Some Hope!!!

[untkicker29]

I went to see a very well respected doctor at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas (DrG referred me to him) and regained some hope that things will get better for me!

He told me that in his experience, all accutane induced dry eye patients recover from their DES. He said the only bad thing about it is that it can take 2-4 years (maybe longer) to completely recover. I am going on two years, and so he said I am only half way there at the earliest.

He told me that in my situation warm compresses and doxycycline will not help me, but that it is just a matter of time before the meibomian glands start functioning again like they should.

What he did tell me to do was to keep taking omega supplements (I take Dry-Vites) and start using TheraTears Gel and TheraTears regular drops 3-4 times a day.

I wanted to post this and let everyone on here know who is in a similar situation to myself that things will get better, its just a matter of time before this happens.

Feel free to ask me anything if anyone has questions.

[Julie1]

Untkicker,

I am so glad that you finally have some hope. It is so encouraging to hear that you will possibly get better with time.

I have been following your posts with interest because I also have what I believe is medication induced dry eye. I took spironolactone for acne and later took ortho tricyclen to counteract a definite side effect of the spironolactone. I'm not sure which drug induced the dry eye, but I suspect spironlactone since it is a diuretic and I had a number of other side effects from spironlactone. All the doctors are saying the same thing that Dr. Latkany told you yesterday that the medications did not cause the dryness and that an underlying condition is responsible for all the problems. That may be the case, but I did not have dry eye prior to taking the meds, and so I have to go with the fact the medication pushed me over the edge over the threshold of noticable symptoms.

So, in a nutshell, I am encouraged by what your doctor told you because it may also apply to my situation even though I took a different drug. Maybe it all takes time. My doctors have all said that they have never had anyone with permanent dry eye from the medications that I took. Dr. Latkany's comments also seemed encouraging in that you will get better from continuing the treatments. Also, I was wondering, did you doctor say anything about long-term healing from other types of medications?

Thanks for posting this. I am happy for you and encouraged that things may get better.

-Julie

[AccutaneJay]

Hey there. I am certainly glad to hear of this. I am hopeful that one day my DES will eventually just become a thing of the past as a fellow Accutane patient. I am a 4th year Accutane induced DES sufferer (MGD). My number of bad days seems to have decreased overall, although I still feel I have some time before I have this thing licked, if ever. I am reamining hopeful that things will continually improve, although I realize the recovery is very slow to go. It is difficult most of the time to remain optimistic, but I must and have become very hopeful that things will get better as long as I am taking care of myself and my eyes. I also have realigned my expectations and accepted that it may never resolve completely, but am willing to give it much more time to improve.

I've been using TheraTears only (vials, bottle, and gel at night). I find that during the day they provide only temporary relief and continue to use warm compresses, especially right before bed. I've been using the gel, but it seems to irritate the skin surrounding my eyes after it dries and crusts in the corners. I am going to go back to using just the vials/bottle regular tears at night to help avoid nightime sticking.

Keep hope and keep sharing this type of information. For someone who is in a very similar situation, this information is very wonderful to hear of.

Take care,

[lorca]

Hope for Accutane induced Dry eyes

Hi everyone,

I am a new member to this site. I was on Accutane for 5 months and stopped due to dry eyes. My dry eye symptoms have persisted after stopping the medication. It has been 6 months that I have been dealing with this situation with little relief and am very depressed. I am currently doing warm compresses and am using eye drops and have a humidifier at work. Some days are okay but the bad days outweigh the good days greatly. I find myself crying all the time.

I am glad to see Untkicker29's post about the possibility of recovering from DES due to Accutane. It is giving me some hope but at the same time I dread the fact that I may have to deal with this constantly for the next few years or perhaps much longer (as in the case of the member Carmen) and possibly forever. I am only 30 years old and the thoughts of lower tear production with age and hormone changes's effect due to menopause and pregnancy will only compound the dry eye problem.

For those with Accutane induced DES (untkickr29, AccutaneJay, Carmen, and others out there on this forum), I would greatly appreciate if you can share with me what you have done to manage your symptoms and how you are doing today and if things did progressively get better over the years.

Looking forward to your comments and suggestions,
Lorca

[curlygrl31]

Julie,

Interesting comment about the spironolactone b/c NYer and I were both on Yasmin birth control pills and if I am not mistaken, it is derived from spironolactone. Now, Nyer and I have both been diagnosed by Dr. L with ocular rosacea, but I was on both Yasmin and spironolactone this past year for acne management. Hmmmmm.... well, I think that about settles it... I will stay off of that pill!!

