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One more "Dry Eyes" Story
Hi! I'm a new member. Female, 36 years old from Greece, Athens. I'm very glad I found this site, many congratulations to Cindy & Rebecca.
I've been wearing semi-hard contact lenses (well... not any more of course), since I was 18. Used to wear them all day, from the moment I woke up till late at night! No problem, until I decided to change into soft contact lenses 2 years ago.
So, I wore the soft ones for about a year & then the problems started. First, it was the common conjuctivitis, so my doctor presribed me tobradex. I used it a few times but conjuctivitis kept on coming back, so I decided to stop wearing the contact lenses every day. I bought a very nice pair of glasses, and I wore the contact lenses only at weekends. The 3rd weekend, (May 2004) I realised that my eyes would not tolerate the contact lenses any more. I got this sandy-gritty eye irritation every morning when I woke up, which would go away in 5 minutes, after I blinked a bit. The doctor said I had developped blepharitis (meibonitis). He said there was no cure for this & advised me to wash my eye lashes with Jonhson's baby shampoo (although there were no visible eyelid debris). I must admit that I did not take his words very seriously, but anyway I tried the lid scrubs a few times & then I started looking for a doctor to have LASIK surgery (July 04).
The first 3 doctors told me I could have LASIK which would correct both myopia & astigmatism (about 6 & 5 degrees). The fourth one, did the Schirmer test, told me I have dry eyes & could not do the LASIK, asked me to use natural tears every hour for the next three months & go back for another examination. When I went back at October, he happily diagnosed that my dry eyes had been cured & everything was ok! I did not believe him, cause I still had the sandy-gritty irritation every morning, plus I noticed those small blisters on the upper & lower inner eyelids. Although I had done a lot of research in the internet & I knew I was a "less ideal" candidate for LASIK because of dry eyes, I did not give up. I visited another doctor which I liked a lot (meaning I could trust him enough), and I arranged a date to actually have the LASIK! 3 days before the surgery (January 05), my eyes started burning & were really red. So I visited the LASIK doc and he told me that we could still do it & my condition had not changed since he saw me last time. But when I asked him directly "will I be able to keep my eyes open after the surgery, or will the dry eyes get worse?" the answer was "I can't really say; every person has a different reaction". That was the end of LASIK story (I never thought about it again!) ... and the start of me trying to find a cure for dry eyes...
My aunt recommended me another doctor, whom she visited cause she had problems with her eye sight (she said she was going blind). She did an eye culture (hope this is the right word in English) & discovered chlamydia. Although, I had no such symptoms, I asked the doctor to do the same examination & I was also found with this bacteria which was cured by Zithromax (oral antibiotic for 10 days). Of course, the doctor diagnosed MGD & said there was no cure. He did mentionned about doxy but he was very reluctant to prescribe it, cause of the side effects & the non severe symptoms of mine (isn't the burning sensation & the redness severe enough?)
I've started taking Theratears nutrition supplement, but it is early to report any improvement yet (only 3 weeks). I also want to try NAC/glutathione, but I don't know whether I should stop Theratears or not. If I take both of them we will not know which one worked, if any will work at all....Anyway, I think I said enough, I will report progress.....
I've been wearing semi-hard contact lenses (well... not any more of course), since I was 18. Used to wear them all day, from the moment I woke up till late at night! No problem, until I decided to change into soft contact lenses 2 years ago.
So, I wore the soft ones for about a year & then the problems started. First, it was the common conjuctivitis, so my doctor presribed me tobradex. I used it a few times but conjuctivitis kept on coming back, so I decided to stop wearing the contact lenses every day. I bought a very nice pair of glasses, and I wore the contact lenses only at weekends. The 3rd weekend, (May 2004) I realised that my eyes would not tolerate the contact lenses any more. I got this sandy-gritty eye irritation every morning when I woke up, which would go away in 5 minutes, after I blinked a bit. The doctor said I had developped blepharitis (meibonitis). He said there was no cure for this & advised me to wash my eye lashes with Jonhson's baby shampoo (although there were no visible eyelid debris). I must admit that I did not take his words very seriously, but anyway I tried the lid scrubs a few times & then I started looking for a doctor to have LASIK surgery (July 04).
The first 3 doctors told me I could have LASIK which would correct both myopia & astigmatism (about 6 & 5 degrees). The fourth one, did the Schirmer test, told me I have dry eyes & could not do the LASIK, asked me to use natural tears every hour for the next three months & go back for another examination. When I went back at October, he happily diagnosed that my dry eyes had been cured & everything was ok! I did not believe him, cause I still had the sandy-gritty irritation every morning, plus I noticed those small blisters on the upper & lower inner eyelids. Although I had done a lot of research in the internet & I knew I was a "less ideal" candidate for LASIK because of dry eyes, I did not give up. I visited another doctor which I liked a lot (meaning I could trust him enough), and I arranged a date to actually have the LASIK! 3 days before the surgery (January 05), my eyes started burning & were really red. So I visited the LASIK doc and he told me that we could still do it & my condition had not changed since he saw me last time. But when I asked him directly "will I be able to keep my eyes open after the surgery, or will the dry eyes get worse?" the answer was "I can't really say; every person has a different reaction". That was the end of LASIK story (I never thought about it again!) ... and the start of me trying to find a cure for dry eyes...
My aunt recommended me another doctor, whom she visited cause she had problems with her eye sight (she said she was going blind). She did an eye culture (hope this is the right word in English) & discovered chlamydia. Although, I had no such symptoms, I asked the doctor to do the same examination & I was also found with this bacteria which was cured by Zithromax (oral antibiotic for 10 days). Of course, the doctor diagnosed MGD & said there was no cure. He did mentionned about doxy but he was very reluctant to prescribe it, cause of the side effects & the non severe symptoms of mine (isn't the burning sensation & the redness severe enough?)
I've started taking Theratears nutrition supplement, but it is early to report any improvement yet (only 3 weeks). I also want to try NAC/glutathione, but I don't know whether I should stop Theratears or not. If I take both of them we will not know which one worked, if any will work at all....Anyway, I think I said enough, I will report progress.....
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