Tweet
Hi everyone,
So appreciative to have found this forum. I wrote my post but then lost it, so hopefully it doesn't show up somewhere as a double-post…
I was diagnosed with MGD in February - all of my lower glands except for one were blocked. I was told to take fish oil, do compresses, drops, ointment and blinking exercises. I was not able to tolerate fish oil in capsules and was sick every night for two weeks; I burned myself twice doing compresses in the beginning and had to put them on hold. I used the drops (some containing oil) and ointment. Unfortunately, the eye symptoms kept getting worse and the eyes started sticking shut at night. It all felt very unlivable.
I was so grateful to learn that for some people drops and ointments can make things worse and this was definitely the case for me. In desperation, I stopped the ointment immediately, and weaned off drops from every half hour to every few hours (by suffering through the hours) and using them at night as needed to unglue the lids. (I tried night goggles but didn't find any relief). I also stopped oil containing drops completely as in my case it seemed to make things worse.
Then I limited screen time and starting doing blinking exercises in earnest. I read that you need to do exercises every ten minutes for six weeks to change the mechanics of the blink. I can't say I did it as diligently as that, but i bought a watch that beeped softly every ten minutes and did them every time I heard it. Around the same time I was also able to start doing compresses again. I didn't want to burn myself, or have them go cold too quickly, so I didn't do compresses per se. I bought a thermometer and heated the shower water to just over 100 degrees, and exposed my lids while I wash my hair etc. I am just now returning to fish oil, having found a brand I can tolerate. Within a month, I had significant improvement (no more eyes burning) and my eyes didn't stick shut as much during the nights. Best of all, my dry eyes were not consuming my every waking moment.
I finally researched a good dry eye doctor and when he examined me, my glands had unblocked to the point where I had about 9 open on each lower lid. He said I could do blinking exercises for another month or try Lipiflow. I opted for Lipiflow because his recommendation for blinking was only four times per day, and I had already been doing the exercises four times per hour. Lipiflow is contraindicated in cases of RCE's, but since I didn't have any visible damage under examination, and hadn't experienced the painful symptoms I've read about with erosions, it seemed okay to go ahead with the procedure. Since the day of Lipiflow, I have not had any further episodes of my lids sticking at night. I was also able to reduce my drops at that time down to once or twice per day.
Before my follow-up Lipiflow appointment I continued with compresses averaging once every other day and blinking exercises as often as they occurred to me to do. At the follow-up, five weeks later, I learned that I now have 12 or so open glands on each lower lid. Some days I don't use drops at all, and I've heard that using blinking exercises to access the natural oils can substitute, so I do this at the first sign of discomfort.
So I have found some stability, though I am not cured. I still experience dryness a lot of the time, redness and some pain occasionally.
My GP has discovered a likely hormonal imbalance and because I also have itchy scalp, eyelids and eyebrows, I may have food allergies. My next steps are hormone balancing and rebuilding my gut using L-glutamine and probiotics. I will let you know if I have any more improvements with these routes.
Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences and I hope my story can help someone!
Caroline
So appreciative to have found this forum. I wrote my post but then lost it, so hopefully it doesn't show up somewhere as a double-post…
I was diagnosed with MGD in February - all of my lower glands except for one were blocked. I was told to take fish oil, do compresses, drops, ointment and blinking exercises. I was not able to tolerate fish oil in capsules and was sick every night for two weeks; I burned myself twice doing compresses in the beginning and had to put them on hold. I used the drops (some containing oil) and ointment. Unfortunately, the eye symptoms kept getting worse and the eyes started sticking shut at night. It all felt very unlivable.
I was so grateful to learn that for some people drops and ointments can make things worse and this was definitely the case for me. In desperation, I stopped the ointment immediately, and weaned off drops from every half hour to every few hours (by suffering through the hours) and using them at night as needed to unglue the lids. (I tried night goggles but didn't find any relief). I also stopped oil containing drops completely as in my case it seemed to make things worse.
Then I limited screen time and starting doing blinking exercises in earnest. I read that you need to do exercises every ten minutes for six weeks to change the mechanics of the blink. I can't say I did it as diligently as that, but i bought a watch that beeped softly every ten minutes and did them every time I heard it. Around the same time I was also able to start doing compresses again. I didn't want to burn myself, or have them go cold too quickly, so I didn't do compresses per se. I bought a thermometer and heated the shower water to just over 100 degrees, and exposed my lids while I wash my hair etc. I am just now returning to fish oil, having found a brand I can tolerate. Within a month, I had significant improvement (no more eyes burning) and my eyes didn't stick shut as much during the nights. Best of all, my dry eyes were not consuming my every waking moment.
I finally researched a good dry eye doctor and when he examined me, my glands had unblocked to the point where I had about 9 open on each lower lid. He said I could do blinking exercises for another month or try Lipiflow. I opted for Lipiflow because his recommendation for blinking was only four times per day, and I had already been doing the exercises four times per hour. Lipiflow is contraindicated in cases of RCE's, but since I didn't have any visible damage under examination, and hadn't experienced the painful symptoms I've read about with erosions, it seemed okay to go ahead with the procedure. Since the day of Lipiflow, I have not had any further episodes of my lids sticking at night. I was also able to reduce my drops at that time down to once or twice per day.
Before my follow-up Lipiflow appointment I continued with compresses averaging once every other day and blinking exercises as often as they occurred to me to do. At the follow-up, five weeks later, I learned that I now have 12 or so open glands on each lower lid. Some days I don't use drops at all, and I've heard that using blinking exercises to access the natural oils can substitute, so I do this at the first sign of discomfort.
So I have found some stability, though I am not cured. I still experience dryness a lot of the time, redness and some pain occasionally.
My GP has discovered a likely hormonal imbalance and because I also have itchy scalp, eyelids and eyebrows, I may have food allergies. My next steps are hormone balancing and rebuilding my gut using L-glutamine and probiotics. I will let you know if I have any more improvements with these routes.
Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences and I hope my story can help someone!
Caroline
Comment