Curlygrl

[NYer]

Yes, as Curly mentioned, the other hormone in Yasmin is virtually identical to spironolactone (a.k.a. Aldactone). I also took spiro before I took the Yasmin. I took it in conjunction with another birth control pill (to help with acne) but it didn't help me at all. The Yasmin did help greatly with the acne. But that said, both spiro and Yasmin and Yaz are all diuretics. And when that occurred to me two months ago, I went off of the Yasmin. Since I wasn't thinking in those terms back when I originally went on Yasmin, and then Yaz, and then back on Yasmin nor when I was on Spiro, I don't know for sure if my dry eyes got worse while on them or not. At this point, only time will tell when my body gets used to being off the pills entirely for more than a few months.

[eyevhadit]

I am 50 yr old female sufferer of dry eye for at least 25 years. Nothing has worked and I've tried it all: plugs, Restasis, compresses, drops, gels, on and on...I was on 200 mg doxycycline for about 8 to control the agony of dry eye. It was bearable, but barely. Anyway, interesting enough about 7 years ago I was suffering from hormonal acne and it would not clear up either. Finally, my derm prescribed spironolactone to treat it. My acne cleared right up and the strange thing is I suddenly noticed one day that my eyes didn't hurt. Funny how having painless eyes is something one notices! I stopped the doxy to see if it was from the spiron. and sure enough that is what has helped me the MOST. If I miss a dose, the dryness returns along with acne. While it has made the most significant improvement for me, I still suffer from dry eye. I would say it helped more than doxy and relieved symptoms by about 60%. I have done lots of research (since I can't find an eye doc that cares about this connection) and I am at a loss as to how this works. I have read that spriron usually causes dry eye and is constrained for males. I have very low testosterone since I am menopausal and I too don't understand how blocking androgen has helped -- it seems to thin the oily layer of my tear film -- where my problem lies. Anybody else out there with similar result??

[Andrey]

Hi eyevhadit,

sorry you have suffered for so long. i also got dry eyes (rosaccea i believe) from accutane. im 20~ and have had dry eyes for 3 years or so and am very depressed that ill have it for the rest of my life, but what can you do... i'm really glad you step in here cause i hate these threads were you get so much hope when a doctor says for sure that it will go away within time, but that is just not the case and im really thankful you, as a long time sufferer, came in here. the only thing i take right now, to try get my eyes back to normal and my body (joint pain), is hyaluronic acid, that i really thought could help but i dont think its worth to lay any money on anything cause there is probably nothing that can fix it. how is it with ur body, do you feel weaker etc? i can barely run anymore. and your eyes? are they ALWAYS dry and red? my eyes are fine in the morning so if i stay home they will be fine all day as long as i dont manage to trigger them somehow.

it feels like the only thing that could actually help would be to take steroids. since accutane took away something from our body (testo?) and steroids is giving you that, couldnt that help? i never wanted to take anything like that but i cant even do sports or go to the gym anylonger so im seriously considering it, i dont care if my acne comes back, i much rather live a healthy life with acne than this. do you all think steroids could help??? should i go to the doctor and take a testo test or something?

I am 50 yr old female sufferer of dry eye for at least 25 years. Nothing has worked and I've tried it all: plugs, Restasis, compresses, drops, gels, on and on...I was on 200 mg doxycycline for about 8 to control the agony of dry eye. It was bearable, but barely. Anyway, interesting enough about 7 years ago I was suffering from hormonal acne and it would not clear up either. Finally, my derm prescribed spironolactone to treat it. My acne cleared right up and the strange thing is I suddenly noticed one day that my eyes didn't hurt. Funny how having painless eyes is something one notices! I stopped the doxy to see if it was from the spiron. and sure enough that is what has helped me the MOST. If I miss a dose, the dryness returns along with acne. While it has made the most significant improvement for me, I still suffer from dry eye. I would say it helped more than doxy and relieved symptoms by about 60%. I have done lots of research (since I can't find an eye doc that cares about this connection) and I am at a loss as to how this works. I have read that spriron usually causes dry eye and is constrained for males. I have very low testosterone since I am menopausal and I too don't understand how blocking androgen has helped -- it seems to thin the oily layer of my tear film -- where my problem lies. Anybody else out there with similar result??

[MartyM1985]

Hmm... I only had moderate dry eye until overuse of Tazorac & sulfur foam dried me out in January.

This does give me hope. Thank you so much.