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Hi,
My name is Pat. I'm 51. I just found this group today and I feel like I found a long lost family!! While reading the symptoms, I came to the realization that I'm had the condition all my life and just never knew it. I will relate my story, although I'm sure all of you have similar stories.
About 10 years ago, my husband and I were horsing around when his fingernail accidentally sliced my eye. A trip to the emergency room where they put antibiotics in and tightly bandaged the eye seemed to do the trick.... until 2 weeks later when I woke up with the same excrutiating pain. I went to the eye doctor who told me that that happens in a very small percentage of people, but to just do the same things I did after my trip to the emergency room. Over the course of the next couple weeks and countless episodes, I ended up leaving a camping trip with a severly infected eye. My best friend, bless her, drove me to the opthalmologist's (a different doctor this time!) office after hours, where he met me and did a debridement of the eye. He sent me home with pain medication, antibiotic ointment, and care instructions. It eventually got better with less and less episodes. I had always associated my problem with the injury until one day I woke with the same excrutiating pain in the other eye... and no injury! I ended up getting the same debridement on the second eye. In retrospect, had I simply started treating that eye as well, I probably wouldn't have had to go through the second procedure. Oh well. I continued using my ointment nightly for years. I was finally able to wean myself from it. Occasionally I'd feel a little itchy and know that I'd better use my ointment that night to avoid a major occurrence.
Flash forward to this week. I visited my local optometrist for a routine eye exam for glasses. He told me that I have corneal dystrophy and told me to use drops 4 times a day and Genteal Gel at night, just as routine preventive treatment. He said it is a genetic condition that I need to deal with. Well, I don't know if the drops he used to dilate my eyes irritated my eyes or what, but since then my eyes have been red, watery and extremely painful - all day and night! I decided it was time for some research to find out about my condition and if there were any things that I could do to improve my eye health. The first web site I found scared the dickens out of me. It said that the wasn't a cure - other than corneal transplants! Yikes! Then I found The Dry Eye. I may have corneal dystrophy, only my opthalmologist can tell me for sure, but I'm almost certain from everything I've read here that I do have dry eye. All these years I felt like a lone victim of some cruel plan. Finally I've found others who know what I'm talking about as well as suggestions of things that might help. That in itself is a huge relief.
Sorry, I didn't mean to write a whole journal. Thanks for listening.
PatW
My name is Pat. I'm 51. I just found this group today and I feel like I found a long lost family!! While reading the symptoms, I came to the realization that I'm had the condition all my life and just never knew it. I will relate my story, although I'm sure all of you have similar stories.
About 10 years ago, my husband and I were horsing around when his fingernail accidentally sliced my eye. A trip to the emergency room where they put antibiotics in and tightly bandaged the eye seemed to do the trick.... until 2 weeks later when I woke up with the same excrutiating pain. I went to the eye doctor who told me that that happens in a very small percentage of people, but to just do the same things I did after my trip to the emergency room. Over the course of the next couple weeks and countless episodes, I ended up leaving a camping trip with a severly infected eye. My best friend, bless her, drove me to the opthalmologist's (a different doctor this time!) office after hours, where he met me and did a debridement of the eye. He sent me home with pain medication, antibiotic ointment, and care instructions. It eventually got better with less and less episodes. I had always associated my problem with the injury until one day I woke with the same excrutiating pain in the other eye... and no injury! I ended up getting the same debridement on the second eye. In retrospect, had I simply started treating that eye as well, I probably wouldn't have had to go through the second procedure. Oh well. I continued using my ointment nightly for years. I was finally able to wean myself from it. Occasionally I'd feel a little itchy and know that I'd better use my ointment that night to avoid a major occurrence.
Flash forward to this week. I visited my local optometrist for a routine eye exam for glasses. He told me that I have corneal dystrophy and told me to use drops 4 times a day and Genteal Gel at night, just as routine preventive treatment. He said it is a genetic condition that I need to deal with. Well, I don't know if the drops he used to dilate my eyes irritated my eyes or what, but since then my eyes have been red, watery and extremely painful - all day and night! I decided it was time for some research to find out about my condition and if there were any things that I could do to improve my eye health. The first web site I found scared the dickens out of me. It said that the wasn't a cure - other than corneal transplants! Yikes! Then I found The Dry Eye. I may have corneal dystrophy, only my opthalmologist can tell me for sure, but I'm almost certain from everything I've read here that I do have dry eye. All these years I felt like a lone victim of some cruel plan. Finally I've found others who know what I'm talking about as well as suggestions of things that might help. That in itself is a huge relief.
Sorry, I didn't mean to write a whole journal. Thanks for listening.
PatW
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