Frustrated....

[Lea]

Hello,
I have been reading this site for a couple of years now and feel like I know so many of you. I haven't really posted as I try to not complain about my eyes and be thankful for what I do have.. but today I just can't take it anymore.. I have had dry eyes for several years. I woke up one morning with red eyes. NO warning nothing. I never had any issues before this and had worn contacts and been on a computer for several years. I went to my primary care physician who asked me I was stoned. Really?? Shortly after wards I was diagnosed with blepharitis by a optometrist. Since then I have been to various doctors who tell me different things.. One said dry eye, the next guy says my glands are blocked and after using warm compresses and qtips and cleaning my eye lids I go back and he says they look great but I still have red eyes. I hardly ever leave the house anymore and try to make excuses to avoid any social situations. It's so embarrassing. I even avoid looking in the mirror. I wash my face in the dark cause when I see my eyes I just get so bummed out. Sleeping at night is rough cause I wake up to put drops in so many times. I use the tranquils and they do help but my eyes are still dry and red when I wake up. This is not the life I had dreamed of.. I feel like I just can't get a handle on this.. I have used azasite, lotemax, antibiotic ointment, ect. I wipe my glasses every 30 min as they have spots on them. I think from my tears on my eyelashes? I don't know. I have plugged all four tear ducts and I'm really not sure it has helped. My eyes were actually redder afterwards. I know this all seem odd huh? I think I'm the only one that has this really strange issue. Eye drops seem to make my eyes even worse and once I had a meeting and used visine in hopes of making my eyes look presentable for at least an hour and immediately they turned bright red. Anyways I'm just whiny today and bummed that I am stuck at home when I am really a social person. I wish I could go shopping with my kids without wearing sunglasses in the store. I keep thinking surely there is something that make make me presentable in public. Maybe going to yet another Ophthalmologist? Any ideas? Thanks for letting me vent. I know there are folks out there with way worse problems then mine.

[Rebecca Petris]

I am so sorry to hear this.

You sound a bit like a number of people I've known who ended up at Dr. Latkany's office... who told them to immediately quit every drop/goop they're on. Not suggesting you go to New York, I was just noticing the pattern. It sounds to me like there's two problems to solve here - NOT necessarily in this order:

One, getting accurate diagnosis and treatment of any underlying issues (lacrimal dry eye? blepharitis? allergy? etc), and

Two, figuring out what of all the remedies you're trying are making you worse. If there's anything that you take that seems to make you feel/look worse, that's important - you're not imagining it and it probably is something you should not be using. Please note, there are many people who are allergic or extremely sensitive to common ingredients in many artificial tears, or to preservatives in Rx drops. And double plugging is most definitely not for everyone. If things seemed better before double plugs... maybe it's time to go back.

Redness is a tough nut to crack and once it's started, reversing it is slow and painstaking (sorry I don't have better news) but there most certainly are many people who achieve a lot of improvement. So don't give up hope. Focus on getting healthier eyes and the cosmetic aspect ought to follow suit in time.

It is frustrating when doctors give different answers but different doesn't always mean contradictory. One doc said bleph, another dry eye, another blocked glands... well that actually makes perfect sense. Blocked glands ARE the result of one form or another of bleph, and they result in dry eye symptoms. "Dry eye" strictly speaking (as in lacrimal insufficiency) can be happening at the same time too.

There have been some discussions here not too long ago I think about tinted glasses (not sunglasses) that can may be helpful? Depending on the budget, something like MEGs with tinted lenses maybe?

I wear sunglasses in stores... there's a lot of really brutal stores out there aren't there.

You are most definitely NOT alone. There are a number of people on the board whose primary problem is redness.

One other thought: Autologous serum drops. Sometimes a particularly good solution for people who find commercial drops make them worse.

[Aaron77]

Working Hard To Get The Red Out

The redness I get in my eyes along with the pain and poor vision post lasik is driving me nutty for almost 2 yrs now. Last week to try and hide the redness to some degree I bought some transitions lenses that I plan to use when I'm inside - figure the transitions in what would normally be prescription frames won't look as weird as walking around indoors with dark shades all the time and I'll be able to see stuff too. To keep my eyes white I also dropped alphagan the past 4 days as I was out and about and just felt like I needed to keep the red out - just hope I don't have a major rebound effect with the redness this coming week. Also been taking Oculoheel tablets which are a homeopathic mixture that is suppose to reduce inflamation and help treat conjunctivitis and blepharitus according to the packaging. Been out of the autologous serum drops for a while now but hope to get some more within a couple weeks, they seem to help out sometimes and then other times it seems like I have a bit of a reaction to them. I find the allergy drop Patanol also sometimes helps with the dryness but it too seems to sometimes do me a bit of harm as I feel that it can dry me out quite a bit. Another thing I find helps is sometimes saturating my eyes with preservative free tera tears over a period of a minute or two I empty an entire vile into my eyes and they often appear a bit whiter afterwards. This dry eye red eye thing has really got me messed up, really really hoping to find a way to beat it.

[Debk]

Hi Lea.

Your story is very similar to mine. I woke up with unexplained redness one morning with no prior issues or warning signs.

Everything (including steriods, like lotemax) made my condition worse and my eyes more red. I was so desperate to reduce the redness, I think I was putting too many artificial tears in my eyes. Even though they were preservative free, the frequency was out of control and just making the redness worse.

