Red and depressed. Desperately seeking help!

[lovestruck]

Hi everyone, I've been looking through these forums for a while, and finally decided to post I'm 15 years old, and I've been wearing contact lenses for about 3 years. Over the last 9 months, my eyes have started to get worse and worse. It started with occasional redness that didn't really bother me, and now I have red veins in my eyes, mostly in the inner corner of my left eye. When I wake up, my eyes are the worst, with the veins redder and bigger than ever. Sometimes, there is also crust on my eyelashes. It gets back to "normal" within an hour if I put in my Systane drops, and normally stays that way for the rest of the day. But I deal with occasional burning throughout the day, and the drops do little to help. So here are my problems:
-red veins in the sclera, mostly concentrated in the inner corner of my left eye
-very dry and red eyes in the morning
-some dryness throughout the day
-foreign body sensation in my left eye

I could live with the dryness and all if my eyes weren't so red. I can still tolerate contacts pretty well. I do get discomfort in air conditioning, but I can live with that. And when I take out my contacts, my eyes stay pretty red even the next day. Since school is starting soon, I want to be able to wear my contacts at least 3-4 times a week. I wouldn't have a problem with wearing glasses if my vision wasn't at -8... I've seen an optometrist, but he said the veins were normal and gave me lotemax, which didn't really help. My parents have had enough with this problem, they think it's all in my head, so seeing another doctor is out of the picture. Please help! I see that most of the people on this forum are older than I am, which makes me feel even worse, because what if I have this problem for the rest of my life...?

[Joseph]

You need to ask your parents to take you to an ophthalmologist. They are medical doctors that specialize with the eyes. You should tell your parents that you would like to see an ophthalmologist because you need an opinion of a medical doctor, An optometrist has never been to medical school and mostly are trained in prescribing corrective lenses... Good luck...

[Tanner]

I am 30 and no it is not in your head. I wish at 15 someone would have told me what I am about to tell you. Stop wearing your contacts for a good couple of months or just on the weekends when you go out and find a doctor that will give you proper treatment. Redness can be a sign of a real problem that can get worse. Your parents need to take you seriously so that when you get older you can function without pain. Stay away from visine or anything that takes the red out. It will only make dry eye worse. go to the treatment page in this site educate yourself on treatments and then see a new doctor. Also, I would get checked out with a rheumatologist just in case. There are other illnesses that can cause dry eye also the thyroid can cause eye problems.

[lovestruck]

I really want to, but my parents say that they've had enough with this problem. I hate to be a burden, so I haven't talked to them about it in months. They think my eyes are fine now. And on top of that, they don't want to pay... It's not like they're bad people, it's just that they've never had issues with their eyes so they don't understand

[Tanner]

Preaching to the choir. I have had interstitial cystitis for 15 years and my mother finally believes me all these years later but the organ has gotten so bad no current pill can help. If your parents just don't realize my best suggestion is to stop wearing contacts for a long while. Sorry, I know it is hard. You can still do warm and cold compresses without a doctor. Take a clean sock and put rice in it microwave until warm and put on your eyes for 3 to 10 minutes. Warm not hot don't burn yourself. You can also do cold compresses. I can also suggest talking to rebecca who runs this forum. She may be able to help.

[farmgirl]

Dear Lovestruck: The suggestions above are good ones. No one on the forum can help you if you don't take the advice being given. You are looking for advice and that is what the older more wiser people are telling you. If your parents don't listen show them what others are telling you. You could try the advice of Tanner and see if that helps and take it from there if it doesn't but tackle the problem NOW because the last thing you want are permanent problems which will dog you for the rest of your life if they are ignored now. Red eyes are not a function of a mental problem, yes they are in your head but it is not IN your head, LOL....cheers....F/G

[lovestruck]

Preaching to the choir. I have had interstitial cystitis for 15 years and my mother finally believes me all these years later but the organ has gotten so bad no current pill can help.

I'm so sorry! I'm really afraid that my problem will just get worse and worse. I will probably show them this Thank you so much for the advice, I'll try to warm compresses for sure.

[lovestruck]

Dear Lovestruck: The suggestions above are good ones. No one on the forum can help you if you don't take the advice being given. You are looking for advice and that is what the older more wiser people are telling you. If your parents don't listen show them what others are telling you. You could try the advice of Tanner and see if that helps and take it from there if it doesn't but tackle the problem NOW because the last thing you want are permanent problems which will dog you for the rest of your life if they are ignored now. Red eyes are not a function of a mental problem, yes they are in your head but it is not IN your head, LOL....cheers....F/G

Yeah, I'm going to be sure to take any advice that I'm given here My parents will definitely be seeing this thread at some point. I really don't know what I'll do if this problem gets any worse...

