14, clueless and on a 9-month waiting list...

[Tim2014]

Hi y'all, I hope you guys can help...

It's been 3 months yesterday that I woke up one morning, my eyes suddenly very dry and irritated. It was mid-March, so here in Canada, where I live, the heaters were full blaze, humidity was non-existant and yes, I had togo to school. I'm 14. Impossible to concentrate. I figured it was just a one-day thing, but nonetheless, I put cucumbers on my eyes, put my face in cold water, whatever I found helped. Surely enough, the next morning, they were dry, and after a few days, I got myself some eyedrops. At first, I thought it was the solution to the problem, but found out that it helped for an hour at most. Trips to the doctor at clinics were of no use. They diagnosed me of keratitis, conjunctivitis, said I had eye lesions, whatever. I tried Erythomycin and Fucithalmic but to no avail. When I met the doctor a week after using Erythromycin, I was told everything was fine. Hah. My eyes were still dry. But after weeks, there were more and more symptoms - occasional itchiness, inflammation of the lower eyelid, then inflammation of both. I continued to use eyedrops (Systane Ultra) and a gel at night (Alcori Tear-Gel), but they helped for a very short period of time.

So I began to look into different eye conditions. I thought it was MGD or Blepharitis. My eyes felt oily once or twice. I don't know if it's that.
I thought it was Allergies, to dust mites or something. Because my eyes feel always better outside. But I read that dust mites survive in humidity. The problems started when the air was so dry at my school.
I thought it was something to do with my dandruff. I don't know if it's that. I do have a lot, so I'm trying to take care of that.

These days, my most annoying symptom is a burning (sort of) sensation in the upper inner corner of my left eye. Sometimes right. But mostly left. It's hell. Every day it burns.

I visited my optometrist, who informed me that vision in my left eye, the eye that hurts most of the time, went down pretty rapidly for one year and for my age. I have a new prescription now. She ran a TBUT Test, and said my result was half of what it should be in a normal person. She didn't know more. She referred me to an opthalmologist.

Although the benchmark waiting time in Canada to see an opthalmologist is 4 months, I'm told by the hospital that it will be at least a 9 month wait.

I'm using cold compresses to help with the burning/inflammation, but it's not super effective. I tried warm compresses for MGD and stuff but I stopped after 2 weeks, I felt absolutely no difference.

I noticed that I have the tendency now since this happened to want to put water in my eyes where it hurts. I also noticed that when I take a shower (my eyes don't feel dry but the burning remains) but also that they become very gritty when water gets in my eyes. Very very gritty/dry-ish feeling.

I remember the night before this started, I stayed up all night (until 2am) finishing a very important project on my computer for school. I rubbed my eyes a lot after since I was tired. I really regret that now.

I notice that when I yawn and my eyes tear up, I feel that temporary relief for 5-10 seconds. Then the burning is back.

The eyedrops can help to stop it from being dry for a while (like 1 hour maybe) but it does nothing to help the burning. I feel it again after 5 minutes, especially in the inner upper corner of the eye, under the upper eyelid.

Is it normal to have a line under the eyelid in that area? Because if so it becomes very red and inflamed when it hurts the most.

I'm so tired of this. I have read so many things but the result is often "If there's burning, see a doctor." But the doctor sends me to an optometrist. Who sends me to the 9-month long waiting list. Foiled again.

All I really want is to enjoy living again. It's so horrible. Waking up every morning not knowing how bad the day will be. (during school year, the better days were on weekends. Now that it<s summer I feel no change.) I just want help. But help is inaccesible. And everything I'm doing isn't good enough. I can't have a humidifier in my room anymore because it's summer and it's so frickin' hot with the humidifier on.

I really want help. I want to enjoy living. I want to stop being depressed. Stop living at the mercy of this stupid eye condition. I'm an anglophone but I live in a French city. It's hard even to get the basic help.

The dry feeling only seems to last when I wake up these days. Eyedrops help more and more every day to solve the dryness. But the burning feeling in the upper inner corner of the eye is the worst, and only cold compresses can repel it for a few minutes.

This week, I've had horrible nasal problems, especially dryness. It happened for a week last month. But the nasal dryness is going away. The eye pain isn't.

When can I enjoy living again? When can I get help? What can I do for the 7 months that are left before I maybe possibly perhaps get help? It's hell. I'm so depressed right now. Today was a bad day.

