"Something doesn't add up" my story

[tony walker]

I am a 65 year old man with added concern to visual things due to losing my right eye 50 years ago. Everything was fine until 2.5 years ago when I was diagnosed with Blepharitis. Over the 2.5 years my symptoms have worsened, which concerns me (but not the Consultants). Today the symptoms are:
Blepharitis (mild and controlled) by twice daily lid scrub with baby shampoo
and cotton buds. I am also on Doxycycline since Sept '09 and use
Celluvisc 0.5% copiously.
Daily things are not too bad. My left eye feels tired, occasionally it feels
gritty and aches. I am always aware of having my eye. Every 30 mins
or so I have a mild twinge of pain usually at the top of the eye. The pain
has been very severe (oh sh-- level) on 5 occasions in the last month and
I can't trace the reason.
Doesn't sound too bad does it?!!
But if I do anything which causes me to concentrate, watch TV, use the
computer or read for a period of 30-60 mins my eye goes red, starts to
be sore and sufficiently painful to make me stop. I have to do things in
20 min slots (20 mins on/20 mins off) to get through a programme.
My vision is fine with spectacles and the prescription hasn't changed over the years.

Does anyone recognise my symptoms as their own or better still can anyone help - I can't accept that this is just Blepharitis!

[irish eyes]

Hi Tony

I don't wish in any way to depress you but I recognise those symptoms only too well.

When you say that it doesn't concern the consultants, then I recognise that attitude also. You will notice that I'm in the UK - sadly this dismissiveness is prevalent.

By the way - I noticed that even you said it's `just Blepharitis'

Blepharitis is notoriously difficult to manage; have the consultants taken the time to explain what it actually is? I like this site because it has diagrams and is very straightforward to understand

http://www.agingeye.net/otheragingeye/blepharitis.php

Depending on how long you have persisted with your current regimen, you may want to alter it to see if that makes any difference.

Regarding activities where you have to concentrate - a common culprit is not blinking enough. Each time you blink, it coats the eye with tears. Apparently you should normally blink about every 12 seconds. Studies have been conducted on people playing computer games, and it was found that some people blinked once or twice in three minutes.

[Stanza]

I'm sorry to say Irish Eyes is right, some of us don't ever get to add it all up. Basically all we can do is find what helps us the most, which drops, which other treatments...

I find it goes up and down, for example two months ago I was the best I'd been in years, now I'm back to some of the worst symptoms and I didn't change anything in my regime. it's unfortunately somewhat random and the docs aren't very helpful in Europe (in the main)