe these drugs only ‘paused’ my problem and to some degree made it worse.
My wakeup call came in August 2011 when I visited my ophthalmologist and my IOP registered low to mid 20’s. I was on PredMild at the time and after hearing the readout decided that it just wasn’t providing enough relief to justify the risk of Glaucoma. Frustrated and confused I stopped ALL eye drops and went back to the basics – warm compresses followed by lid expression using a q-tip. Needless to say the following two months were brutal as my eyes had been used to some kind of steroid suppressing inflammation for the last 5+ years. But I told myself steroids were no longer an option and that whatever symptoms I was going to experience wouldn’t be as bad as Glaucoma. By the third month things got a bit better to the point where I was able to get through the day but still had bouts of pain associated with the dryness.
I visited Dr. Latkany in late January. He knew my history and we discussed my health. The only health issue that seemed off in my life besides the eyes was some mild acne accompanied with oily skin (usually a teenager problem). He prescribed Promiseb cream, which is designed to treat Seborrheic Dermatitis (SD), to be applied to the face 1x/day. For those of you not familiar with SD it is a skin condition that causes inflammation and dry flakey skin. It should be noted that there is a huge amount of variability in the severity of the disease. Some people have very noticeable symptoms while others, such as myself, have very mild symptoms.
I was on Promiseb for 1 week and my acne and oiliness cleared up 100%. I’m not kidding, there was no trace of it. It just disappeared. This result was a pretty good indication to me that I have SD. Armed with that knowledge I wanted to find a face wash, specifically designed for SD, that could clean my face and eye area (since I couldn’t use Promiseb on the eyelids). I did some research and came across DermaDoctor's Born-to-be-Mild Face & Body Wash (link below):
http://www.dermadoctor.com/product_D...nser_1527.html
On top of that I am also using Nizoral shampoo, which is for people with SD.
My eyes have never felt this good since my dry eye diagnosis in 2006. The redness is going away and the bouts of pain from dryness have all but disappeared. I am still doing the warm compresses and lid expressions every other day. I think doing it every day is too much for the eyes to handle.
I am certain that this trifecta of cream, cleanser and shampoo is why my eyes feel so good right now.
I hope this information helps others out there that may have a similar situation. I truly feel your pain and I wish you all the best of luck in your pursuit for a cure.
Sincerely,
Alex
I am a 28 year old healthy male that was diagnosed with Dry Eye in June 2006. My condition was probably as bad as it gets without corneal ulceration. And then there was the emotional toll but I won't bore you with that. That's all in the past for me now. I'm going to tell you about how I have started the road to real recovery. But before that I think it is important to detail my history.
My eye problem came on out of the blue in June 2006. Tearing, redness, inflammation, discharge all in the matter of a day and my eyes never normalized. Over the last 5+ years in my hunt for a cure I tried everything (lubricating drops, punctal plugs, Restasis, Patanol, Alrex, Lotemax, PredMild, Azasite, Elidel Cream on eyelids, doctor assisted MGD expression, allergy shots, etc.). I was desperate and so I foolishly put all of these chemicals into my eyes and my body. In hindsight, I believe these drugs only ‘paused’ my problem and to some degree made it worse.
My wakeup call came in August 2011 when I visited my ophthalmologist and my IOP registered low to mid 20’s. I was on PredMild at the time and after hearing the readout decided that it just wasn’t providing enough relief to justify the risk of Glaucoma. Frustrated and confused I stopped ALL eye drops and went back to the basics – warm compresses followed by lid expression using a q-tip. Needless to say the following two months were brutal as my eyes had been used to some kind of steroid suppressing inflammation for the last 5+ years. But I told myself steroids were no longer an option and that whatever symptoms I was going to experience wouldn’t be as bad as Glaucoma. By the third month things got a bit better to the point where I was able to get through the day but still had bouts of pain associated with the dryness.
I visited Dr. Latkany in late January. He knew my history and we discussed my health. The only health issue that seemed off in my life besides the eyes was some mild acne accompanied with oily skin (usually a teenager problem). He prescribed Promiseb cream, which is designed to treat Seborrheic Dermatitis (SD), to be applied to the face 1x/day. For those of you not familiar with SD it is a skin condition that causes inflammation and dry flakey skin. It should be noted that there is a huge amount of variability in the severity of the disease. Some people have very noticeable symptoms while others, such as myself, have very mild symptoms.
I was on Promiseb for 1 week and my acne and oiliness cleared up 100%. I’m not kidding, there was no trace of it. It just disappeared. This result was a pretty good indication to me that I have SD. Armed with that knowledge I wanted to find a face wash, specifically designed for SD, that could clean my face and eye area (since I couldn’t use Promiseb on the eyelids). I did some research and came across DermaDoctor's Born-to-be-Mild Face & Body Wash (link below):
http://www.dermadoctor.com/product_D...nser_1527.html
On top of that I am also using Nizoral shampoo, which is for people with SD.
My eyes have never felt this good since my dry eye diagnosis in 2006. The redness is going away and the bouts of pain from dryness have all but disappeared. I am still doing the warm compresses and lid expressions every other day. I think doing it every day is too much for the eyes to handle.
I am certain that this trifecta of cream, cleanser and shampoo is why my eyes feel so good right now.
I hope this information helps others out there that may have a similar situation. I truly feel your pain and I wish you all the best of luck in your pursuit for a cure.
Sincerely,
Alex
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