My Eyes 6 Month Story

[Skreignman40]

Hello Everyone,

I have been reading these boards the past few months and finally decided to join to see if anyone had any tips/ideas for my eye issues... Its been a 6 month struggle with the the hardest part being unable to wear my contacts and being forced to wear glasses.. .My vision is -5.25 and -4.75 as far as contacts... So i pretty much can't see anything without them. I haven't worn glasses since i was 16 years old (I am 34 years old now and the only time i wore glasses was if i had pink eye or something)... I have worn Alcon Dailies Aqua comfort for 18 years ( i have an astigmatism in my left eye)... I would wear these for 16 hours a day... in college every once in a while i would pass out in them... Anyway, all these had i known what i know now, i would have done things different and given my eyes a break... but i never had any problems until 6 months ago so i never thought twice about it...

6 months ago (right before COVID) i went out with some friends, fell asleep with my contacts then kept them in the whole next day because my son woke me up and i started the day and forgot all about them and they felt fine... The following morning i woke up and my left all was all puffy and red... my right eye wasn't in as bad of shape.... I gave it a couple of days thinking they were just irritated... I ended up going to my optometrist and i had a corneal ulcer in my left eye and not in my right eye... ever since this day i have had problems with both of my eyes... Below is a list of my visits to the optometrist/ophthalmologist... Let me also tell you that my optometrist shut down for 2 months in the middle of this and then i had to find an ophthalmologist that was still open and willing to take me.. My eyes felt sore, some minor stingy every once in a while (not every day), some dryness out the outside corner and very goopy with some stringy mucus type stuff on the inner and middle of the eyes...

2/7 = left eye only Vigamox .5 and preservative free drops (optometrist)
2/29 = Tobramycin/dexame 0.3-0.1% Sup both eyes (optometrist)
3/11 = auto-immune test negative (reg doctor)
3/15 = Told it looks to be allergy related (ophthalmologist 1) took Alaway... Thought this was a joke and decided i need to see someone else.
3/27 = told hes 80% sure its blepharitis. Acuicyn spray (ophthalmologist 2) My wife had blepharitis literally a month before and after a week it was gone and she hasn't had it since... after two weeks i said i wanted to come back in...
5/6 = Fluoromethol 0.1% Op Sup both eyes (ophthalmologist 2) was told if this doesnt work he wants to out plugs in.. i didn't know anything about this ophthalmologist and didn't really like the guy.... So when the drops didnt do the trick i didn't want to go back and get plugs without getting another opinion....
5/11 = Pataday (optometrist) My optometrist opens back up and i am his first patient since he knows i have been waiting and i have been a client for 18 years... He says lets try a different allergy drop... Was to try my contacts to see if maybe that would help me feel better... after about 4 hours in my contacts my eyes just feel real dry and i have to take them off..
6/1 = Prednisolone Acetate 1% Sus and Ofloxacin Op 0.3% Drop and avenova spray (optometrist) said might want to try Restasis if this doesn't work and will switch my contacts to something else....
6/12 = systane nighttime ointment (optometrist) When i wake up my eyes were all goopy and sore.. .I found this to just make it worse...

In June my second child is born... I'm happy but miserable because i have been wearing glasses for 4 months and my eyes hurt... I'm talking with the doctor in the delivery room about me eyes (funny i know) and he gave me the name of his doctor... I figure doctors should go to good doctors... So i go to another ophthalmologist...

He looks at my eyes and says yes there's some Blepharitis, but i have something called MGD... Never heard of it at that time... He also said my lids Scurf (Spelling?) was 2 in my left eye and 2.5 in my right eye... My right eye feels worse than my left eye (which had the corneal ulcer)... He said to by a bruter mask (before i was using a wash cloth since i didn't know about the bruter) and continue to massage and clean with Avenova...Come back in 6 weeks... I did what he said and it definitely helped...Im not in any pain really (soreness sometimes at work.. i sit on a computer for 8 hours a day)... i more have a dryness irritation than pain... If i use eye drops it doesnt really do much. I tried my contacts again and after about 4 or 5 hours they get dry... I know i need a different contact if i ever get back in them... So i go back last week and he said my lids are much cleaner but my MGD is still there and that he would like to do the ILUX treatment... I just did the treatment today... He said it will take about 2 weeks to feel the effects of the treatment to see if it really worked....

