Lacriserts prescription eye pellets

[wantsim]

Hi all, so I have been using Lacriserts when I am at home in the evening and eyes feeling dry and it certainly helps aqueous deficiency.
This are a prescription only product, is it pellet that you place in the lower sac of your eyelid and it just sits there and is slowly melted and dissolves, releasing an artificial tear substance into your eye.

It definitely helps, and I use them when I don't feel like wearing my moisture chambers goggles. Their website http://www.lacrisert.com/ currently offers a $10 copay reduction coupon where you don't pay more than $10 for a 1 month supply for one year !

They are designed for once a day use, but some people may benefit from twice a day dosing. I had my eye doctor write my prescription this way....Lacrisert 5mg. Insert 1 pellet into each eye every 12 hours. Dispense # 120 pellets. With the coupon that I printed from the manufacturers website, I only had to pay $10 for the entire prescription, and have been having it refilled for the past 3 months. Just bring the coupon along with your prescription and present it to the pharmacy.

Without the manufacturers coupon, I would have had to pay > $50 copay each month.

I only use them when I am at home mostly, because side effect is it can make your vision a bit bleary because of the continuous release artificial tear. You don't feel them in your eye at all, because they sit along the lower eye sac where you don't have much nerve endings.

While they are not a cure, it is something that has definitely helped me and good for as needed use.

[wantsim]

i forgot to mention that after having them in for a few hours, they turn into a sticky gellatin like blob. you can still use eye drops as needed, but if you put too many drops in, then the Lacrisert may be blinked out and fall out. Also you can remove it at any time by massaging and manipulating your eyelid to pop them out. :-)
I slept with them in overnight, but found they didn't really help much with morning-time dry eye. boo...

[DCRdryeye]

I've used Lacriserts years ago. They were not for me. They only provided about a 5% relief that lasted about 4 hours then my eyes became drier than ever as the blob appeared (the blob prevents any tears from accumulating inside the bottom eye lid, or it may just feel gritty once it's a blob). So I blobbed them away to another member on here, I hope she is having better success with them.

[mjones1700]

After a complete Restatis failure (worked 50% for a few months) I've started using Lacriserts this past Wednesday. First, the sticker shot was hard to swallow ($219 my cost) however, I did find the link above to the coupon which I hope will help in the future.

After just four days, I can say that I certainly feel relief (to some degree) but I have struggled to keep them in. The first day things went well until about noon. I think I rubbed my eye (slight FB sensation was always there) and both dislodged. I was with patients and had this blob on my cornea and could barely read my computer screen. Finally had a break (hour later) to stand in front of a mirror and get them properly located. The next day I tried to put them in before going to bed because I want up with lids stuck to my cornea. It worked out okay but my right eye was irritated and red. That day went okay but then I took a day off. I put them in this morning. It was helpful especially considered I did a 7 mile run in the wind (but with my XWiley glasses on). However, was on the laptop for four hours doing my taxes this afternoon and forgot and rubbed my eye. Both popped out. Not having a mirror I tried to get them back in without success.

So I will keep you posted.

[Amyfloor]

I used Lacriserts successfully for months until they stopped working. I still on occasion use them but I cut them in half to avoid the blob mess that occurs after several hours. I found this tip on the internet and it has helped a lot.

[mjones1700]

I used Lacriserts successfully for months until they stopped working. I still on occasion use them but I cut them in half to avoid the blob mess that occurs after several hours. I found this tip on the internet and it has helped a lot.

After a morning of feeling a FB in my eye I had decided to try and cut them in half. So I see that I wasn't the first with this idea. It would save some money as well.

[wantsim]

how would you go about cutting them in half? they are small. what technique do you use?

[mjones1700]

how would you go about cutting them in half? they are small. what technique do you use?

That was a tough problem. I sterilized fingernail clippers and did it. Today is my second day with 1/2 Lacricert and so far, not much better. My eyes aren't dry so that pain is gone, but the FB feeling in my eyes and the tears streaming down my face make it difficult to see. I will see if I adjust. Yesterday I took them out in the afternoon. The tearing stopped and the FB feeling, but then my old dry eyes were back in a couple of hours. I'm trying to be patient..

[Amyfloor]

I use a straight edge razor blade.

[mjones1700]

I don't think I'm cutting in half anymore. I put them in at night, per the advice of an Ophthalmologist I watched a video of. One morning I woke up with the lacricert, which was cut in half, embedded in my cornea. I pulled it out but it left yet another corneal abrasion, which was painful for a couple of day.

Now I am using them every other day and am somewhat satisfied. I do have to use caution and not rub my eye in the afternoon our I get the sticky blob on my cornea and I can't see a thing.