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Hey y'all,
I am a builder, specializing in natural building (cob, straw bale, stone, etc...). I have a 3 year old son, Leo, whom I raise with my partner, Danielle. I am originally from Syracuse, NY.
Here's the dry eye story:
From 2008-2012 I dealt with a pretty consistent combination of inflamed eyelids, chalazions, styes... No dry eye - in fact, I would often wake up to really sticky, gooey eyes - more than average oil secretion. I saw at least 4 or 5 different opthamologists, including a couple at the Duke Eye Center in Durham, NC (where I live). I was diagnosed at different times with: blepharitis (posterior and anterior), ocular rosacea, styes, chalazions, Meibomian Gland Disease, and maybe a couple more. Over these 4 years I had the following treatments: erythromycin (spelling?), doxycycline, steroid injection, chalazion removal (minor surgery). I was doing my best at staying consistent with lid hygiene and compresses. At one point I learned more about lid massaging, and started integrating that with some success. And it finally got to a point where I thought I might be overcoming the problem altogether, with a consistent routine of compresses, hygiene, and careful massage. When I would notice a stye, I would be able to get rid of it within 2 or 3 days, instead of watching it blow up into a huge chalazion like had been happening previously.
After 6 or 7 months of feeling good about this, I started to have problems with blurred vision. Theratears didn't work, and neither did nighttime ointment, which were really the only things my Duke ophthalmologist had to offer me at the time. Little did I know that my blurred vision would become such a part of my life. I've had very few days of decent vision now over the past year and a half (maybe 10 or 15 good days total). My left eye is healthier than my right. My vision is almost perfect most days in my left (but occasionally I wake up and it is quite bad). It's blurred almost every day in my right (although every once in a while the right is good). The inconsistency is mind-boggling; I have not found any means to predict what my vision will be like the next morning when I wake up. I've had weeks where one day the left is good and the right bad, and the next day it's the opposite, and the next day opposite. I've had times where for 3 days my vision is better in the morning and gets slowly worse at night. And times where it is worst in the morning, but improves throughout the day. Lately, for the past 6 months, things have been more consistent, but even last week I had a couple good vision days, and then these last 4 days have been pretty blurry.
And to clarify, by blurry I mean: I can still drive, and I can do my building work, but it's all less pleasant because I can't get my mind off my vision. It's always noticeable. If I go into a store with products surrounding me, it's often really tough to scan the aisle and clearly read what I want to read. Computer work is possible, but I tend to save it for better vision days. It's like a type of blurry where I feel like I need a new glasses prescription (but I don't, trust me). When I put drops in my eyes, I often momentarily have 20/20 vision for 10 seconds, before it evaporates away.
I had Lipiflow done last October on my right eye, with no success. I just went to Duke again today (hadn't been there in a year at least) and saw Dr Gupta for the first time. I've seen her mentioned in these forums at least once with a good review. She was really pleasant and she listened to my story, which was great (some doctors are not good listeners and it frustrates me to no end). She recommended trying IPL, which I'm not sure about. It's too expensive for me to afford right now in my life, but I'll find a way if I think it might help. Her guess after seeing me was that about 10% of my glands were atrophied, probably because of all my chalazions (I had so many of them, all over all four lids at different times). But the rest are functional. These are better numbers than I had expected, which gives me hope.
I am considering seeing a Functional Medicine doctor near here, especially after seeing Sazy's post. (this relates more to my consideration of an anti-yeast diet - see below)
Here are the things that I think could be related to my problem, but that opthamologists don't seem interested in hearing about usually:
1. I took doxycyclin for 3 years straight to treat acne during high school/college. I've read that the tetracyclines can thin out oil in the body, and I wonder if this regimen thinned out my oil in a way that changed my gland functioning, so that when I stopped the medication, my body's oil was then too thick to work properly (I stopped taking the doxy about 3 years before my blepharitis/MGD started affecting my life)
2. I have yeast problems. I've had athlete's foot since I was pretty young, and pytioryosis (sp?) on my chest and stomach for about a decade. I have tine versicolor on my back. Dandruff, of course. And jock itch occasionally. Anyways, there are clear signs that there is yeast all over my body (bouts of bad breath, too, and white tongue). I'm considering an anti-candida diet or something of the sort. Thoughts? Anyone had luck with this?
3. I had symptoms of rosacea in high school - intense flushing of my cheeks/forehead sometimes. Those embarrassing symptoms haven't bothered me much for the last decade. And no other obvious general rosacea signs have developed. But the ocular rosacea is a problem. Not sure if this is related to the yeast as well...
Other than my eyes and my yeast, I am apparently very healthy, as far as I can tell. I feel good. I eat well - hardly many packaged foods, a lot of organic produce from the garden, etc... I get exercise all day long every day. I do get a lot of sun exposure, and I hate wearing sunscreen (try to use a shirt and hat instead). I know sometimes sun exposure can make symptoms worse - does anyone know much about the relationship between sun exposure and MGD, or dry eye in general?
One more thing that I find interesting: I don't have frequently occurring symptoms other than the blurry vision and the feeling of dryness in my eyes ( can't drive comfortably with my window all the way down, and the wind gets me...). I don't really experiences the stinging/grittiness/foreign body sensations. I have felt these things infrequently, but not even daily (I am thankful for this).
I hope this post isn't too long. I should have joined this forum a long time ago, so there's a lot to catch up on.
Thanks for any help!