Does anyone have any idea what it could be, and what medication I can get over-the-counter that would help me at least reduce the symptoms to a minimum before I get help? I just want to be able to live somewhat happily again. Every day is horrible. To think the good days are when it only hurts at night...

Before someone asks, I used to use my computer for 1hr on weekdays (+ at 1hr some days at school) and a lot more than I should have on weekends. Like half the day at least. Oh, how much I regret that now. I'm only using the computer when I must now. It doesn't make any difference...

My mom's super religious and tells me to pray to God, that He'll fix it, but if there really was a God, why do I have to suffer this? Why can't someone help me? It's so annoying, since in Korea, where half my family is from, waiting 9 months for medical help is unfathomable. I can see the right doctor within a week probably. (But it costs more.)

I'm sorry for the long message,just the more I wrote, the more I remembered the pain I've suffered...

As for dietary changes, I've been taking an Omega-3 supplement and eating more fish. Like I said I'm pretty hopeless that if you said "eat more of this, of that!" I'd probably want to smack you across the face. It feels like food isn't the solution... but I could be wrong. I'm no expert. That's the thing. The experts are inaccessible.

Can anyone help me? Please? I'm so hopeless and depressed. Today was a bad day. What can I do while I wait to see an opthalmologist???

[Tim2014]

PS No, I do not wear contacts, only glasses.

[cathy8889]

Hi Tim, I'm really sorry you're having such a terrible time and you are going through such pain. How long have you had these symptoms? I think I've had dry eye on some level since I was 19, I'm now 27 and about 6 months ago during the winter they took turn for worse. I've seen quite a few ophalmologists now but can't seem to get a straight answer. It sounds like you're doing all the right things, if you're using drops quite a lot, make sure they are preservative free, I was using normal systane for a long time and didn't know this. I am the same with hot compresses, do you get any kind of relief after you've done it? I did hot compresses twice a day for a month and now I do them once a day, I dont want to not do them in case they're doing the trick. Also I have a cool air humidifier for summer.

I'm sorry you have to wait so long for your appointment, I undestand how frustrating it is and it feels like no one is helping you. I don't know what the health system is like in Canada but maybe someone else on here could give you a few tips, I really hate the thought of you having to wait 9 months.

Keep taking your omega three, I'm in to my third month now, they say it can take a while to feel benefit.

There's so much trial and error, keep doing what you're doing and don't lose hope. I feel/felt exactly the same about just wanting to enjoy life again, things are getting better, there are lots of success stories on here so focus on that. There are much options after drops, supplements and dietary changes I'm waiting to explore myself like punctual plugs and doxycycline.

My lower and upper lids were really inflamed, when I touched them they would just fold into my eyeball was horrible, they've got better.

Dry eye can make your vision blurry as I have found, I didn't realise it at time mind and ended up with a pair of glasses that I didn't need!

I hope your eyes start to improve. I'm quite new to all this myself so not sure if I've been all that helpful.

Take care

Cath

Hi y'all, I hope you guys can help...

It's been 3 months yesterday that I woke up one morning, my eyes suddenly very dry and irritated. It was mid-March, so here in Canada, where I live, the heaters were full blaze, humidity was non-existant and yes, I had togo to school. I'm 14. Impossible to concentrate. I figured it was just a one-day thing, but nonetheless, I put cucumbers on my eyes, put my face in cold water, whatever I found helped. Surely enough, the next morning, they were dry, and after a few days, I got myself some eyedrops. At first, I thought it was the solution to the problem, but found out that it helped for an hour at most. Trips to the doctor at clinics were of no use. They diagnosed me of keratitis, conjunctivitis, said I had eye lesions, whatever. I tried Erythomycin and Fucithalmic but to no avail. When I met the doctor a week after using Erythromycin, I was told everything was fine. Hah. My eyes were still dry. But after weeks, there were more and more symptoms - occasional itchiness, inflammation of the lower eyelid, then inflammation of both. I continued to use eyedrops (Systane Ultra) and a gel at night (Alcori Tear-Gel), but they helped for a very short period of time.

So I began to look into different eye conditions. I thought it was MGD or Blepharitis. My eyes felt oily once or twice. I don't know if it's that.
I thought it was Allergies, to dust mites or something. Because my eyes feel always better outside. But I read that dust mites survive in humidity. The problems started when the air was so dry at my school.
I thought it was something to do with my dandruff. I don't know if it's that. I do have a lot, so I'm trying to take care of that.

