after radiaiton treatments on my eyelid....

[CanadaMo]

Hi everyone. Has anyone else had radiation treatments on their eyelids? I found this website accidentally last month and wish i knew about it a year and a half ago when I finished radiation treatments on my eyelid. I read some of the stories here and realized there were so many other people living with the problem of dry eyes. I was not alone in this battle!
In spring of 2008 many doctors tried to treat a "sty" in my left eyelid that would just not go away. My eyes hurt and teared profusely at any hint of light. Doctors first thought maybe blepharitis as my eyelids were getting sticky and my eyelashes were falling out. Eventually it was discovered to be a cancerous tumor and 30 radiation treatments later, it was gone. that was the greatest news!
A year and a half later it seems doctors have no ideas to help me. The radiation destroyed my tear ducts so I have no moisture in my eyes at all. I also have no eyebrow (thats just a cosmetic problem) and I have no eyelashes to protect my eye from irritants. Until I read here about the sunglasses which protect eyes from wind and other elements, my life has been on hold. I used to go to the gym every morning, mtn bike, hike, cycle, ski, backpacking, etc. But with this severely dry eye I wasn't able to go outdoors much at all. A walk to the corner store was too much for my eye and I would walk back home with my eye squeezed shut.
I am looking forward to this summer! I hope these sunglasses mentioned on this website will allow me to get back to the outdoor life I want. I live in a large city.. you would think doctors here would know about these sunglasses and other treatments.
Thanks to everyone here for there stories of pain and courage. and thanks to this website for giving me hope!

[Gretchen]

Hi Mo -

I am so sorry to hear about your ordeal. Radiation is very toxic to tear ducts and salivary glands as you probably know. I do not know how much the standard treatments such as restasis and warm compresses are going to do for you since your tear duct is most likely out of commission completely. I would look on this forum at Boston Scleral lenses. You would be a great candidate. Search on Boston Scleral lenses, scleral lenses and BSLs. There are many good posts. You can also google Boston Foundation for Sight.

Good luck.
Gretchen

[Rebecca Petris]

Welcome CanadaMo!

Echoing Gretchen.... Cancer patients are a larger proportion of the dry eye patients treated with Boston Sclerals. I have worn these lenses myself for nearly 4 years now so my story is posted in the sclerals section on this board too.

[ema]

hi canadamo!

so sorry to hear about the troubles you have been having, but thrilled to hear the tumor is gone!

i wish you the best of luck...at night i always keep everyone on this site in my thoughts and prayers.

hope you can enjoy your summer this year!

[RobLIC]

Hi CanadaMo. I recently spent a week at the Boston foundation getting fit for sclerals. While there, I met a guy named Jeff who had radiation for cancer and ended up with the same problem as you. He'd been wearing the sclerals for about a year and told me he wears them 16 hours a day: "I couldn't live without them."

I found his story inspiring - he could have cared less about the dry eye, he was just glad to be rid of the cancer (I believe it was leukemia, and he'd had something involving stem cells that had wrecked his tear glands). It is definitely something that organization is used to dealing with.

Good luck to you. Rob Kahn

[sporta]

I had radiation for a pituitary tumor(which is right under your brain) some twenty plus years ago. Since then I've always had dry mouth and two years ago started with dry eyes and I truly believe this was caused from the radiation treatment. My endocrinologist says I'm probably correct.

[CanadaMo]

restasis

to those who mentioned restasis.. i used it for 6 months. it helped with all the yucky 'discharge' stuff from my eye but my doctor said i didn't need it anymore. i use warm compresses after a long day at the computer (i'm on it most of my work day). the warm compresses help maybe just because my eye is closed for that time period. not sure. it doesn't help with eye moisture but just relaxes the sore eye and i feel much better afterwards.

[Dee-Eye]

Dear CanadaMo,

So glad to hear you are doing better! It sounds like quite an ordeal you've been through...........I hope all your efforts continue to be effective and that you remain active. Also, I am interested in the special sunglasses you've mentioned. Glad you found them and that they are making a difference for
you...............Are they available through this site? I would be interested in them as I have severe dry eye and conjunctival blepharitis..........Thanks.