Hello from Sweden

[farmgirl]

HI Marcus:

Let me tell you that if you work on screen(s) all day you can bet that is most likely the source of your problems. You may have to consider a career change. Here is a link to a synopsis written by a member called pythonidler. It is an excellent resource to help with the understanding of this multifaceted disease.

If your doc did lipiflow he most certainly probably has the capability of doing lipiview which is the meibography. Make sure you ask because that is key to a good diagnosis. Did they express your glands after the IPL, and if so what came out? Don't be discouraged just yet because IPL can take several treatments to yield results. I have had 6 so far and didn't really get any improvement at all until after the third. The 5th and 6th have given me the best results though.

Quattroboy is correct when he says "Until you get a clear understanding of the root cause or causes of your dry eyes you can't focus the treatments." so a clear understanding of the status of your glands is key.

[CJ L.]

Hajenthirteen I think a great place to start if it does sound like MGD is to do what Alix mentioned and get a meibography to see how much damage there is to your glands. It's a simple process, however I don't know the availability of this in Sweden. It will give you something that resembles an x-ray and each gland will show and you can see where your good and bad are. I found it helpful as it gave me some sort of quantification as to what I'm dealing with.

[Alix]

@Hajenthirteen The reason I asked about getting tested for thyroid issues is that this is the first thing the doctor said I should do when I went to see him about my dry eye problem, as this could be the reason behind it. The blood tests were quick and easy - they came back negative.

I have the same condition as you ie. MGD/evaporative dry eye and at the beginning of my nightmare thought it would be easy to fix with eye drops but it's turning out to be very very hard to manage/resolve, so can understand your frustrations. Many people here on this forum are in the same boat so you are not alone.

Do you have access to Ikervis/autologous serum drops/PRP in Sweden? Also has the doctor mentioned anything about taking doxycycline? Some people find relief with this.

Good news about the IPL by the way.

As for me, I haven't found anything that is helping me after a year of suffering with this, but as steam/humidity makes my eyes feel "normal" I have just bought myself Blephasteam. Perhaps you could get this as well?

[hannahmaywils]

Hajenthirteen Can you get hold of Restatis ? Or even better, Xiidra? I am having to travel to the US to get hold of Xiidra to help me with my dry eye

[Hajen13]

Hi! quattroboy Thank you for the welcome! I dont have much data on the problem as i can see that many others on this forum have but i know that the problem is the quality of the tears and that not enough "fat" is being produced rather than the lack of tears. I just returned from the clinic, i asked about blepharitis and we did some sort of test which showed a very small possibilty for blepharitis. I got some new tissues for eyelid cleaning which are made specifically for blepharitis (just in case i got it) but as the doctor told me i dont have any obvious signs of blepharitis. No, the doctors have not checked for demodex as far as i know and neither inflammations. Is this something dryeye doctors in the states usually do?

Hi! Alix Lets hope technology/research or this forum take care of our problems within short.

- Have you had meibography to see if you have all your glands? No or not as far as i know.
- Have you been tested for thyroid issues? Funny that you ask this question, when i spoke to the doctor today i asked him about the possibility
of an underlying disease and he mentioned for example the thyroid among other things i should test. I will visit a clinic for these
tests within short. Have you done a test for the thyroid?
- Do you have itchy eyes? Have you been tested for allergies? Yes sometimes the eyes get very itchy and i feel the need to rub them, mostly when the problems are peaking. I have not been doing any allergic tests.
- Are you on any other medication which may cause dry eye eg accutane, anti depressants? No medication at all and nothing special in the past either.


Apparently im one of 4-5 persons out of approximately 3000 persons who don't respond to the classic treatment being done by this clinic in Sweden i
was told today (no wonder that i feel lonely over here). Even though i don't feel any relief since the last time i did the Lipiflow the doctor thinks that it looks a lot better and more fat is beeing produced.
He gave me a free third treatment for IPL today (did the first 2 treatments over a year ago), hopefully this will show some results. Feel a bit better right now
afterwards..

[Alix]

Hi can relate to your story I am in the same situation except that it’s been going on for one year so far, not six. Let’s hope we can find some answers here.

A couple of questions in addition to the previous post:-

- Have you had meibography to see if you have all your glands?
- Have you been tested for thyroid issues?
- Do you have itchy eyes? Have you been tested for allergies?
- Are you on any other medication which may cause dry eye eg accutane, anti depressants ?

[quattroboy]

Hi Hajenthirteen first of all you are amongst friends here, we have or are where you are now.

This is the common question asked but do you know what is the underlying reason for your dry eyes? What is the diagnosis? Do lack tears and/or do your tears evaporate too quickly? Do you have MGD and/or blepharitis? Have the docs checked for inflammation or demodex? So many questions.

Until you get a clear understanding of the root cause or causes of your dry eyes you can't focus the treatments. I learned that the hard and expensive way.

[Hajen13]

Hello everybody,

Just feel like writing myself of a little bit. My name is Marcus, I’m 27 years old from Sweden,
and i have had dry eyes (MGD) for over 6 years now. 6 years of hell, in a period of life which should
really be something else.

The first years I had hope and I thought maybe the next thing would be just the thing to ease my pain/condition, but the years have gone by and 6 years later the problems are probably worse
compared to the first year.

I'm a person (among others in here) who eloign myself from life, who cannot do what I want to do and when I find myself in situations where i used to find happiness with friends etc. I cannot be the person I want to be. I'm a person who can't maintain a look against other persons, I think that sums it up. No other words needed, how can one live like this? Self-esteem: Zero.
Wind, cold, the sun, bad quality of air are some things that can ruin a whole day or for sure specific moments. 1-hour morning meeting in a meeting room and the whole day is ruined. Half an hour in a food store, the rest of the day is also ruined etc.

The problems came after I started to work in an office in front of two screens 8-9 hours per day. Im still here since I don't think things would change with another screenfree work, maybe less suffering during the work but at the end of the day the problem would still be there.

After this I have tried eyedrops (maybe 20-30 different brands), warm compresses, eyelid cleaning, Omega 3, IPL (2 out of 3 treetments), Lipiflow (6 weeks ago) and several other things like diet change etc. (after being on google for 6 years, trying to find a solution). Nothing of these things have had the slightest impact on the problem.
Today I am going back to Swedens only specialclinic for dry eyes, i think I'm going to burst out in tears in front of the doctor since I feel like telling him what I really feel and that I no longer can live like this. I really had hope about the Lipiflow but it was just another punch in the stomach.
I feel so alone in this, I want to let know people around my understand how much I suffer and the impact this has on my life not being able to be the person you want to be but it's hard to explain.
Dry eyes, how bad can I be? Just take a few eyedrops. Right..

Also been to a psychiatrist for the last year, she is great but changing my thoughts/actions does not solve the problem.

Any hope out there? I desperately need some.