These days, my most annoying symptom is a burning (sort of) sensation in the upper inner corner of my left eye. Sometimes right. But mostly left. It's hell. Every day it burns.

I visited my optometrist, who informed me that vision in my left eye, the eye that hurts most of the time, went down pretty rapidly for one year and for my age. I have a new prescription now. She ran a TBUT Test, and said my result was half of what it should be in a normal person. She didn't know more. She referred me to an opthalmologist.

Although the benchmark waiting time in Canada to see an opthalmologist is 4 months, I'm told by the hospital that it will be at least a 9 month wait.

I'm using cold compresses to help with the burning/inflammation, but it's not super effective. I tried warm compresses for MGD and stuff but I stopped after 2 weeks, I felt absolutely no difference.

I noticed that I have the tendency now since this happened to want to put water in my eyes where it hurts. I also noticed that when I take a shower (my eyes don't feel dry but the burning remains) but also that they become very gritty when water gets in my eyes. Very very gritty/dry-ish feeling.

I remember the night before this started, I stayed up all night (until 2am) finishing a very important project on my computer for school. I rubbed my eyes a lot after since I was tired. I really regret that now.

I notice that when I yawn and my eyes tear up, I feel that temporary relief for 5-10 seconds. Then the burning is back.

The eyedrops can help to stop it from being dry for a while (like 1 hour maybe) but it does nothing to help the burning. I feel it again after 5 minutes, especially in the inner upper corner of the eye, under the upper eyelid.

Is it normal to have a line under the eyelid in that area? Because if so it becomes very red and inflamed when it hurts the most.

I'm so tired of this. I have read so many things but the result is often "If there's burning, see a doctor." But the doctor sends me to an optometrist. Who sends me to the 9-month long waiting list. Foiled again.

All I really want is to enjoy living again. It's so horrible. Waking up every morning not knowing how bad the day will be. (during school year, the better days were on weekends. Now that it<s summer I feel no change.) I just want help. But help is inaccesible. And everything I'm doing isn't good enough. I can't have a humidifier in my room anymore because it's summer and it's so frickin' hot with the humidifier on.

I really want help. I want to enjoy living. I want to stop being depressed. Stop living at the mercy of this stupid eye condition. I'm an anglophone but I live in a French city. It's hard even to get the basic help.

The dry feeling only seems to last when I wake up these days. Eyedrops help more and more every day to solve the dryness. But the burning feeling in the upper inner corner of the eye is the worst, and only cold compresses can repel it for a few minutes.

This week, I've had horrible nasal problems, especially dryness. It happened for a week last month. But the nasal dryness is going away. The eye pain isn't.

When can I enjoy living again? When can I get help? What can I do for the 7 months that are left before I maybe possibly perhaps get help? It's hell. I'm so depressed right now. Today was a bad day.

Does anyone have any idea what it could be, and what medication I can get over-the-counter that would help me at least reduce the symptoms to a minimum before I get help? I just want to be able to live somewhat happily again. Every day is horrible. To think the good days are when it only hurts at night...

Before someone asks, I used to use my computer for 1hr on weekdays (+ at 1hr some days at school) and a lot more than I should have on weekends. Like half the day at least. Oh, how much I regret that now. I'm only using the computer when I must now. It doesn't make any difference...

My mom's super religious and tells me to pray to God, that He'll fix it, but if there really was a God, why do I have to suffer this? Why can't someone help me? It's so annoying, since in Korea, where half my family is from, waiting 9 months for medical help is unfathomable. I can see the right doctor within a week probably. (But it costs more.)

I'm sorry for the long message,just the more I wrote, the more I remembered the pain I've suffered...

As for dietary changes, I've been taking an Omega-3 supplement and eating more fish. Like I said I'm pretty hopeless that if you said "eat more of this, of that!" I'd probably want to smack you across the face. It feels like food isn't the solution... but I could be wrong. I'm no expert. That's the thing. The experts are inaccessible.

Can anyone help me? Please? I'm so hopeless and depressed. Today was a bad day. What can I do while I wait to see an opthalmologist???

[Tim2014]

Hi Cathy,

Thanks so much for your support. I'll check if my eyedrops are preservative free - I use them at the very least 6 times a day. But now I'm also using gel, so I can usually get through a bit without those.I feel no relief with the hot compresses, and I'll look into cool air humidifiers. I didn't know they existed.

