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Hi all - Susan here (suemom). It seems to me that I have had dry uncomfortable eyes all my life - at least for the last 30 years. That's when I went to the first opthamologist and he did the "litmus paper" test - I forget the technical name for it...he put a little piece of litmus paper in the corner of my eye and left the room for about five minutes - very uncomfortable. When he returned, he said that I had the dryest eyes he had seen....BUT had no suggestions other than the usual over the counter eyedrops, which at that time consisted of maybe one or two brands. Needless to say they did not help at all. I was only 22 at the time. Now of course, there are so many brands of artificial tears out there, it would seem to me that there are very many of us out there - maybe not with such debilitating issues, but nonetheless, I think our lifestyles these days lend itself to dry eyes in general.
Back to my point - I have tried every single over the counter drop for dry eyes, including the night time ointment types. I can honestly say that for whatever reason ALL the over the counter drops including the single vial non preservative types, made my sore dry eyes worse. I'm sure that is not the case for everyone out there, but I found that absolutely nothing worked. I have been to quite a few opthamologists over the years, all without the ability to offer much assistance other than to recommend the same old eye drops, instructions for compresses etc.
After doing much research on this subject (thus making my eyes even more dry and sore from using the computer so much) I found the website for Restasis. I went to my doctor and found out the it is only available in the U.S. at the moment, and I live in Canada. My doctor sent me to an opthomologist which he knows of who has a special "dispensation" for Restasis here in Canada for certain patients with chronic and very problematic dry eyes. I have now been using the Restasis for about two months, and have been back to the dispensing opthamologist who tells me that my tear film is much more stable and is not breaking up and disappearing nearly as fast as it was when she first examined me. That is very good news to me, I can tell you, as things were getting worse the older I get, and I was worried about damaging the surface of my eyes which opens up a whole new can of worms!
The instructions on the Restasis are that you must discard the remainder of the little vial when you have used it once. Due to the cost, I couldn't bring myself to do that, as I found that there was about three days worth in those little vials, and I would keep the vial in a little prescription bottle which was sterile. I had no problems doing that, so the next time I saw the opthamologist I pinned her down regarding the instructions to discard the vials after the one use. She said that it was probably the Allergan company covering their butts in the event of some patients having such trouble instilling eyedrops that they would contaminate the end of the dropper and open the possibility of an eye infection. She also said that in reality, the opened vial should last for a good week before starting to "break down". That puts a whole new slant on Restasis for me, since I have no trouble instilling eyedrops without touching the end of the dropper to my eye (or anything else) after all these years of using useless eyedrops. It makes the Restasis affordable now, since a box of 30 vials will last me al least two months, likely more, instead of one month ( the cost is about $100.00 per box of 30 vials). Now I'm not saying that this is gospel, but just telling everyone that this has worked for me without compromising the effect of the Restasis, and passing on the comments of my opthamologist.
Now about using the Restasis.......I put the drop into each eye, put my head far forward so that the drops won't drain out of my eye drainage passages, and stay like that for 3 minutes. It's amazing how long three minutes can be, but I am finding that it is worth it. The consensus on the chat sites regarding the success of Restasis is about 15 - 20%, but I wonder how many people really take the time to do the instilling and waiting the 3 minutes - that may account for some of the failure rate. Apparently the reason for the three minutes is that the longer the Restasis comes into contact with the eye surface, the better the result. It is an antibiotic drop, after all, and must be in contact with the subject in order to work. It is not systemic, so once it drains out of the eye, only a trace remains to keep working on the problem.
My eyes are still dry, but not nearly as bad, and not as sore and red looking all the time. People used to look at me sympathetically, I would imagine that they thought I had problems and had a good cry recently. Well, I'm going to keep on with the Restasis, it is the only thing that has made any kind of difference to my eyes. My eyes sometimes sting a bit afterwards, especially at night when my eyes are tired anyway, but it's well worth it, compared to stinging and sore all the time.
Hope this helps others, and good luck everyone! sue
Back to my point - I have tried every single over the counter drop for dry eyes, including the night time ointment types. I can honestly say that for whatever reason ALL the over the counter drops including the single vial non preservative types, made my sore dry eyes worse. I'm sure that is not the case for everyone out there, but I found that absolutely nothing worked. I have been to quite a few opthamologists over the years, all without the ability to offer much assistance other than to recommend the same old eye drops, instructions for compresses etc.
After doing much research on this subject (thus making my eyes even more dry and sore from using the computer so much) I found the website for Restasis. I went to my doctor and found out the it is only available in the U.S. at the moment, and I live in Canada. My doctor sent me to an opthomologist which he knows of who has a special "dispensation" for Restasis here in Canada for certain patients with chronic and very problematic dry eyes. I have now been using the Restasis for about two months, and have been back to the dispensing opthamologist who tells me that my tear film is much more stable and is not breaking up and disappearing nearly as fast as it was when she first examined me. That is very good news to me, I can tell you, as things were getting worse the older I get, and I was worried about damaging the surface of my eyes which opens up a whole new can of worms!
The instructions on the Restasis are that you must discard the remainder of the little vial when you have used it once. Due to the cost, I couldn't bring myself to do that, as I found that there was about three days worth in those little vials, and I would keep the vial in a little prescription bottle which was sterile. I had no problems doing that, so the next time I saw the opthamologist I pinned her down regarding the instructions to discard the vials after the one use. She said that it was probably the Allergan company covering their butts in the event of some patients having such trouble instilling eyedrops that they would contaminate the end of the dropper and open the possibility of an eye infection. She also said that in reality, the opened vial should last for a good week before starting to "break down". That puts a whole new slant on Restasis for me, since I have no trouble instilling eyedrops without touching the end of the dropper to my eye (or anything else) after all these years of using useless eyedrops. It makes the Restasis affordable now, since a box of 30 vials will last me al least two months, likely more, instead of one month ( the cost is about $100.00 per box of 30 vials). Now I'm not saying that this is gospel, but just telling everyone that this has worked for me without compromising the effect of the Restasis, and passing on the comments of my opthamologist.
Now about using the Restasis.......I put the drop into each eye, put my head far forward so that the drops won't drain out of my eye drainage passages, and stay like that for 3 minutes. It's amazing how long three minutes can be, but I am finding that it is worth it. The consensus on the chat sites regarding the success of Restasis is about 15 - 20%, but I wonder how many people really take the time to do the instilling and waiting the 3 minutes - that may account for some of the failure rate. Apparently the reason for the three minutes is that the longer the Restasis comes into contact with the eye surface, the better the result. It is an antibiotic drop, after all, and must be in contact with the subject in order to work. It is not systemic, so once it drains out of the eye, only a trace remains to keep working on the problem.
My eyes are still dry, but not nearly as bad, and not as sore and red looking all the time. People used to look at me sympathetically, I would imagine that they thought I had problems and had a good cry recently. Well, I'm going to keep on with the Restasis, it is the only thing that has made any kind of difference to my eyes. My eyes sometimes sting a bit afterwards, especially at night when my eyes are tired anyway, but it's well worth it, compared to stinging and sore all the time.
Hope this helps others, and good luck everyone! sue
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