-Greg
I am a builder, specializing in natural building (cob, straw bale, stone, etc...). I have a 3 year old son, Leo, whom I raise with my partner, Danielle. I am originally from Syracuse, NY.
Here's the dry eye story:
From 2008-2012 I dealt with a pretty consistent combination of inflamed eyelids, chalazions, styes... No dry eye - in fact, I would often wake up to really sticky, gooey eyes - more than average oil secretion. I saw at least 4 or 5 different opthamologists, including a couple at the Duke Eye Center in Durham, NC (where I live). I was diagnosed at different times with: blepharitis (posterior and anterior), ocular rosacea, styes, chalazions, Meibomian Gland Disease, and maybe a couple more. Over these 4 years I had the following treatments: erythromycin (spelling?), doxycycline, steroid injection, chalazion removal (minor surgery). I was doing my best at staying consistent with lid hygiene and compresses. At one point I learned more about lid massaging, and started integrating that with some success. And it finally got to a point where I thought I might be overcoming the problem altogether, with a consistent routine of compresses, hygiene, and careful massage. When I would notice a stye, I would be able to get rid of it within 2 or 3 days, instead of watching it blow up into a huge chalazion like had been happening previously.
After 6 or 7 months of feeling good about this, I started to have problems with blurred vision. Theratears didn't work, and neither did nighttime ointment, which were really the only things my Duke ophthalmologist had to offer me at the time. Little did I know that my blurred vision would become such a part of my life. I've had very few days of decent vision now over the past year and a half (maybe 10 or 15 good days total). My left eye is healthier than my right. My vision is almost perfect most days in my left (but occasionally I wake up and it is quite bad). It's blurred almost every day in my right (although every once in a while the right is good). The inconsistency is mind-boggling; I have not found any means to predict what my vision will be like the next morning when I wake up. I've had weeks where one day the left is good and the right bad, and the next day it's the opposite, and the next day opposite. I've had times where for 3 days my vision is better in the morning and gets slowly worse at night. And times where it is worst in the morning, but improves throughout the day. Lately, for the past 6 months, things have been more consistent, but even last week I had a couple good vision days, and then these last 4 days have been pretty blurry.
And to clarify, by blurry I mean: I can still drive, and I can do my building work, but it's all less pleasant because I can't get my mind off my vision. It's always noticeable. If I go into a store with products surrounding me, it's often really tough to scan the aisle and clearly read what I want to read. Computer work is possible, but I tend to save it for better vision days. It's like a type of blurry where I feel like I need a new glasses prescription (but I don't, trust me). When I put drops in my eyes, I often momentarily have 20/20 vision for 10 seconds, before it evaporates away.
I had Lipiflow done last October on my right eye, with no success. I just went to Duke again today (hadn't been there in a year at least) and saw Dr Gupta for the first time. I've seen her mentioned in these forums at least once with a good review. She was really pleasant and she listened to my story, which was great (some doctors are not good listeners and it frustrates me to no end). She recommended trying IPL, which I'm not sure about. It's too expensive for me to afford right now in my life, but I'll find a way if I think it might help. Her guess after seeing me was that about 10% of my glands were atrophied, probably because of all my chalazions (I had so many of them, all over all four lids at different times). But the rest are functional. These are better numbers than I had expected, which gives me hope.
I am considering seeing a Functional Medicine doctor near here, especially after seeing Sazy's post. (this relates more to my consideration of an anti-yeast diet - see below)
Here are the things that I think could be related to my problem, but that opthamologists don't seem interested in hearing about usually:
1. I took doxycyclin for 3 years straight to treat acne during high school/college. I've read that the tetracyclines can thin out oil in the body, and I wonder if this regimen thinned out my oil in a way that changed my gland functioning, so that when I stopped the medication, my body's oil was then too thick to work properly (I stopped taking the doxy about 3 years before my blepharitis/MGD started affecting my life)
2. I have yeast problems. I've had athlete's foot since I was pretty young, and pytioryosis (sp?) on my chest and stomach for about a decade. I have tine versicolor on my back. Dandruff, of course. And jock itch occasionally. Anyways, there are clear signs that there is yeast all over my body (bouts of bad breath, too, and white tongue). I'm considering an anti-candida diet or something of the sort. Thoughts? Anyone had luck with this?
3. I had symptoms of rosacea in high school - intense flushing of my cheeks/forehead sometimes. Those embarrassing symptoms haven't bothered me much for the last decade. And no other obvious general rosacea signs have developed. But the ocular rosacea is a problem. Not sure if this is related to the yeast as well...
Other than my eyes and my yeast, I am apparently very healthy, as far as I can tell. I feel good. I eat well - hardly many packaged foods, a lot of organic produce from the garden, etc... I get exercise all day long every day. I do get a lot of sun exposure, and I hate wearing sunscreen (try to use a shirt and hat instead). I know sometimes sun exposure can make symptoms worse - does anyone know much about the relationship between sun exposure and MGD, or dry eye in general?
One more thing that I find interesting: I don't have frequently occurring symptoms other than the blurry vision and the feeling of dryness in my eyes ( can't drive comfortably with my window all the way down, and the wind gets me...). I don't really experiences the stinging/grittiness/foreign body sensations. I have felt these things infrequently, but not even daily (I am thankful for this).
I hope this post isn't too long. I should have joined this forum a long time ago, so there's a lot to catch up on.
Thanks for any help!
-Greg
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