I'm going to call all the ophthalmologists in the phonebook tomorrow (today's a Quebec national holiday, it's a province of Canada, it's one of their huge 'Quebec is the best province celebrations.. .anyhow) who have their own clinic. My optometrist didn't refer me to them but rather to the City Hospital ones (so service is generally free) but I need to find any vestige of hope out there. My parents said they can pay a certain amount.But I know they can't afford too much. Then again we're not super familiar with the health system here so... anyhow, I really want to explore punctual plugs, because when I yawn, my eyes feel moist and good.

I've had this for three months, and my symptoms aren't horribly bad, but it feels that way to you when you're scared and confused. I wouldn't mind having dry eye problems for my entire life if I had a treatment option that solved the inflammation/burning of the eyelids and helped take care of the dryness.

I'm really sorry you have to go through this too. Maybe we'll find a way to smile again sometime soon. I'm convinced we will. It's supposed to get better. Keep on fighting, I know I will (I'm optimistic. Today's been better. Always up and down.)

Tim

Hi Tim, I'm really sorry you're having such a terrible time and you are going through such pain. How long have you had these symptoms? I think I've had dry eye on some level since I was 19, I'm now 27 and about 6 months ago during the winter they took turn for worse. I've seen quite a few ophalmologists now but can't seem to get a straight answer. It sounds like you're doing all the right things, if you're using drops quite a lot, make sure they are preservative free, I was using normal systane for a long time and didn't know this. I am the same with hot compresses, do you get any kind of relief after you've done it? I did hot compresses twice a day for a month and now I do them once a day, I dont want to not do them in case they're doing the trick. Also I have a cool air humidifier for summer.

I'm sorry you have to wait so long for your appointment, I undestand how frustrating it is and it feels like no one is helping you. I don't know what the health system is like in Canada but maybe someone else on here could give you a few tips, I really hate the thought of you having to wait 9 months.

Keep taking your omega three, I'm in to my third month now, they say it can take a while to feel benefit.

There's so much trial and error, keep doing what you're doing and don't lose hope. I feel/felt exactly the same about just wanting to enjoy life again, things are getting better, there are lots of success stories on here so focus on that. There are much options after drops, supplements and dietary changes I'm waiting to explore myself like punctual plugs and doxycycline.

My lower and upper lids were really inflamed, when I touched them they would just fold into my eyeball was horrible, they've got better.

Dry eye can make your vision blurry as I have found, I didn't realise it at time mind and ended up with a pair of glasses that I didn't need!

I hope your eyes start to improve. I'm quite new to all this myself so not sure if I've been all that helpful.

Take care

Cath

[khmedia]

Hi Tim,

Sorry to hear about your recent eye troubles.

You said you tried the warm compress but weren't having much luck. Are you using a heated rice baggy to do this? As I was using the wrong technique for warm compresses and it resulted in very dry eyes. I was in a similar place to you 2 weeks ago - I was depressed and very down about life. My family too told me to pray to God, so I can relate to the advice you received! As for the topic of why God would let anyone suffer such pain. I've Googled this quite a lot too, and have read so much on 'why'. Without getting into a whole new topic on religious matters, being a Christian myself, I took a lot of comfort in knowing that Jesus, who suffered such horrible physical pain (in his death) but also had those moments when he was alone, isolated and literally asking his Father 'is there any other way other than me suffering death on the cross'. To me, it was great to think that when I was in my apartment feeling lonely and depressed and asking god 'why me?, why my eyes?, is there any other way PLEASE!!' that Jesus too had the same experience. From my perspective the fact that the savior of the world (From a Christian perspective of course!) was on the same human level as me is
very humble. My research into the God etc also lead me to learn that Jesus once said 'ask and it will be given to you'. During my very low moment last week I asked God/Jesus not for a cure (as I realistic) but for the ability to cope once again. I actually was begging for this as I sat helplessly on my couch. I feel this has been granted to me. I still have the horrible condition of dry eye but I feel I am 'coping' with it. So I think I am now much closer to Jesus as a result.

Now back to the eyes!

It took me a visit to the optician who advised me on how best to do it. A rice baggy will retain heat much more than putting hot water on a cloth. I was using the cloth method. I soon invested in a rice baggy and found that it worked much better.

I am a PC user. At the height of my pain 2 weeks ago I couldn't look at the screen for more than 3 seconds. With the help of this forum I found that moisture glasses seemed to help with PC work. I now wear them (wearing them now) when I do PC work. The blink rate when working at the PC is much lower and the glasses help retain the tear on the eye for much longer - than without them.

