Dry eye after conjunctivitis and spots in the corneas - will it get beter?

[mariposa]

I developed extremely dry eye 1 month after the recovery from viral conjunctivitis (it took me 1 month to heal conjunctivas). After I recovered I put on my contact lenses immediately ( I have -14 so you understand why glasses are such a pain) although my eyes were still dry. After one month of wearing them it was impossible anymore. I went for a routine consultation after this conjunctivitis and the doctor said that spots in the cornea developed.Now I have been curing them with steroid drops for 7 months and ther eis still no improvement.The worst thing is that the dry eye is so bad I don't believe I will ever be able to wear contact lenses again.The doctor says that the corneal changes generate the dry eye but I am not sure if this is a good explanation,what do you think? Will the dry eye disappear when I cure my corneas?I am also worried that the spots will never leave me for good because I treat them with the drops but when I stop they come back...So I started to think that the dry eye gerenrates the spots,not the other way round...
Its worst when I wake up.It feels as if my eyes did not produce any tears at all during night.
I am also worried that I will not be able to get ICL because cornea dieases are the no no to the surgery.

Does somebody of you know how long does it take for the corneas to heal so that I could wear contacts again?

It's like a punishment for being a good girl. I got this virus implanted when I was routineily testing my retinas at the opthamologists :-((( I would like to sue them but how am I going to prove I got the virus there?

Life with -14 glasses and dry eye at the age of 25 is getting me down.Not to mention my floaters increased in number so much after the infection...And somehow I also gained 1 diopter of the lens power during this process ...

[poppy]

Hi mariposa,

Firstly I would ask how do you know that it was viral conjunctivitis you had? Was it confirmed by a swab test or something? The sad fact is, when you first present to any doctor with red/painful eyes, they will almost always say it's "conjunctivitis", meaning the everyday viral or bacterial kind. It is basically impossible for any doctor, even an ophthalmologist, to know for sure whether conjunctival inflammation is from virus, bacteria, allergies, dry eye etc and they certainly can't know if they've just glanced at the surface of your eye for a few seconds. Ordinary viral/bacterial conjunctivitis will go away on it's own usually within about a week. Again, sadly, once we re-present to the eye doc after a few weeks and eyes not back to normal, they tend to just switch their diagnosis to "chronic dry eye" since it didn't go away on it's own. The fact that you had viral conjunctivitis for a whole month even with treatment makes me suspicious that the initial diagnosis might have been wrong. Could be time for a second opinion.

By spots on the cornea I guess your eye doc is referring to punctate keratitis. You might want to clarify that with him so you can research exactly what you have. I too have this and also cannot get rid of it even after months and months of steroid drops. The average dry eye patient, though, would not normally have 7 months of steroids like you have with no improvement in their keratitis. That is unusual. And by my understanding yes the dry eye causes the corneal changes, not the other way round.

If your eyes are most dry when you wake up, then you should try a gel or ointment before bed. You should also try the tranquileyes goggles at night available from the dry eye shop. If your doc hasn't even suggested a gel at night and you've told him you're dry in the morning, fire him and find a new one. You could be getting corneal erosions when you wake up. I suggest you ask the doctor directly if you have corneal erosions/abrasions. It took me years before a doctor bothered to tell me this, you have to ask directly. Best of luck

[mariposa]

It was viral conjunctivis..it was epidemic conjunctivitis,not herpes.I am sure about that,conculted two doctor and read all the internet about it.I was only treated with streoids and now I am back on steroid drops for the corneas.But i dont take then continuously.My first doctor said the spots can take years to fade and the will do so by themselves so I ignored the order to concult a doctor after one month steroid treatment and then I am back on steroids because the other doctor said the spots won't heal without steroids.
I dont think I have any abrasions because I can see clearly,no foggy vision etc. I also experience no pain and no particular light sensitivity so I think it is minor.I am only wondering if the reason for my dry eye is the corneal change or the infection.Or it wont go away ever.I have to say I experienced dry eye problems before but not to such an extent.

I recently started using Corneregel prescribed by the doctor.I can open my eyes easily in the morning but they feel very dry.I can't feel any abrasions happening..I guess that would hurt or I could see my vision deteriorated,am I right?