[Rebecca Petris]

Dear Lovestruck:

Good job stepping out looking for help. Everyone has given you valuable advice. I sympathize with the problem of contacts and high prescriptions... been there. But you may have to face the fact that to solve the problem you may have to quit wearing lenses for quite some time to get the problem fully under control. I'm wondering if you have blepharitis? Did the optometrist ever say anything about it? Next time you go, ASK - read up here first about blepharitis and meibomian gland dysfunction. And don't be shy: get your parents to take you to the right kind of doctor.

Dear parents of LoveStruck:

To be responsible, caring parents, you NEED to take your child to a specialist, either a good pediatric ophthalmologist or a good corneal specialist. (If you need help, feel free to call me to help locate someone appropriate. Don't know what part of Texas you're in but I can probably help you find a good pediatric ophth.) One appointment will not solve the problem; it may fail even to bring quick answers about what is going on. But the appointment will be one step on a path which may be long.

Ocular surface disease can be chronic, can worsen, and usually affects people who are much older than your child. If you neglect it now you will all regret it. The eyes are too precious to neglect in this way. Your child's whole future depends on having the full use of their eyes. Neglecting to get a proper diagnosis and treatment may sooner or later cause permanent harm to the eyes from inappropriate treatment, for example: continued contact lens wear in the face of chronic dry eye; abuse of vasoconstrictor eyedrops to deal with the redness; or eventually LASIK surgery to deal with the vision issue but which will make the dryness worse. So many people have come through our community in that condition and you should not let that happen to your child.

Please contact me for more information as I would be happy to talk with your or help in any way I can. My number is 877-693-7939.

Sincerely
Rebecca Petris
President
The Dry Eye Company

[lovestruck]

I've been thinking I have blepharitis. Are veins on the eyelid a symptom of that? If so, what are some ways to get blepharitis under control? It seems that I do have alot of the symptoms. My optometrist didn't say anything about it. He said that it's normal to have these veins and to not worry about it. I've been out of my contacts for months, I've been wearing them very occasionally. I want nothing more than to be able to wear my contacts on a pretty daily basis when school starts in a month...

[Rebecca Petris]

Actually the tipoff was crust on your lashes. And being drier and redder in the morning. Have a look at the picture at this link (not the greatest information site, I just liked the picture). I wonder if you could get "The Dry Eye Remedy" at the library or something... it does a good job of explaining the oil glands in your eyes and what goes wrong and how to keep them healthier. But anyway you can read all that online too. While browsing for pics I saw this nice concise explanation of the types of bleph with pictures.... the "problems caused by blepharitis" paragraph kind of echoes what you described. Like others said it probably wouldn't hurt to self-treat for that at home till you have some proper diagnosis... worst that can happen is you'll have really clean eyelids Be aware that at doctor appointments with average eye doctors, you might not learn anything about your eyelids or blepharitis unless you know what questions to ask.

[lovestruck]

I looked through the links and it seems like I do have blepharitis. I'll start self treating until I can get to an ophthalmologist. I'm planning to ask my parents very soon. How would you recommend to do hot compresses? And lid cleaning as well? Sorry, I'm new to this lol. Thank you for the links

[littlemermaid]

Hi Lovestruck, My daughter's 15 and she's had blepharitis since she was 11. You are not alone Lots of people here started blepharitis young but weren't advised how to look after it by eye docs. Now there is much better advice and understanding about what's happening to the eyes, and you've made a very good start by reading up here.

If you need to freak your poor parents out completely to show how serious this can get, here's some ammo Br J Ophthalmol. 2005 Apr;89(4):400-3. Blepharokeratoconjunctivitis in children: diagnosis and treatment. Viswalingam M, Rauz S, Morlet N, Dart JK (click on the link top right for free download), and you can search on PubMed on 'child blepharitis' for more. Obviously these are extreme cases of unrecognised and untreated infected blepharitis in young children - this is not you, living in Texas with access to docs. Absolutely, a good start for the parents is the Dr Latkany book 'Dry Eye Remedy', easily available on Amazon. I'm just saying, someone who loves you needs to take this very seriously, in my experience.

Also, as everyone's saying, we've found there's a mix of problems for us - blepharitis just means something's going on around the eyelids affecting the eye surface. But what? We've found blocked meibomian glands (careful hygiene, warm compress, oral antibiotics, topical antibacterials) + dry eye surface (wraparound sunglasses, humidifier, some tear substitute eyedrops) + sensitivities and allergies to different eyedrops and bathroom products and environment.

Make sure docs don't give you eyedrops with preservatives in. If eyedrops are stinging or making your eyes red, go back so they can have a look again and a re-think.

