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First of all, I want to say how grateful I am for this forum. Although this is my first post, I've already found invaluable information here. If only my opthamologists were half this informed! Anyway, my first question is this - can anyone recommend a good dry eye specialist/opthamologist in the San Francisco Bay Area?
I have seen several and none of them seem to be able to "think outside the box" or even able to give me a helpful diagnosis. A little about how I got here - I wore contact lenses for 20 years but had to stop due to (here comes the irony) one dry eye. So to make matters worse, I got lasik in 2002, since I could no longer wear contacts. While my vision improved immensely (from "minus 12" to about 20/30), my one dry eye (and believe me, I know how lucky I am to only be dealing with one!!!) has gotten progressively worse over the years. I am at the point where my job performance has been negatively affected (first poor performance exam), and I feel like I'm missing out on so much that would otherwise be wonderful in my life (young daughter with another on the way, and starting a new business). I'm feeling quite desperate and have already tried the following: Restasis, omega 3s, erythromycin (sp?), eye lid wipes, refresh plus, genteel p.m., tear duct plug, and Dwelle. Regarding the Dwelle - after reading users' posts on this website, I had pretty high hopes for that, but it actually seems to cause more of a dry eye sensation every time I use it...if anyone has any thoughts on how I might use that more effectively I'd love to hear it. Finally, although I know that "foreign body sensation" is a common symptom, in my case I actually do get foreign bodies (mainly cat hair, lint) in my one eye that I then must flush out regularly. This is actually one of my biggest problems, that, and the fact that I have some eyelashes which grow into my eye. Even the ones that just touch the lower lid cause me a ridiculous amount of irritation, so I pluck them regularly. Needless to say, vanity has gone out the window.
I apologize for the length of this post, but I guess I'm secretly hoping that someone will read this and come to my rescue with treatment ideas or doctor recommendations. Thank you in advance for whatever insight/advice you might have.
Michelle
I have seen several and none of them seem to be able to "think outside the box" or even able to give me a helpful diagnosis. A little about how I got here - I wore contact lenses for 20 years but had to stop due to (here comes the irony) one dry eye. So to make matters worse, I got lasik in 2002, since I could no longer wear contacts. While my vision improved immensely (from "minus 12" to about 20/30), my one dry eye (and believe me, I know how lucky I am to only be dealing with one!!!) has gotten progressively worse over the years. I am at the point where my job performance has been negatively affected (first poor performance exam), and I feel like I'm missing out on so much that would otherwise be wonderful in my life (young daughter with another on the way, and starting a new business). I'm feeling quite desperate and have already tried the following: Restasis, omega 3s, erythromycin (sp?), eye lid wipes, refresh plus, genteel p.m., tear duct plug, and Dwelle. Regarding the Dwelle - after reading users' posts on this website, I had pretty high hopes for that, but it actually seems to cause more of a dry eye sensation every time I use it...if anyone has any thoughts on how I might use that more effectively I'd love to hear it. Finally, although I know that "foreign body sensation" is a common symptom, in my case I actually do get foreign bodies (mainly cat hair, lint) in my one eye that I then must flush out regularly. This is actually one of my biggest problems, that, and the fact that I have some eyelashes which grow into my eye. Even the ones that just touch the lower lid cause me a ridiculous amount of irritation, so I pluck them regularly. Needless to say, vanity has gone out the window.
I apologize for the length of this post, but I guess I'm secretly hoping that someone will read this and come to my rescue with treatment ideas or doctor recommendations. Thank you in advance for whatever insight/advice you might have.
Michelle
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