Eye Mucus

[L8rgator]

Rebecca, I'm just starting down this path, and am wondering about your reply to Rocklobster, do I just get regular unpreserved saline, or does it have to be opthalmic? And the cold compresses are a novel idea, as I use warm compresses quite often, maybe I need to try the opposite. Use them after an eyelid scrub like I do the warm? Or just randomly throughout the day? Do I have to find a compounding pharmacist to do the autologous serum drops, or how does that go? I'm one of the lucky ones, just one eye affected, and no real pain, just watering and mucus strings.

I know that in my nighttime bandages and daytime sclerals I was told to use sterile saline. It didn't matter as much if it wasn't opthamic, but definitely sterile. So usually Unisol or Addipak vials are a cheap way to go. Unisol is the same PH as eyes, so that is the most popular option I've heard.

The serum drops are made from your blood by spinning it in a centrifuge. It can be hard to find doctors willing to do that in some areas. The only place that can start the process in my area is in Milwaukee - basically I'd have to
1. get a prescription for blood serum drops and a blood draw from my eye doctor
2. go in during their regular blood draw clinics and give them blood. Then they ship it to
3. Dynacare (I think California maybe?), who spins the drops, puts them into droppers along with 50% other stuff (I assume saline?), and calls me for payment. then they
4. ship them directly to me, frozen, and I think I have to sign for them.

So far I haven't tried it because the blood draw hours are while I work, nobody has been able to quote me a price - they say it depends on the blood when they get it that's a bit intimidating given the prices they list on their website, and I don't have anyone to drive me (I can drive myself, but I've read from others that if they are taking out this amount of blood, it's possible I'll be too dizzy to drive and I don't really have another option).

OR you can make your own drops. I think it's possible that the guy on youtube that shows his process just might be the only one that does it for himself, but it was an interesting way to go. Especially if you have access to someone that will draw your blood for you. One person said they did this for their dog and it worked great also. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kmTTfGFQgQ

If you don't find anyone local via google, sometimes you can find a teaching college or university that will do it. Try calling around to local university eye institutes and local ophthalmologists and you'll probably find someone who knows someone.