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  • New member from UK

    Hello,

    This is my first post, so I'll tell you my sob-story.

    I have suffered with what was 1st diagnosed as severe dry eyes 10 years ago. It was explained to me that the average moisture content eyes contain is 10% & anything less than 4% was classed as dry eyes. When tested, my left eye held less than 1% of moisture & my right eye was not much better. I've tried every product on & off prescription over the years & eventually I was recommended to have Smart Plugs fitted. The problem did not improve much & so more plugs were fitted into the top tear ducts. I'd had many eye infections over the years, but after the Smart Plugs were fitted, I got one infection after the other & seemed to be on a never ending course of 3-months of oral antibiotic, plus antibiotic drops & steroid drops. Plus, the problem of my dry eyes was reversed & my eyes were constantly streaming buckets of tears & a horrible yellow discharge from the tear duct.

    I decided to get a 2nd opinion. I went to a consultant in London who told me I did not have dry eyes, that in my case, the condition had been transient & that I had a condition called Inflammatory Eye Disease usually associated with some type of inflammatory illness. But I've not found any information on Inflammatory Eye Disease. I have been tested for arthritis etc & nothing showed on the test. However, up until I was in my mid 20's I suffered with severe eczema, until it was found that this was a milk allergy. I stopped drinking milk & my eczema disappeared, never to return again. I was also told that I should never have been fitted with plugs & certainly not on the bottom & the top! I was told that eyes need to breath & plugging top & bottom was not recommended. The Smart Plugs were not at fault, it was the decision to use them in my case that was the problem.

    One plug was removed from my right eye, using pressure externally with a cotton bud, but the Smart Plug is stuck in scare tissue in my left eye & I'm left with a different problem with each eye, which is so uncomfortable. One eye is dry & irritated & the other eye is streaming constantly & I get dermatitis around the lid as it's constantly wet. It's the wet eye that get more infected & gets a dark shadow under it & sometimes the area around the eye feels cold & numb.

    My eyes are now so sore that I no longer drive much as they stream & it's so distracting it is dangerous to drive & I feel like I've walked into a dust storm & the rim of my eye lids have little white hard lumps that won't go away.

    I read some posts on the use of Castor Oil & wondered what the down side is of its use ?

    Wallaby

  • #2
    Welcome

    I just wanted to let you know that UK members are here for you. I am thinking that our experiences trying to get follow up and support in the NHS and private sector will be depressingly familiar. Happy to PM to talk about this if it helps. Do you have regular follow-up in an eye clinic and access to out of hours cover? If not, you can use NHS Choose and Book to find an anterior segment or inflammation specialist in your region. http://www.nhs.uk/servicedirectories...iceSearch.aspx

    'Inflammation' is easy to say, I would be expecting more diagnosis for my money. Try searching 'uveitis' for more info, I don't mean you have it. http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-an...ry-eye-disease Many of us are seeing different specialisms, hoping that the research docs will start communicating soon.

    the rim of my eyelids have little hard lumps that won't go away
    - has anyone given you low dose ongoing antibiotics for meibomian gland dysfunction? do they think it's allergy? are you still using the antibacterial drops or steroids?

    'Stella' likes to use oils to wipe her eyes and control dermatitis/blepharitis so search on her posts, her history is good. (I would think dangers might be increasing bacterial infection or causing more problems to the tear film or surface, particularly if the pH is wrong, depending how robust your eyes are at the time.) Hopefully, Schepens Eye Institute are still thinking about this for us.

    You will probably know that people have found improvement on lid margin disease by taking omega 3 fish oils orally, search pubmed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed if this interests you.

    Why hasn't some careful surgeon managed to get the infected plug out?
    Last edited by littlemermaid; 26-Feb-2011, 04:53.
    Paediatric ocular rosacea ~ primum non nocere

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