[poppy]

Hi mariposa, I don't think you have to have decreased vision to have an erosion/abrasion, though with any kind of dry eye you can get some intermittent blurriness of vision, which usually clears with blinking or artificial tears. My vision ranges from between about 20/25 to 20/30 uncorrected even with erosions and abrasions. I really feel not much pain on waking up despite the erosions. They sometimes feel very dry on waking, and I have the urge to use gel straight away, but it's not like the severe pain that many here experience with erosions. I can get severe photophobia, but I don't think it is directly related to my erosions. I think it all depends on the sensitivity of your corneas as to your symptoms.

Basically I suggest you need to ask your doctor directly if you have any of these problems - erosions/abrasions and/or punctate keratitis. "Spots on your cornea" isn't an acceptable thing to tell you, it could mean punctate keratitis, it could mean erosions or he could just be talking about dry spots caused by rapid tear break up time. He needs to tell you the technical description of what you have. Ask him to write it down for you so you can read about it later. Once you know what it is, you can direct your research and treatment towards this. If you know you have erosions, you can try to concentrate on protecting your eyes at night. If you don't ask for the technical details, you will end up like me and many others taking years to find out what is actually going on.

[mariposa]

Hey.Thanks so much for your help.
I was at the docs' today and it came out my spots healed completely after using Lotemax light steroid drops for one month.The problem is I only know how she calls my spots in Polish so I cant tell you more in English.Those were small points in my cornea visible only in the doctors' lamp.I could only see tiny halos around lights sometimes but this was probably due to the dry eye..or not?There were no signs of any corneal disease .She said those were probably the leftovers from the viral infection which spreaded to the cornea.But they tend to come back when you get off steroids so I will see if this is over.My dry eye seems to be unrelated to the spots because they are allegeldy gone but my eyes are drier than ever.In the end of September I have a consultation with a doctor who mostly deals with dry eye patients,no with the corneal problems like the present doctor, so we wil see.
My corneas are in the perfect state,that what the doctor told me today.Its all thanks to the steroid.I wonder what will happen when I stop using it.

Can you tell me- will my severely dry eye,if developed after the conjunctivitis,possibly, eventually go away or there is a tendency for it to last forever?People told me they had dry eye after conjunctivitis for some time but nobody suffered for 8 month like I do now. I wonder if my eyes are messed forever.I miss contact lenses and the ilusion of freedom they gave me.I have always had slightly dry eyes so I could wear contacts for a few hours a day but that was enough to feel better.Now they are out of the question even for 5 minutes.

[poppy]

Hi mariposa, sorry I can't answer your question as to whether your dry eyes will go away or not. I would say you are probably doing the right thing by treating it aggressively, even if that means lots of steroids, as if you let it get out of control it is very hard to treat it later. I've never worn contacts before my dry eye as my eyesight is quite good, but a doctor recently recommended me to use acuvue tru eye daily disposables, not for vision problems but to help with my particular kind of corneal issues/dry eye. I have worn them a couple of times so far for most of the day and they haven't bothered me much. So maybe consider trying a different kind of contact lens. I think some are better for comfort than others. Maybe it is difficult for you with your high prescription to use other lenses though, I don't know.

I would certainly look into trying some punctal plugs sooner rather than later, but maybe you will have to push the docs to do this, it seems outside of the US docs rarely use these except in severe long term cases. No harm in trying them up front, apart from the cost, as long as they are the removable type, you can always have them taken out. Again if you let things get too bad before trying plugs, it may be a bit late for them to work well. You want to have inflammation under control before the plugs go in.

[joanna]

hey mariposa, I sent you a private message

[mariposa]

Never before did I hear that contact lenses improve the state of dry eye.It just does not make any sense.My dry eye was worse when I wore contact lenses.Besides, they cause erosions in the cornea not heal it (how could they heal it?).
I don't have any inflammation now,I wonder if the punctual plugs are really worth they dry or should I wait longer

[Sunshine8]

Did it get better?

Never before did I hear that contact lenses improve the state of dry eye.It just does not make any sense.My dry eye was worse when I wore contact lenses.Besides, they cause erosions in the cornea not heal it (how could they heal it?).
I don't have any inflammation now,I wonder if the punctual plugs are really worth they dry or should I wait longer

Did your eye ever get better? I have the same problem.

[gz9gjg]

Soft lenses generally do not help with dry eyes. RGPs may.

[BeckaG]

Hi Mariposa,

not sure if my story will help you any but I will link it just incase you find it helpful: http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showt...ghlight=beckag