Im just really frustrated because i hate glasses so much, it really makes doing everything less enjoyable... I'm actually glad we have COVID so i don't have to do much... I just want to be in my contacts or get Lasik (which he said unless we can get the dry eye under control he wont do it)...

I know if cant be a lot worse... but i just thought i would put it out there to see if anyone had any similar issues and maybe some advice.

[Guest]

I had the ILUX treatment done on Friday... I think it has helped a little bit.. My eyes don't feel as goopy. They say it takes two weeks for you to start noticing a difference... Not really sure why that is but if anyone has any guesses im all ears... I'm just not sure what to do anymore!

[Guest]

So it's been almost two weeks since the ILUX procedure was done... The past few days i have had some severe pain in both of my eyes (worse in my right eye). Its worse when i sit at the computer.. I went back yesterday and he said everything looks normal other than the chronic MGD, Blepharitis, and Dry eye... He said the Meibomian Glands look much better already and to give it another 6 weeks before coming back in... He said to use the steroid from the ILUX treatment (Invetyls) twice a day instead of one time a day... He didn't give me any relief or hope at all... I said am i going to just feel this way the rest of my life... and he said most likely you'll have good days and bad days and get use to wearing glasses because that's all im going to be able to wear most likely... I said what about dry eye drops like Xidra and Restasis and he said right now he doesn't want to use those... I just don't really understand how i was perfectly fine and then i slept with my contacts in and boom now im stuck like this for the rest of my life... I feel like there has to be something else thats causing the issue...Any help would be appreciated.

[Guest]

Its been a little over 3 weeks since i had the ILUX treatment... I will say that i do feel much better (not great, but better). I can function all day but still am frustrated having to wear glasses and hope i can get back into some different contacts or LASIK at some point... I do still have stringy goop on throughout the day.. The worse is in the morning i have goopy on the inner parts of my eyes and crust on the outside... My eyes are also bloodshot in the morning and that goes away... I tried to buy the dry eye goggles to sleep in and those just made it worse. I will also get some stinging and or irritation in my eyes throughout the day. I don't really use eye drops (usually once a day at work)... My eyes don't seem dry but they do feel a little weird surrounding my eyeball... Not sure what to do really at this point! Any help would be apprecaited.

[Guest]

PS: I have no idea why it continues to post as a guest while im logged in.

[Guest]

Seems BlephEx should help to clean lids, lashes and remove biofilm.

Good to ask doctor to use cleanser with tea tree oil - I told my doctor recently who has never come up with such idea -
in the end, my doctor was happy with my idea.

Normally experts in USA do BlephEx prior to IPL, LipiFlow, ILux etc.

LASIK would only make your dry eye worse - and NO RETURN.

[Skreignman40]

Thanks for the reply.... I just got back from the doctor... My right eye has been feeling pretty good and my left has been bothering me..

He said i my Meibomian Glands look great (I had the ILUX treatment on August 7th). I don't have anything coming out of my eyes and no blurry vision anymore when i do the warm compress. He said my lids look great and he sees some dandruff still on my eye lashes... I have been cleaning and using avenova Spray, Ocusoft Lid Scrub, Warm Compress, and Fish Oil.... I am not sure why i cant quite shake it in one eye. I was told that now my right eye the tears arent evaporating for 10 seconds which is what it should be... However my left eye is 4 seconds. It just feels like the area surrounding my eye is irritated. I started Xiidra on September 4th and i am not sure if that is helping or not... Lots of drainage but I figure it can't hurt to try anything and everything at this point...

