Introducing Myself

[TripleF]

I just found this forum and am quite excited to begin exploring the information here and to hopefully get some good advice and suggestions to help me find relief.

I'm a 68 year old retiree who has led a quite active life. Tons of distance running in my past - 114 races of a marathon distance or longer. Two 100 milers. But I have retired from that type of running!! Just walking 18 holes of golf 3 days a week now. I live in northeast North Carolina in a very rural area.

I have a LONG history with eye problems . . . more on that in just a minute!

My dry eye problems only began in late December 2017!! I have been working myself up the food-chain of doctors trying to find answers and more importantly relief. I started with my optometrist hüseyin referred me to my ophthalmologist hüseyin referred me to the University of North Carolina Kittner Eye Center where I have seen every cornea specialist they have! And honestly no relief so far. They tell me that it's quite odd that I only have this dry eye in only of my eyes and not both.

No idea what brought it on but I'm only finding relief using gel drops about every 20 minutes and some goopy ointment at night. They put in plugs which didn't help, put me on antibiotics which didn't help, tried two different types of prednisone which didn't help. Now practicing eye lid hygiene and added fish oil daily. Tomorrow I'll pick up my autologous serum drops which I'm hoping may help but realistically I'm expecting the worst and hope I'll be surprised!

Oddly, my eyes bother me less when I'm outside. Inside I am literally going crazy! You all probably understand. I'm trying hard to "suck it up buttercup" but only partially successful. As you might imagine as a runner who runs 100 miles at a time, I am fairly use to pain and suffering. But this dry eye stuff is almost as bad!!

About my eye problem history in the affected eye. I've had two tears in my retina and one detachment. Detachment was missed by the optometrist I went to for the "floaters." As a result I llater developed a large scar tissue mass over my retina which was removed by a vitrectomy. Later, a cataract developed which was removed. Later I have had LASIK and a PRK on that eye! Poor eye!! Hahaha!

I'm so new to all this dry eye. In reading some posts I've got to admit I'm lost with all the acronyms being used - IPL, MGD, DED, etc. But over time I'll try and figure these out!

Since my doctors have told me but it's quite odd to have this dry eyes problem in just one eye and I'm wondering if it could possibly be something else that is causing the itchiness and pain.

Anyway . . . I'm hoping to learn about all this and hopefully get some ideas that might lead to some relief!

Thanks for listening!!

[farmgirl]

Just the cataract or lasik surgery would be enough to cause dry eye. Were those procedures only done on one eye?

DED- Dry Eye Disease
MGD- Meibomium Gland Dysfunction
IPL- Intense Pulsed Light

[TripleF]

Just the cataract or lasik surgery would be enough to cause dry eye. Were those procedures only done on one eye?

DED- Dry Eye Disease
MGD- Meibomium Gland Dysfunction
IPL- Intense Pulsed Light

Thanks so much for the response farmgirl!

Yes . . . lasik - 2001, vitrectomy - 2003, cataract - 2004, PRK - 2015

I guess I had been thinking that so much time had passed and that this new "dry eye" sensation came on so quickly the "dry eye" issue would be unrelated. Do you really believe this is the likely reason? I thought I had scratched my eye or something when it all started.

[farmgirl]

Usually, and I am no expert, but it seems that most problems present themselves fairly quickly post surgical because of the severed nerves. This eye though has had a lot of insults thrown at it and possibly it is the accumulative effect plus (and i hate to say it...old age....lol). BTW we are the same age..

Have you tried moisture chamber glasses like 7eye or Wiley X, those are most helpful for outside as they keep the wind off of your eyes. Have they determined if you are aqueous deficient or oil deficient or both yet. When the nerves are severed the eye is not getting the message that it needs lubrication and this almost seems to be the worst kind of dry eye. What are they telling you besides it is odd that you have the problem in one eye only.

FYI I cannot tolerate any kind of ointment in my eye. I am going to give you a link to a post that I did that might give you some food for thought. The moral of this story is be careful that what you are putting in your eye isn't making you worse.

http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/forum...bout-eye-drops

[TripleF]

Usually, and I am no expert, but it seems that most problems present themselves fairly quickly post surgical because of the severed nerves. This eye though has had a lot of insults thrown at it and possibly it is the accumulative effect plus (and i hate to say it...old age....lol). BTW we are the same age..

Have you tried moisture chamber glasses like 7eye or Wiley X, those are most helpful for outside as they keep the wind off of your eyes. Have they determined if you are aqueous deficient or oil deficient or both yet. When the nerves are severed the eye is not getting the message that it needs lubrication and this almost seems to be the worst kind of dry eye. What are they telling you besides it is odd that you have the problem in one eye only.

FYI I cannot tolerate any kind of ointment in my eye. I am going to give you a link to a post that I did that might give you some food for thought. The moral of this story is be careful that what you are putting in your eye isn't making you worse.

http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/forum...bout-eye-drops

68 years young!! Awesome!

Actually, my eye pain is MUCH less if I'm outside. I find things are much worse if I'm trying to read (my "bad" eye is my reading eye . . . monovision).

Quite interesting about your discovery. I do feel more relief using the gels with preservatives but my doctors REALLY wanted me to use the non-preservative type. I just got my autologous drops to try and am not sure what to do regarding additional drops.

[farmgirl]

The non preserved type are better. At all costs avoid those preserved with BAK (benzalkonium chloride)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20302969
Regarding additional drops it mostly boils down to what you prefer and can tolerate and at what rate you feel you need to instill them. Do you think you might fare better with normal reading correction rather than monovision?

[TripleF]

Do you think you might fare better with normal reading correction rather than monovision?

Hahaha! Too late now!! Both Lasik and PRK corrected me to monovision. Perhaps now, if I had to to it over again and know what I now know I might think a little harder about it. But monovision has worked very, very well for me for years now.

[farmgirl]

Well, at least something went right with your eyes...lol

[TripleF]

UPDATE -

My condition has dramatically improved! My pain level has gone from a 9 to a 2!! Thank God!

What helped? I'm not totally sure but I do believe the autologous tears where the main contributor to my relief! Here is a list of all the things we did:
-- Autologous Tears every 2 hours
-- Refresh Celluvisc as needed
- used Refresh PM at night
-- Fish oil - 2+ grams daily
-- wash eyelids daily with baby shampoo
-- eye patch when the pain just got unbearable

Anyway . . . I'm now able to read again and I can live my life with my current pain level . . . though I believe I will likely continue to improve.

After consultation with my doctors, I plan to continue the autologous tears until my supply runs out and then continue on with only Celluvisc and fish oil. If the pain and dryness start to return, I'll quickly go back to the autologous tears.

[farmgirl]

UPDATE -
My condition has dramatically improved! My pain level has gone from a 9 to a 2!! Thank God!.

Excellent, so happy to hear that. I don't do the eyelid wash as I am more aqueous deficient, but I understand from reading the forum that baby shampoo is not a good thing to use. I understand that a product like Heyedrate Lid & Lash Cleanser is much better and is not expensive.