I was eventually diagnosed with ocular rosacea (from Dr. L) and as Rebecca mentioned, he had me stop all drops, all ointments, everything. He also had me start cold compresses.

Once I stopped putting stuff in my eyes and started with the cold compresses, the redness started to decrease.

While I am by no means "cured", and my eyes are not a brilliant white, they have calmed down to the point where I don't feel like people are staring at me wondering if I am stoned or have pink eye. I have good days and bad days, and flare ups here and there. But I am managing it, and feel like I am in a better place emotionally then I was a few months ago.

[ema]

i also have ocular rosacea and aside from tons of burning, redness is one of my biggest problems. both eyes are red, but the left is worse. i am constantly self conscious about my eyes and find i avoid looking people in the eyes. i understand your troubles all too well.

i also do cold compresses when my eyes really bother me.

[Lea]

Thank you all so much for your ideas and understanding. I spent the night tossing and turning just trying go figure out how I am going to deal with this as it is so overwhelming. I truly believe there has to be something that can be done and I appreciate the ideas. I emailed my eye doctor today about the Autologous serum eye drops. I have not tried those yet. Also I did just purchase some glasses with tint so that I don't have to wear dark sun glasses all the time. The problem is my eyes can be so red that you can see it even with the tint in certain places. And yes the stores can be brutal! I can hardly stand to be in any store for a long period of time. I think I will pursue the allergy possibility and get a more definite diagnosis and also try more ice packs. I have to say that Rebecca's rice baggies are awesome! I have one for the warm compresses and one I keep in the freezer. Thank you all for your support. It really cheered me up
Lea

[alisonW]

Lea - like you I too woke up one morning seven years ago with red, dry eyes. No warning at all either. I can definitely empathize. So strange that this is how it starts for so many of us.


DebK - how did stopping all drops and ointments help? Are your eyes dry along with the ocular rosacea? How often do you use the cold compresses?

[Lea]

Oh that is exactly how I feel.. I went to the store with my husband Sat to look at clothes for him. I tried to get out of going but he wanted my opinion. I walked by a mirror and was so upset how I looked. It's just the worst! Something about being in stores that makes my eyes twice as red and uncomfortable.

[Debk]

alisonW-

When I stopped all the drops and ointment and started with the cold compresses, my redness did decrease quite a bit. Initially, I was doing the cold compresses about 3-4 times a day for a few minutes (under 5).
I would say within a week, they were much better. When I say they were better, my eyes were by no means white, but as I mentioned they were not the shocking bloodshot red that they were before I stopped the drops, where people would stare when I was out in public.

I am not flared-up right now. So currently, my eyes are a bit red when I first wake up, but they usually calm down on their own within the hour. Since I am not currently flared-up, I am usually able to make it through the day without cold packs and I am still not dropping either. However, if I use the computer too much, my eyes will typically burn, especially in the evening. If it gets bad, I might use a cold pack, but it is not a daily thing.

I am trying to appreciate these days because I know they next flare-up could be right around the corner.

It has been so ridiculously humid here in Chicago....normally I would hate it, but it seems to be really good for my eyes.

[FAYE1]

Red Eyes

Hi,

I am new to this site and completely understand what you are going through! I basically live as a hermit myself, I never was a social butterfly but I at least put myself out there. Now, I no longer go anywhere that I do not have to. If anyone looks at me, I assume they are thinking I am stoned or sick. I too, try Visine every now and then hoping for a miracle for a few hours, I am lucky if it works for a few minutes. I had punctual plugs and even though my eyes felt better, they became redder and always seemed to be infected so my new eye doc thought it best to remove them. I have been so desperate to hide my red eyes that I had a pair of eyeglasses made with a dark tint on them, even though I don't wear glasses. They are tinted just enough to hide some of the redness but people still stare because they can't tell if my eyeglasses are for vision or shades? I paid $400 for them and I have 20/20 vision. I am grateful for vision, but I feel you on the quality of your social life suffering.

[socratese]

if people can't be understanding about an appearance issue, then they are not worth worrying about in the first place. Live your life- don't worry so much about people who don't matter and treasure the ones who do. You find out the people who matter in life when you go through hard times. they are the ones who stick around.

that is, unless you have 24/7 absolute debilitating pain in the eyes like me and you can't live your life. You have to quit your job, fail at getting disability or unemployment and give up most of your indipendence to live with your parents. Quit all of your hobbies, lose all your friends, and forget about dating, or relationships. Get hooked on pain pills. Get irritable bowel syndrome from all the stress and depression and meds. Lose most of your will and reason to live. All of this happening in mid 20s.

Don't compare yourself to other people too much. It will throw things out of perspective. I find myself looking at people and thinking that it must be nice to be normal. You usually forget to compare yourself to the majority of the people in the world who have it worse- usually outside of the us. Starving diseased kids in africa- people living in a horribly corrupt country with rampant violence and no jobs. they are just living in a nightmare, but of course they don't have anyone better to compare themselves to so they think it is normal.

When times get hard you have to manage your MIND. if you let your mind loose it will spiral down into pessimism and into hopelessness.

[Guest]

You usually forget to compare yourself to the majority of the people in the world who have it worse- usually outside of the us. Starving diseased kids in africa- people living in a horribly corrupt country with rampant violence and no jobs. they are just living in a nightmare, but of course they don't have anyone better to compare themselves to so they think it is normal.

When times get hard you have to manage your MIND. if you let your mind loose it will spiral down into pessimism and into hopelessness.

So true!