Dry eye meaning

[valeja81]

Hello ! Here is my dry eye story: 8 had LASIK done about 5 years ago and had no problems until 8 months ago when my nightmare started. First I felt something had scratched my eye and since I am a nurse I was treated with antibiotics. This happened again 2 weeks later and I was told I had " viral conjunctivitis ". The third time I was desperate and went to another doctor. This time a female doctor discovered my MGD. I didn't even know that existed!!!
I was then put on warm compresses and Azacyte and she told me it would resolve. I was so desperate I have been doing IPl for the last 4 months. I have been on drops almost constantly for the last 8 months. I take omega 3 and eye health supplements. Tears do nothing for me but make me feel worse. I know my illness has a lot to do with bright lights and air conditioning since I went on vacation to a country that has neither and I had absolutely NO SYMPTOMS. It was the happiest week of my life!! I lived a day without looking at the mirror thinking my eye would get super- red!
I feel that doctors don't listen because they don't know what is like. Family and friends tell you it could be worse. Coworkers think I constantly have pink eye even though I know it's not. Thanks to this post I don't go into despair even tough I have cried my eyes out! Thanks to all of you for your support!!!!

[Becky]

I don't quite get what you are saying since with dry eyes there is no tears and you can't cry. I know becasue until I got the Lipiflow treatment recently I have not been able to make tears for 2 years and it is tough when you can't release emitions through tears. Becky

[alisonW]

valeja81 - I just have to say that I (and many others on here) can empathize. For some reason fluorescent lights make my eyes look the worse too - bright red and irritated. Some of the docs I've seen say this is a symptom of ocular rosacea although there is no definitive way to diagnose it.

Becky - I think by "tears' valeja81 is referring to artifical tears (ie.drops) and is saying they do not help her, but make her eyes feel worse. val - if you're not already, use drops that are preservative free to see if that makes a difference. Also, Becky - the tears we cry and those that lubricate our eyes are two different things. "Basal tears are what your eyes produce all the time to provide the tear layer necessary to protect the eyes and see. Reflex tears are triggered in response to an irritation in your eye and they are different - more watery. Same with emotional tears." copied from another post by Rebecca (site creator).

[Guest]

I don't quite get what you are saying since with dry eyes there is no tears and you can't cry.

Also, there are varying degrees of dry eye. I've had my eyes be so bad that they barely made any tears, even when trying to cry... and then there's today, where if I cried, tears would stream down my face, yet compared to a "normal" person, I am still aqueous deficient.

[bakunin]

Hi valeja,
a very
I had Lasik in 2005, without any problem. But six years later started my dry eyes ordeal. AC is my enemy number one, and I think a very powerful AC on my face in my former job was the trigger (other coworkers had mild dry eye symptoms either).

I quit the aryificial tears because all made me worse (even the preservative free that I tried). I have tried many things so far. What I can say that gives me relief is wearing moisture chamber glasses. Warm compresses gives me imediate relief when I feel my eyes inflammed (almost always last year).

I wish you the best, and I understand how difficult it is with friends, doctor and even family, they just don't understand what it is trying to survive with severe symptmons of dry eyes.