PS: How is there not an electronic heating pad for your eyes that plugs into the outlet? I tried a USB one from amazon and that was awful, barely any heat. I tried the RENPHO Heat and Massage and that give off barely any hear (the massager works great though)... Seems like a very simple product to make..

[Skreignman40]

Does anyone know a specialist in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago? I have been going to the midwest center for sight and am thinking about switching... They havent given me any hope at all... just tell me its a chronic issue and keep doing what you're doing... Meanwhile, i saw my optometrist two weeks ago and said my eyes are looking better and hopefully by Spring I can get back into contacts... Where as this opthamologist said the industry is working on something that in a year or two might be able to help... I just don't know what to do anymore.

[blindy]

very sad ... I hope you get better soon and know this : you are not alone and there are many people suffering or dealing with your problem !

[Skreignman40]

UPDATE:

If anyone is still interested... I wanted to give you an update... First my eyes have been much better the past few months. They are still irritated but its not too bad. I can handle the irritation, its more annoying wearing glasses than the irritation at this point. My eyes don't feel too dry i just can feel a little irritation in the eyelids. I have been on Xiidra for 2 months. Anyway, i was frustrated that no one had run any actual tests throughout my 8 months journey so far. Just told i have MDG, Blepharitis, Dry Eye. My Optometrist is in his 60s and has no technology and the opthamologist i saw was absolutely terrible.. So unfriendly and trying to rush me out and just says there's nothing i can do will do ILUX again in 3 months... Well after having a couple cocktails one night i started looking at dry eye specialist in the area and emailed one at about 9:30 on a Friday night... Within 5 minutes i received an email back from the Dr and we emailed back and forth for about 20 minutes and they were in depth emails... So i thought i would give him a shot and see...

On Wednesday this week i went for my appointment, the staff was great and they took my temperature and made me wash my hands. They did InflammaDry and Oculus Keratograph with Meibography... The doctor sat with me for an hour showing me all of the images which show some of my glands have atrophy (not a lot) and he even showed me this neon picture which shows which glands have oil coming out and would tell me you should have X amount of glands and you have X amount. He also said my TBUT in my left eye (which feels worse) is 13 and my TBUT is my right eye is 23.. ... He basically told me i have been wasting my time for 8 months because other doctors should have performed these tests and what not...

He told me we could get this under control and that my situation really isn't bad. He said I should be able to wear contacts and that i am just in the wrong ones and gave me some Dailies Total 1 to try. He said i should do the Blephex and Lipiflow treatment and with my case i will probably need to do Blephex every year and the Lipiflow once every 2 or 3 years. He said he could tell what i have gone throug hand have been let down by other doctors so he said he would do the blephex treatment for free (which he did) and next week i am coming in for Lipiflow. I know Lipiflow has some mixed reviews around here but i also think my eye situation might not be as bad as most around here. He also put my on Lotemax SM for the next two weeks. put me on new Fish Oil DE 3, continue with Hypchlor. and that i dont need to do the warm compress twice a day because it really isn't doing anything in my situation.

He seemed like a great guy and checked all of the boxes as far as i am concerned... I know my hopes are up and its probably too good to be true, but it's nice to have some hope that i can get back to contacts again... We will see.

[phil]

I read for all your posts and all the infornation.

u should stop wearing your contacts. You overuse them and consequently have starved the eyes of oxygen. Look what happens to the brain when starved of oxygen....

Continue to see that doctor who was very helpful by the sounds of it but if you continue to wear contacts i guarantee u will continue to have problems. You can see a 100 optalmologists before one of them actually tells u this.

if wearing glasses is the biggest issue (aside from the pain u describe) then you have lived a privileged life. No malice in that statement but sleeping in your contacts is just naive and asking for problems

ditch the contacts and wear glasses. Best advise u will get and u aint paid a penny.

Good luck

[EBMD]

Skreignman40, can you share the doctor's name?