I hope that you can find a solution which will help you cope. You are 14 and have your whole life ahead of you.

It is great to hear your positivity in how you speak. I believe this will help you greatly! Keep up the great work.

Kevin

[dominorose]

Hi Tim,

I'm french. If you need help for translation, anything, contact me, please. You are not alone.

[Tim2014]

Update on my battle:

I eventually met an opthalmologist through a private company. He told me that I didn't have anything viral or bacterial conjunctivitis. He said it was likely allergies, and referred me to an oto-rhino-laryngologist. (Or something like that.) I got tested for allergies and the test showed I was allergic to pollen, trees and grass. As it was November, the allergy guy (I named him like this since the oto-rhino thing is a nightmare to spell and prounounce) said that he was surprised I still had symptoms.

My symptoms have changed now. In the spring/summer it was a burning feeling in corner of the eye closer to the nose. Now it's a stinging/burning feeling in the outer corner of the eye, further away from the nose. Still painful.

I met my opthalmologist again who proscribed me Pataday (did not work) and then later told me just to use eyedrops to get through the winter.

Eyedrops don't do ****.

I was wondering, is it possible I have dry eye as a result of my spring/summer allergies, and that my dry eye is continuing through the winter, even though there's no allergens?

Has anyone had stinging/burning like acid in the corners of their eyes? Me, it hurts so much I have to bite my cheeks sometimes because it hurts.

I also can't stop touching where it hurts. I know this probably isn't good but I can't control myself.

Tough winter ahead - I hope you guys can help me, and help us all for that matter, get through it.

Tim

[Tim2014]

Hi Tim,

Sorry to hear about your recent eye troubles.

You said you tried the warm compress but weren't having much luck. Are you using a heated rice baggy to do this? As I was using the wrong technique for warm compresses and it resulted in very dry eyes. I was in a similar place to you 2 weeks ago - I was depressed and very down about life. My family too told me to pray to God, so I can relate to the advice you received! As for the topic of why God would let anyone suffer such pain. I've Googled this quite a lot too, and have read so much on 'why'. Without getting into a whole new topic on religious matters, being a Christian myself, I took a lot of comfort in knowing that Jesus, who suffered such horrible physical pain (in his death) but also had those moments when he was alone, isolated and literally asking his Father 'is there any other way other than me suffering death on the cross'. To me, it was great to think that when I was in my apartment feeling lonely and depressed and asking god 'why me?, why my eyes?, is there any other way PLEASE!!' that Jesus too had the same experience. From my perspective the fact that the savior of the world (From a Christian perspective of course!) was on the same human level as me is
very humble. My research into the God etc also lead me to learn that Jesus once said 'ask and it will be given to you'. During my very low moment last week I asked God/Jesus not for a cure (as I realistic) but for the ability to cope once again. I actually was begging for this as I sat helplessly on my couch. I feel this has been granted to me. I still have the horrible condition of dry eye but I feel I am 'coping' with it. So I think I am now much closer to Jesus as a result.

Now back to the eyes!

It took me a visit to the optician who advised me on how best to do it. A rice baggy will retain heat much more than putting hot water on a cloth. I was using the cloth method. I soon invested in a rice baggy and found that it worked much better.

I am a PC user. At the height of my pain 2 weeks ago I couldn't look at the screen for more than 3 seconds. With the help of this forum I found that moisture glasses seemed to help with PC work. I now wear them (wearing them now) when I do PC work. The blink rate when working at the PC is much lower and the glasses help retain the tear on the eye for much longer - than without them.

I hope that you can find a solution which will help you cope. You are 14 and have your whole life ahead of you.

It is great to hear your positivity in how you speak. I believe this will help you greatly! Keep up the great work.

Kevin

Thank you so much for your spiritual help. I continue to pray and it allows me to relax, just being with myself and God. It helps me forget the pain of the past, the current pain and the pain ahead. I just relax and pray. It works wonders.

[Stina]

Hi Tim

How are you these days? I have had allergies for years from early spring to late September but now it seems that they are present year round. I tried every eye drop present but they did very little until I started to use allergy drops (not antihistamines because they can dry the eye even more but natrium cromoglycate) 4 times a day and dropped all dry eye drops.

I don't know if your case is similar, but I just wanted to let know that you could have allergic reactions year round.