19 and suffering with severe dry eye disease

[Blue96]

Hello, I've been looking through this forum board for a while now and finally decided to make an account. I'm very sorry to everyone here who has been dealing with this, but I feel better in knowing I'm not alone.

I'm a 19 year old female and I've been in terrible pain since December of last year. My eyes have been burning and stinging me constantly without a break, and I've been finding it very difficult to cope. I've become very sensitive to light, to the point where wearing sunglasses on a cloudy day does nothing to help me. I've never had trouble being outside on a sunny day before, even without glasses. I've also never used eye drops in my life, so this dry eye feeling is very new to me. I'm not sure how I got this condition, but it happened very suddenly after I started wearing contact lenses for a few weeks (I had started to become quite nearsighted out of the blue). I was very careful with my contacts and would never wear them for very long, so this entire situation really confuses me. When meeting my ophthalmologist, he theorized that my dry eyes might be due to an unbalance between my diet, stress levels, and sleep. He then informed me that my dry eye condition might be reversible if I change my lifestyle around. I tried my best to do this, despite it being difficult due to my feeling depressed and having less than understanding parents. I still haven't found relief, so I suppose this means that it's incurable and I'll have to live with it.

I'm not sure which type I have, although according to my ophthalmologist I'm not producing enough tears. He said my reflex tears when crying, yawning, or having long q-tips shoved up my nose were normal though. I also noticed "lines" on the white part of my eyes that I know were never there before, including a round transparent mound on my sclera. A different ophthalmologist who works at the same office told me I have conjuctival folds, and didn't really explain much about them to me, just that I'd have them for life. I've tried several brands of eye drops, including preservative free drops that have done nothing to help, in fact my eyes tend to feel drier afterwards. I've also tried warm compresses, fish oil supplements, sea buckthorn oil, steroid eye drops (I had to stop because my Ophthalmologist told me I was sensitive to them), and punctal plugs.

I hope to expand more on my situation in the "Our dry eye stories" forum later when I have time. I haven't been able to share my pain or discomfort with anyone so it's been a very depressing and isolating time for me.

Thank you for reading.

[Arcluce]

I know how it is. The only time that I usually go outside is when the sun comes down. Although, for me I have always enjoyed the night. Drops only give me temporary relief which is always a pain in the ***. Most of the time I just endure the pain or keep my eyes closed. To be honest the only thing that has helped me is marijuana, especially if it's an indica plant. As Mc Chris says, "Weed has been by my side, it's always been there!" Lol Seeing how my eyes are blood shot and I am always squinting, everyone thinks I am high anyways lol. The perfect disguise! My damage is permanent all thanks to an allergic reaction (T.E.N.) to lamotrigine. I beat myself up all the time, because I should have just stuck with smoking marijuana then to try it the legal way with prescription drugs. You won't see me making that same mistake again lol. By the way, feel free to shoot me message anytime! I am usually around these forums often.

[Blue96]

I know how it is. The only time that I usually go outside is when the sun comes down. Although, for me I have always enjoyed the night. Drops only give me temporary relief which is always a pain in the ***. Most of the time I just endure the pain or keep my eyes closed. To be honest the only thing that has helped me is marijuana, especially if it's an indica plant. As Mc Chris says, "Weed has been by my side, it's always been there!" Lol Seeing how my eyes are blood shot and I am always squinting, everyone thinks I am high anyways lol. The perfect disguise! My damage is permanent all thanks to an allergic reaction (T.E.N.) to lamotrigine. I beat myself up all the time, because I should have just stuck with smoking marijuana then to try it the legal way with prescription drugs. You won't see me making that same mistake again lol. By the way, feel free to shoot me message anytime! I am usually around these forums often.

Thanks for the response, Arcluce. I'm not very knowledgable about medical marijuana, but I thought it was used to dry you out before surgery? I'm in a lot of pain but I wouldn't want to make my condition worse.

I'm willing to try anything that might help though. No one has been helping me, it's gotten so bad that I've started thinking about suicide.

[epicjinx]

If it helps, I've been suffering since tail end of 17, Dec 7 2014 computer use or hormones I think. I hate it, no options and if I know what they are getting them is no chance lol. Do not give up, I have been there myself I had something that helped that fell through if it helps you can message me both of you. It's hard being positive, but there is research being done it's not as if nothing is being done. It will take time, you just need to wait I guess. If it is really bad you could ask for salivary gland transplant surgery.

