Found Relief!!!! Ahhhhhhh so much better

[RhinoMan]

Hi friends,

I have had severe dry eye for 3-4 years. To the point that it was interfering with my sleep and I would not want to do certain things that required contacts. I tried most every product and had punctual plugs.

I went to a 4th doctor who said to stop ALL products. Stop wearing contacts for 1 week, and use a steroid eye drop. And to start Restatsis. I was skeptical, how would I go a day without drops. But I did what he said.

I also went to a new contact dr at lens crafters. He changed me to once a day acuvue so that I would have fresh lenses each day.

3 months later now and my eyes are so much better. I can go a day without using Systane PV. I still use them once in the morning when I wake. I can finally wear contacts again, although I have to be careful and take them out when they start to bother me.

I think Restasis really made a difference. I think not using all that other crap also made a big difference. I think the one a day contacts made a difference.

Thanks for all the info on here. If you aren't finding relief, try another doctor. It took me 4 doctors to find advice that has made a significant improvement.

[Gretchen]

Awesome

RM -

Such great news! The posts on Dry Eye Triumphs are my absolute favorites.

I started on Restasis last Monday and believe that I am already seeing some benefits. I was supposed to use it in conjunction with Alrex to reduce the supposed burning of Restasis but one night I got lazy and didn't feel like putting in a drop and waiting 10 minutes to put in another - I wanted to go to bed! (I have 2 toddlers). However, the Restasis didn't bother my eyes at all so I am only using the Restasis now. I know that it is super early but my eyes have been a bit more stable since the 3rd day that I used it. I have read some accounts where folks have reacted that quickly. So I am hopeful. I have ocular rosacea and there have been some studies that show that Restasis is particularly helpful for OR. So I am hoping that I too will be able to post in this forum soon.

What was your diagnosis? Aqueous, MGD, both? Would love to hear.

Again, I am so happy for you. Just awesome.

Gretchen

[vman]

good news, but clarification

Hi there,
We're always happy to hear success stories. But just as a point of clarification, if you were wearing soft contact lenses at all, then you didn't have 'severe dry eye'. To claim so is a big disrespect to those truly suffering from severe dry eye.
Before I developed chronic dry eye syndrome, I had a helluva time with soft contact lenses, way back in high school, even with daily wear. I gave up and wore glasses and was symptom free. That to me doesn't even rate as mild dry eye, though at the time I was really bummed that I couldn't tolerate soft contact lenses like 'everybody else'. Then I got LASIK and developed real dry eye syndrome. I would say I have moderate dry eye, where my eyes feel plenty uncomfortable fairly often, with nothing in them. Soft contact lenses couldn't even be considered (though I could use them as my correction slipped after a few years). And I'm nowhere near severe dry eye.

-vman

[RhinoMan]

I don't know what my diagnosis was/is. Dr's don't elaborate in that respect, but rather speak in laymen's terms. Even though I have studied medicine and my father is a physician. I am going to get a copy of my charts soon.

The Dr. thought I had dry eyes, exacerbated by contact lens wear and the use of various products (blink and clean, systane, inflammation, allergies, etc.) Medicine still doesn't know what causes "most" dry eyes, but they beleive there is a link between inflammation. That is how Restatsis "attempts" to treat it.

I must say he was right about contacts and the eye drops, although I stopped using contacts for 1 month and still had horrible dry eye. It wasn't until the combination of plugs, restasis, onetime contacts, no eye drops, that my condition was tolerable.

Sleep also makes a huge difference for me. In my field of work we often work opposite sleep schedules and it is hard to force yourself to bed early to get up early. When that happens I get 4 hrs. of sleep and my dry eyes are worse. When I am on a regular schedule my eyes are much better but that will never be.

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You are probably right, I no longer have severe dry eye, but I certainly did at onetime. To the extent that I scratched my cornea twice from wearing contacts. It was a severely painful lesson learned and I was stuck in bed for 3 days with antibiotic eye drops. I'd constitute that as severe. In fact, one of the doctors I went to had a chart using symptoms that classified it as severe dry eyes. I see it more on a contemn rather than a dichotomy. There is always going to be more people with more severity.