Dry eye?

[Mastiff]

I think I have dry eye, but my symptoms seem different from those most people talk about. I don't have pain, and actually not much discomfort at all. About 3-4 months ago I started waking up with my vision foggy. It would go away in about 5-10 minutes, or while I was in the shower. Occasionally I also got this foggy thing during the day, but can blink it away in a few minutes. If I put drops in my eyes, it goes away instantly.

About 1-2 months ago I tried contact lenses, and I'm very happy with my vision in them. Unfortunately, this has made the foggy vision thing worse. At times during the day the world is in a haze, and no amount of blinking helps. Drops help temporarily.

My other symptom (and the one that bothers me more) is watery eyes. I've always had a thing where my eyes water like crazy in a cold wind, but now with the contacts, they water just walking around in an air conditioned building. If I have the foggy thing, I can go for a walk and the watering will clear the fog. Unfortunately, watery eyes interfere with clear vision too.

So, I think this all points to dry eye, although the fogginess is almost more like an oily film on my eyes rather than dryness. I read in the FAQ about putting hot compresses on the eyes and how it can lead to foggy vision due to secretions from the glands. This happened when I tried it and it scared the heck out of me because it didn't go away for 10-15 minutes. But the symptom was pretty much the same as my foggy eye thing. So maybe it's all about what my glands are secreting rather than what they're NOT secreting?

That's my story, I'm still trying to get some answers.

[Mastiff]

I'll add that so far I have mostly tried drops and supplements. I try to avoid using drops all the time, because it doesn't really seem like a solution to me. As far as supplements, I'm trying all the oils:

Flax seed
Fish
Evening primrose
Black Currant

Plus lutein and bilberry for good measure, along with a multivitamin.

I first tried flax seed oil in pills and it did nothing. Then I got the liquid and forced down 2 tablespoons per day. I was sure that was helping for 3-4 days, then it abruptly seemed to stop making any difference.

So far I'd have to say that none of these supplements is really seeming to make any difference.

I'm also trying the eye scrub thing when I remember, plus the occasional hot washcloth over the eyes. Nothing so far.

My eye doc encouraged the supplements and discouraged Restasis. She said the Restasis was seldom effective and very expensive... next thing would be plugs, but I don't feel that my condition warrants that yet.

[Rebecca Petris]

Hi Mastiff,

Welcome to dry eye talk!

Sounds like dry eye to me. Watery eyes are a classic sign; foggy or blurred vision not unusual, especially since it's occurring when you get up (often night is the challenging time for dry eyes). Having it exacerbated by contact lens wear is a telltale sign too.

Having said that nothing replaces actual diagnosis!! If your doctor is giving you dry eye treatments, presumably that's what they've diagnosed? You may want to ask about your Schirmer and TBUT scores.

My vision is blurry for quite some time after a warm compress. Warm compresses are excellent for improving the composition of tears in cases of chronically plugged glands, and sometimes simply pain relief, but they do have that temporary drawback. I always do mine at night just before bed. Don't let the eye blur/fog scare you... There are a lot of substances that can blur vision including lots of lipid from the glands but it just drains off.

[Rebecca Petris]

Drops help temporarily.

How long do drops give you relief for?

If you are not ready to try plugs, and especially if you are aqueous deficient, artificial tear supplementation is the usual way to go and you may want to experiment with a variety of brands. Most people end up finding one or two that seem to be most comfortable for them and give them longer relief than others. - If you've already tried a lot from drugstores, you might want to try ours. Probably NutraTear would be the most suitable in terms of clearing up vision.

[Mastiff]

Thanks for the replies. So far I've tried Hypotears and Systane. They clear the fog, but they don't seem to have any effect on the eye watering problem. Even if only a few minutes have passed since putting in the drops, the cool air still causes the watering to start.

An interesting thing is that my eyes were kind of veiny and bloodshot all the time prior to getting contacts. Then they were very white for a while, but now they are back to being somewhat bloodshot. My theory is that when the contacts were new, my eyes really watered a lot, and the tears helped clear up my eyes. Now that I have adapted to the lenses, my eyes don't get the tears again.

I'm not sure what to do with this information, but I'd sure like the whites of my eyes to clear up a little more. I'll give the nutratears a try.

[E G]

Watery eyes

Check with your ophthalmologist. You could have some type of infection.