Basically, if it's mgd, you're clearing the glands and keeping the eye surface as good as possible for healing. If you've got a bit of inflammation, they might want to give you something like steroid or Restasis to suppress that but short-term only until everything's moving again.

I am horrifed that they gave you Lotemax without investigation. Must never use it anywhere near contact lenses, as you prob know they soak it up. There's a good chance you are sensitive to eg contact lens solutions and eyedrops as well and need to think about allergies - but if you want to start blepharitis treatments now yourself this is what we do.

For hot compress, we do best on a wheat eyebag or even microwaved trainer sock of dry rice (10 secs+, make sure it's not too hot), or a microwaved hot damp flannel (might need 2), or just a flannel eye rub in a warm shower, to keep the meibomian glands moving. A bath is a good time to do a warm compress - when she was younger and we struggled with this it was enough some days to have a bath that steamed up the bathroom and lay a hot flannel across the eyes like a spa.

And then, you are looking for yellowish flakes of crusting at the base of the eyelids, and people clean these off. Most use eyelid hygiene products like Blephasol (LM's eyes are even sensitive to them though). We use hot water cotton wool but then need a cotton bud to get to the base of the eyelashes.

If you have normal oily/mixed teenage skin and hair, think carefully about how to keep that clean. It's a balance between using hypersensitive hypoallergenic pH-neutral facewashes and shampoos with minimum parabens etc, and finding something that actually works for you, and you can see how we all struggle with this. It seems that some products make blepharitis worse through sensitivity and allergy so it's a tough one - rather than maybe just using what's in the bathroom or what you've always used, it means you becoming sensitive to what makes your eyes feel better/worse.

Diet is important. We are finding some foods clog the glands - basically junk food with fake fats and esp junk meats, candy, pastries, doughnuts, soda. We know this because she gets skin flareups and MGD. Sorry... Also most people take a fish/flaxseed oil supplement like Theratears to clear the meibom. Salad oils liquid at room temperature are good.

If her eyes are dry in this milder case, we do well on normal saline 0.9% from the pharmacy and a tear substitute/lubricant that has hyaluronic acid. A good eye surface specialist will have their own ideas about what's best for you.

If you can get this sorted out now and maintain your eyes well, there's a good chance you can wear contact lenses maybe once/week or special occasions, but only with a really good optometrist in charge, not this * you've been seeing so far (just my humble opinion...).

We are European so hopefully people will post up with brands you can find easily in Texas. Finding ophthalmologists who are good at this (paediatric, cornea, eye surface disease) is not so easy, and going straight to the right person fast saves a lot of money and trailing about - I'd be taking Rebecca up on her kind offer pronto. Best of luck with this - keep pursuing it like a dog after a rat, don't let anyone fob you off, these optoms/ophth can be tricksy. Prepare questions, develop a good relationship with the doc team where you can phone yourself if you've got worries - as Rebecca says, you're going to need good eyes.

[Dr. Dallas]

Hi Lovestruck, and everyone else reading this. I'm an Optometrist in Dallas and I work with a group of Ophthalmologists, so my training is concentrated in ocular disease and one area I specialize in is dry eyes. There are several forms and causes of dry eye. Based on your signs and symptoms it definitely sounds like Blepharitis is at least a part of your problem. I scanned many of the comments above so if anything I say is redundant I apologize. Blepharitis literally translates to lid inflammation. Blepharitis is typically caused by a bacteria that we all have on our skin called Staph., that some of us have an allergic type reaction to. This causes itching, redness and flaking of the skin. You mentioned having blood vessels on your lids, that is a very common sign of CHRONIC blepharitis, meaning this has been an issue for a while. Some people are just more prone to having the condition due to ethnicity. Unfortunately there's not a real cure for bleph., but there are good treatments to keep it at bay. I would recommend doing warm/wet compresses to loosen the debris and to dilate the glands in the lids. Follow this up by gently washing the lashes right where they come out of the lid with a diluted mix of baby shampoo and water in a 4:1 ratio, water to baby shampoo. after that rinse the lids and lashes with fresh cool water. I would do this in the morning when you get up and again before bed. You may also benefit from a low dose antibiotic such as 50 mg of Doxycycline used daily. This often works wonders in managing this condition. Someone above mentioned not to use Visine or anything else that says "gets the red out" and I agree totally. However, for special occasions, school photos etc. you can try Opcon-A (over the counter). It works wonders for getting the red out and doesn't tend to have the negative side effects of Visine etc.

I wish you the best of luck!

[lovestruck]

Hi Lovestruck, My daughter's 15 and she's had blepharitis since she was 11. You are not alone Lots of people here started blepharitis young but weren't advised how to look after it by eye docs. Now there is much better advice and understanding about what's happening to the eyes, and you've made a very good start by reading up here.