[Manupi]

Have you been given a diet or something?
Hope you get better soon

[waterbee]

Hi Blue, May I ask how quickly did your eyes change sight wise? Had you needed glasses before this? Did you dry eye start before or after these symptoms?

[Blue96]

That's terrible, I'm sorry epixjinx. I'm a bit scared of surgery due having to deal with doctors and medical malpractice on more than one occasion, so it makes me nervous. I will definitely look into that though if nothing else works. Thank you!

Hello, Manupi and thank you. I haven't been given any sort of diet, I was just advised to try eating as healthy as I can and balance it with good sleep and less stress. I asked if I should continue using fish oil supplements and they said I shouldn't have to since I'm so young. I'm going to try upping my exercise and healthy eating though.

Hi, waterbee. I became very slightly nearsighted around age 14 but not to the point where it was noticeable or that I needed glasses. It got a little worse at the beginning of last year so I wanted glasses to feel more confident when driving. I don't know what my prescription was at the time but it took a sudden and noticeable nose dive into -1.25 and then -2.00 in the span of less than a month, I had to change my glasses three times in November. My eyes started feeling dry a couple weeks after using contacts in December, it was noticeable but not painful and I never wore them for more than 8 hours at a time. My eyes started feeling pain after wearing them on a trip to Disney World for a day and they've been in constant pain ever since. I haven't touched my contacts since then.

[meibomian]

Photophobia associated with dry eyes in a young person is rather unusual and implies secondary keratitis that is the culprit for the photophobia. The primary cause is generally eyelids which can be due to rosacea or other dermatologic diseases. A primary tear film deficiency causing "dry eyes" would imply an underlying systemic disease such as Sjogrens, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, etc, assuming there's been no prior trauma, surgery, or medication use such as Accutane. If the photophobia is NOT truly due to to dry eyes, then the other main causes for photophobia are an anterior uveitis (inflammation inside the eye), optic neuritis, or scleritis. Dry eyes may cause severe photophobia in a teenager but it's not first on the differential diagnosis. This is a dry eye forum but the photophobia you're experiencing may not be due to "dry eyes". Hope this helps.

[Blue96]

Photophobia associated with dry eyes in a young person is rather unusual and implies secondary keratitis that is the culprit for the photophobia. The primary cause is generally eyelids which can be due to rosacea or other dermatologic diseases. A primary tear film deficiency causing "dry eyes" would imply an underlying systemic disease such as Sjogrens, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, etc, assuming there's been no prior trauma, surgery, or medication use such as Accutane. If the photophobia is NOT truly due to to dry eyes, then the other main causes for photophobia are an anterior uveitis (inflammation inside the eye), optic neuritis, or scleritis. Dry eyes may cause severe photophobia in a teenager but it's not first on the differential diagnosis. This is a dry eye forum but the photophobia you're experiencing may not be due to "dry eyes". Hope this helps.

Thank you so much for responding! I haven't taken any medication like Accutane, and I'm uncertain about having any underlying disease. I am going to the doctor soon though, so I will bring that up with them. If this is the case with my photophobia then I'm surprised my opthalmologist hasn't detected it. I'm not sure if we're allowed to mention names or not but the one I went to see is apparently one of the leading dry eye specialists in my state, or so I've been told.

I'm not sure what I should do now with this information. Should I bring this up with my current opthalmologist or perhaps see someone else? Maybe bring it up when I go to the doctor, would they be able to help? I'm going to see if anything is wrong with my hormones and to get a blood test, so I'm not sure who to talk to here.

[Chloetee28]

Hi blue96!
I'm so glad I've found another sufferer the same age as me. I've seen a lot of posts on here of people depressed and confused they got dry eyes 'so young' at like ages of 25-30 I felt I was the only one still in my teens! My dry eyes started in November 2014 and were controlling my life , my exams and my future(I didn't go to uni) for over a year. I will tell you though, it will get better. And that's a lot coming from me all the times I've felt things will never get better. It will also be a lot better for you now you have found other sufferers since you say your family are not so understanding.

[Seb233]

Most likely lid wiper epetheliopathy. If you went on roller coasters and that creates a lot of wind drying out the contacts. In any case a dry contact damaged your lid wiper and this lid wiper condition mimics dry eye. Did u figure it out yet or?