If you need to freak your poor parents out completely to show how serious this can get, here's some ammo Br J Ophthalmol. 2005 Apr;89(4):400-3. Blepharokeratoconjunctivitis in children: diagnosis and treatment. Viswalingam M, Rauz S, Morlet N, Dart JK (click on the link top right for free download), and you can search on PubMed on 'child blepharitis' for more. Obviously these are extreme cases of unrecognised and untreated infected blepharitis in young children - this is not you, living in Texas with access to docs. Absolutely, a good start for the parents is the Dr Latkany book 'Dry Eye Remedy', easily available on Amazon. I'm just saying, someone who loves you needs to take this very seriously, in my experience.

Also, as everyone's saying, we've found there's a mix of problems for us - blepharitis just means something's going on around the eyelids affecting the eye surface. But what? We've found blocked meibomian glands (careful hygiene, warm compress, oral antibiotics, topical antibacterials) + dry eye surface (wraparound sunglasses, humidifier, some tear substitute eyedrops) + sensitivities and allergies to different eyedrops and bathroom products and environment.

Make sure docs don't give you eyedrops with preservatives in. If eyedrops are stinging or making your eyes red, go back so they can have a look again and a re-think.

Basically, if it's mgd, you're clearing the glands and keeping the eye surface as good as possible for healing. If you've got a bit of inflammation, they might want to give you something like steroid or Restasis to suppress that but short-term only until everything's moving again.

I am horrifed that they gave you Lotemax without investigation. Must never use it anywhere near contact lenses, as you prob know they soak it up. There's a good chance you are sensitive to eg contact lens solutions and eyedrops as well and need to think about allergies - but if you want to start blepharitis treatments now yourself this is what we do.

For hot compress, we do best on a wheat eyebag or even microwaved trainer sock of dry rice (10 secs+, make sure it's not too hot), or a microwaved hot damp flannel (might need 2), or just a flannel eye rub in a warm shower, to keep the meibomian glands moving. A bath is a good time to do a warm compress - when she was younger and we struggled with this it was enough some days to have a bath that steamed up the bathroom and lay a hot flannel across the eyes like a spa.

And then, you are looking for yellowish flakes of crusting at the base of the eyelids, and people clean these off. Most use eyelid hygiene products like Blephasol (LM's eyes are even sensitive to them though). We use hot water cotton wool but then need a cotton bud to get to the base of the eyelashes.

If you have normal oily/mixed teenage skin and hair, think carefully about how to keep that clean. It's a balance between using hypersensitive hypoallergenic pH-neutral facewashes and shampoos with minimum parabens etc, and finding something that actually works for you, and you can see how we all struggle with this. It seems that some products make blepharitis worse through sensitivity and allergy so it's a tough one - rather than maybe just using what's in the bathroom or what you've always used, it means you becoming sensitive to what makes your eyes feel better/worse.

Diet is important. We are finding some foods clog the glands - basically junk food with fake fats and esp junk meats, candy, pastries, doughnuts, soda. We know this because she gets skin flareups and MGD. Sorry... Also most people take a fish/flaxseed oil supplement like Theratears to clear the meibom. Salad oils liquid at room temperature are good.

If her eyes are dry in this milder case, we do well on normal saline 0.9% from the pharmacy and a tear substitute/lubricant that has hyaluronic acid. A good eye surface specialist will have their own ideas about what's best for you.

If you can get this sorted out now and maintain your eyes well, there's a good chance you can wear contact lenses maybe once/week or special occasions, but only with a really good optometrist in charge, not this * you've been seeing so far (just my humble opinion...).

We are European so hopefully people will post up with brands you can find easily in Texas. Finding ophthalmologists who are good at this (paediatric, cornea, eye surface disease) is not so easy, and going straight to the right person fast saves a lot of money and trailing about - I'd be taking Rebecca up on her kind offer pronto. Best of luck with this - keep pursuing it like a dog after a rat, don't let anyone fob you off, these optoms/ophth can be tricksy. Prepare questions, develop a good relationship with the doc team where you can phone yourself if you've got worries - as Rebecca says, you're going to need good eyes.

Thank you, I'm sorry for your daughter, but it's nice to know I'm not alone I'm going to use that link for sure! Maybe I'll run down to Barnes and Noble and get my parents that book It's not that my eyedrops are making my eyes worse, it's just that they don't seem to be working as well as they used to. About an hour after putting in my drops, my eyes feel the same as they did before I used the drops... When I used Lotemax, I made sure to wait at least a half hour before putting in my lenses. Thank you the information on hot compresses! I use a sulfate-free shampoo, so I don't think that it's an allergy to that. Yeah, I've been eating alot healthier ever since my problems began! So something good has come out of this :P Are there any negative effects of taking fish oil?